I am going to a Town Meeting this weekend with my Dem Congresswoman

[TayTay]

and there are expected to be birthers and other crazies there. (Yes, we most definitely do have them here, as we have every other form of human being or human behavior known to exist. No one is immune to the RW scare tactics by virtue of geography.)

Anyone been to a TM since the RW declared war on free speech and the right of the people to peaceably assemble and petition their govt for a redress of grievances? Looking for some tips.

Thanks!

[beachmom]

1. If there is any way you can get in line to speak right away, in front of the crazies,

do so. I just remember that JK town hall meeting where the crazies ruled, they seemed to know how to get called on and lined up for questions better. You need to come prepared with a good question and make sure you get called on (without it being fixed, of course).

[Inuca]

2. No tips here

just hoping ot hear how it went. Never been to one of those, though I would like to. COngressman is the apalling Shimkus http://shimkus.house.gov/index.html and I did not see anything about any town halls on his site. If Durbin happens in the neighborhood (did not find anything on his official site either; am I looking in the wrong place?) I'll try to go. Burris, of course, does not count.

I am getting madder by the day with this whole health care mess, and I have no idea what I can do about it except get mad :mad:

[karynnj]

3. Here is a Daily Kos diary of a group that handled the disrupters well

Though that would be more relevant to the people running it. http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/4/13836/024

Beachmom's ideas of being prepared with a good question sounds very good. Good luck to you and to Tsongus.

I hope that this behavior will backfire in some obvious way. It is scaring hearing the hatemongers on radio egging them on, convincing them of "facts" that are completely made up. I think that it may become necessary to boycott advertisers of people who preach fear and hate.

I hope they do a really good job making sure that they have a strong core of local Democrats there. (I saw the ugly stories on Blue Mass of Jim McGovern and Richard Neal being heckled in Worcester. http://www.telegram.com/article/20090804/NEWS/908049966/1116 These really are scary people.)

[beachmom]

4. This is really bad:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/7/763076/-Raw-video-of-wingnuts-disrupting-Tampa-health-care-event

I am sorry, those people are thugs who came to disrupt the meeting. Not have their say, and then listen to others. But to shut down the conversation.

I have no idea what this means going forward. To me, this is 1960s overkill drama, and I think may create a backlash. It goes against my middle class suburban sensibilities, and I feel I have been 100% consistent about this sort of thing. I deplored the way Kerry's UF speech went when Andrew Meyer decided he was going to disrupt and shut down discussion (the tazing, of course, went too far, but him being asked to leave was appropriate). I deplored the behavior of left wing fringe types at an Iraq town hall meeting Kerry held in Mass. But this right wing stuff is IMO more sinister. It is planned from the top, and these sheeple simply took orders and did what they were told. They were not individual fringe types who enjoyed some political theater. Instead, they were loyal Republican soldiers sent on a mission to destroy a meeting in the service of their agenda. They are the same people who attended Palin rallies, and I do not recognize them as being my neighbors, even though anyone's neighbor could be turned into one of those angry screaming thugs, if they are told to by talk radio and are perhaps already in the GOP base.

I hope that the Silent Majority (oh, yes, I am going there) notes this. We need health care reform, damnit. If these thugs destroy what we need, then this will be a very disappointing moment in our history. I also think these people are mad that we have a black President. Sorry, I do. Florida is the most racist place I have been to; worse than Georgia, actually.

[YvonneCa]

5. Haven't been to one. Has anyone thought of ...

...pre-emptively calling the disruptors on their general selfishness? That whole group professes to be about values, but they sure don't understand the message to "love one another."

I'd cheer to see someone connect greed and selfishness with this behavior AND their position on issues.

[Blaukraut]

6. Good luck, Tay. Let us know what happened.

I'm seriously fed up with these nuts. The sad thing is that they are apparently managing to sway public opinion against healthcare reform. I'm having very uncharitable thoughts about the people who are stupid, selfish, and lacking any type of forethought on the ramifications we will face if nothing gets done.
What do I care? We have $460/year Tricare Prime that is on par with the best private health insurance out there.

Why should I worry anymore about other folks who are willing to cut off their noses to spite their face? Let them all go bankrupt paying their ever-rising premiums. Let them lose coverage because they become unemployed and can't afford COBRA. Let them then not ever be able to get insured again because they have a pre-existing condition.

Screw the whole lot of them. /rant

[Inuca]

7. JUst curious

what is Tricare Prime? $460/year is unbelievable! As to your uncharitable thoughts, I share them 100%. I have moments when I am mad beyond description. And scared. The hate and pure venom scares me. And I feel the need to do something... I just heard today from a local mailing list I am on about a McCaskill town hall near St. Louis this coming Tuesday. On any other day I would have taken off from work and gone, but Tuesday I really CAN'T. The lady who sent out the message and who I met a couple of times in the past, mentioned that she is kind of scared to go and would like to go in at least a small group, but if not possible she will just go.

On edit: after writing this, I had another look at the email and replied that I would like to go, if at all possible. I won't be able to know for sure until MOnday, but I'll try very hard to make it possible. If for nothing else, at least for my own sanity, to have the feeling that I did at least a tiny, tiny, tiny (fill in the blanks for another long string of "tiny"s) bit to help make this change possible.

[Blaukraut]

8. That's the problem! People who really want to get informed

are being frightened away from the townhalls and the mob takes over. This paints a skewed picture for the congresspeople as to how much support their position really has.
I sympathize with the folks who are scared and nervous about attending these events. It will get to the point where someone will get seriously hurt.

(Tricare Prime is the health insurance for active duty and retired (20 years+) military personnel. My hubby did 21 years in the Air Force, so we are very fortunate to have this coverage. It's $460/year because it is mostly paid for by the government, although it is a type of HMO)

[Inuca]

10. In the interest of fairness

I don't think that the lady I mentioned wants to go in order to get informed, she is probably already 100% convinced and 100% in support. She wants to go because she is pissed and wants to increase the numbers of the pro crowd. Same thing applies to me. Did I mention that we are both from IL? So we would be kind of foreign from across the river transplants at a McCaskill event, and in way not better than the loud bussed in crowd. Well, better since nobody is busing us in ad we would be way less abnoxious, but still... you get my point.

[TayTay]

9. Okay, first, I am the only one in America who had fun at one of these.

Obviously, there is something seriously wrong with me, but you all knew that. (LOL !)

I will go into more details on this tomorrow when I have more time, but there 500 people inside the hall and 500 outside who could not get in because the room was standing room only as it was. ABout 60-40 for Health Care Reform (Pro-Dem).

Lots of loud people, lots of folks shouting over each other. No Nazi-baiting though on either side, which was good. There were times when applause and shouted comments drowned out what people were saying. (Maybe I am starting to lose my hearing, but I only got about 70% of what was said by the questioners.)

I am actually quite happy. I believe that democracy is, at times, a loud, noisy conversation. So it was today. I would say about 80% of the crowd was already on "a side" of this debate, as it were. And we glared a lot at each other.

I did make several people around me kind of ticked off. I would LOUDLY applaud and clap and so forth when my Rep, Niki, explained her positions. And I told off a few people who claimed that some of the Pro-Dem speakers were "plants." Well, that shut 'em up. We were all citizens, not "plants."

All in all, there was fun to be had. (Damn, I really do "live for this."

[ladym55]

11. And the Pro-Dems were plants???

okey-dokey.

Golly, I don't think any progressive groups are paying people to go disrupt meetings.

But I'm really glad things went well.

[TayTay]

13. Very few of the conservative side were paid plants

And it would behoove our side to realize and deal with that. I have often quoted the old expression that "every victory contains the seeds of defeat, as every defeat contains the seeds of victory." The seeds are planted on both sides.

The people I spoke with were encouraged to turn out by various conservative and Republican groups. Well, I was encouraged to go by several liberal and Democratic groups. We all turned our people out. And the Larouchies, who were mostly outside, were the ones with the Nazi signs. I think LaRouchies are sick anyway. (There were 1000 people at this meeting, and about 70- LaRouchies with their nauseating stuff outside. It sickened the cons as well as the pros. We were having a perfectly good fight on our own and didn't need a third party bunch of nuts to join in, thank you very much.)

I enjoyed the forum. A few of the anti-health care people made sound points on the merits. A lot repeated talking points and brought in their hot button issues on immigration and so forth. We brought out our talking points too.

[ladym55]

14. Everything you are saying is good to hear

Good debate is healthy and important. I miss it.

My church attempted a forum on health care --- all viewpoints were invited. Apparently when supporters of single-payer attempted to speak one church member kept screaming, "YOU'RE LYING!!!!" Hard to present a viewpoint then.

I live in Ohio. Trust me. I know LOTS of conservatives! I spent much of the 1980s saying yoo-hoo! Pay attention to the Christians!! They are very powerful in Ohio. My friends on the east coast all laughed at me. And we all know how that worked out.

I get disturbed when issues are misrepresented or lied about. My conservative friends have told me that health care reform will "close all the hospitals."

I don't like the disruption. When we have a forum, let people speak. HOWEVER, let people speak who have worked on their arguments ... done their homework ... and know what they are talking about.

[beachmom]

15. Thanks, that makes me feel better.

I have learned that "video" doesn't always tell the truth. Also, Florida is a very strange state, and we shouldn't judge everything based on what happens there.

I suppose if anything good comes out of this, maybe it will wake up the lib base more.

[YvonneCa]

12. Thread in GD on this...

...here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6255842

[beachmom]

16. Nevertheless, Durbin is firing back:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/08/09/health.care/index.html

The Senate's second-ranking Democrat slammed recent town-hall protests over health care on Sunday, insisting they violate "the democratic process," while the Senate's top Republican accused Democrats of "attacking citizens" with such complaints.

Speaking to CNN's "State of the Union," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, said: "We have these screaming groups on either side. That isn't helpful. Let's be honest about this. Town meetings are not bean bag. I've had hundreds of them, and sometimes folks get upset. And that's part of America, part of our process.

"But this is clearly being orchestrated, and these folks have instructions. They come down from a Texas lobbyist in Washington."

Durbin said that when "there's a group of people honestly sitting in the middle trying to ask the important questions and get the right answers, and instead someone takes the microphone and screams and shouts to the point where the meeting comes to an end, that isn't dialogue, that isn't the democratic process.

"We need to respect free speech, but we need to respect one another's rights to free speech, too. When these people come in just to disrupt the meetings, no, that isn't right," Durbin said.

That is what I saw in that Florida video. And I think it is good that Democrats fight back against the Right.

[Luftmensch067]

17. This is the key

"We need to respect free speech, but we need to respect one another's rights to free speech, too. When these people come in just to disrupt the meetings, no, that isn't right," Durbin said.

Good for Durbin.