By LAMAR THAMES

I am not sure whether the health-care protesters are all dealing with a full deck, but make sure of this: The Obama administration would be wise not to ignore them.

The protesters carry with them  the greatest threat to the status quo of the present administration — distrust. If Barack Obama wishes to carry the legacy of his presidency into the next election and beyond, he must face up to the fact that people are unhappy, scared and just plain angry about the state of the nation. And I don’t blame them.

Distrust is one of the worst enemies a political party can face, even if the distrust is founded on disinformation. Obama must share in the blame for not having more specifics in his health care proposals. All that did was leave a vacuum for naysayers to fill in the blanks, which you knew they would.

With all of the starts and stops and lack of effectiveness of the various Obama stimulus packages, it is no wonder that ordinary Americans are rallying to the defense of one of the few things they feel they have left — their health care. They have lost jobs, houses and savings accounts and they want to make sure they don’t lose what is most precious to them, health care.

I think we are seeing the continuation of a long trend toward distrust of American government. We  saw it when Bill Clinton denied involvement with a White House intern. We saw it when we realized George Bush either lied to us or was totally deceived by that third-rate petty despot Sadam Hussein. We saw it when John Edwards admitted he had an extra martial affair, even while he knew his wife had breast cancer. We might have seen it again this year when Congress authorized $200 million in the military budget for four more jets to be used for its private purposes, if they authorization had not been withdrawn.

The lesson politicians can take from these examples  is to acknowledge the levels of distrust and try to work through it, rather than brush it off as hysteria from the opposition parties. To do so is to feed a force that is driving the movements — disrespect.

The president seems to have the opinion that anyone who opposes his health care proposals are idiots who don’t deserve to be acknowledged. British sympathizers probably had similar thoughts when they heard of the unhappiness over taxation without representation from the colonies.

We have already seen this year several disastrous attempts at stimulating the American economy. There is no reason that Congress has to rush through a health-care reform plan just because the president has made it a priority. Health care needs to be fixed from a cost, effectiveness and coverage standpoint, but we don’t have to go at it in a heated rush. Let’s take our time, get input from ALL sides and do it right. That’s the least we can do.