The Chicago Way

Having been a big movie and television star, it comes as no shock to this giant lizard that movies and television shows often serve as fantastic metaphors for current events.

In the classic movie, The Untouchables, Sean Connery's character Jim Malone catches a member of the Italian mob sneaking up on him with a knife in an assassination attempt. Malone, being a smart Irish beat cop, pulls a gun on him and remarks, "Isn't that just like a wop? Brings a knife to a gun fight. " Unfortunately for Malone, the knife is a setup and the assassin just a lure. He is tempted outside where one of Capone's men opens up on him with a tommy gun.

This classic movie moment is the perfect metaphor for what has happened across the country for the last two weeks. President Obama and the Congress pulled out their knives to carve up the health care system, and the American people said, "wait just a minute there." They have showed up in droves to tell their local representatives that their attempts to rush through a ridiculously expensive health care takeover (or "reform" as they call it), would be met with career-killing force...

..and yet, the story does not end. Instead, those people who exercise what is not only their right, but their duty, to speak up and get involved in ensuring they are properly represented have been met with their own tommy gun. They have been repeatedly fired upon with demonizations and dismissals that they are "angry mobs" and "astro turfers" and "right-wing zealots." Never mind that they are Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Never mind that they spout perfectly legitimate questions like, "how can a government that can't run Cash for Clunkers run health care?" or shout entirely legitimate requests like "read the bill!"

The Untouchables once again gives us the answer to this. The sage Malone tells Kevin Costner's Eliot Ness:

They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. *That's* the *Chicago* way!

The President knows The Chicago Way well, being as that is his home turf. For all the talk about wanting to listen to both sides of the debate, none of these people have any interest in hearing the legitimate criticism, especially not the White House. Not only that, but they will continue to do everything possible to crush any dissent. Unfortunately for them, the American people live by Eliot Ness' motto: "Never stop fighting until the fight is done."