This isn’t a comment on whether that decision was right or wrong; that’s another column for another day. But it does raise the question: If putting together protests was easy, why hasn’t the savvy defense contractor arranged for “Save the F-22” protests? Thousands of jobs are at stake. Certainly a few hundred people in each congressional could be talked into crashing a town hall meeting and stumping for the F-22.

That hasn’t happened. But protesters, supposedly funded by insurance companies or mislead by radio hosts, have interrupted their representatives in New York state, Texas, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Odd.

Townhall meetings are, usually, boring affairs. In The Washington Post recently, columnist Dana Milbank described a typical event, hosted by the Environmental Protection Agency. “Four EPA officials agreed to sit and listen for nine hours,” Milbank wrote, “but only 24 people signed up for their five minutes of fame.” Most were paid activists -- 14 were chapter heads with the American Lung Association, paid to parrot the group’s talking points.

And that’s how it usually goes. When there’s a hearing or a town hall, liberal pressure groups such as ACORN or the SIEU can pay a dozen or so activists to show up and chant. But it’s usually clear these are paid spokespeople, not truly fired-up citizens.

This month, we’re seeing a real grass-roots movement. People understand that liberals are trying to remake health care and create a government-run, single-payer system. Rep. Barney Frank admitted as much recently when he said, “I think that if we get a good public option it could lead to single-payer and that is the best way to reach single-payer.”

There’s a better way.

We could unplug health insurance from employment, allowing everyone to buy an individual policy the same way we buy auto, homeowner and life insurance. Want a Cadillac plan? You’ll pay more. Want a plan that only kicks in if you have a disaster such as a heart attack? You’ll pay less in premiums but can keep the coverage even if your employer fires you during your recovery.

It’s so simple lawmakers could do it in fewer than 1,000 pages. If they wanted to. Or, they could ignore public opinion, pass a terrible bill and try to socialize health care. We’ll see if they dare to go that route, now that many Americans are, indeed, paying attention.