Lawmakers Get The Point, Skip Town Hall Meetings

Occasional stories of gun-strapping freaks aside, the recent spate of stories about town halls across this sweet land of liberty being well-attended by engaged (and enraged) citizens would be enough to make Norman Rockwell swell with pride.

Here's a Rockwellian scene from a recent forum in Ohio ("The Heart of It All") that ought to make every bloviating pundit who has sounded off in the past 200 years about disengagement by boobus americanus feel like voters still give a damn:

More than 200 people packed a health care forum hosted by Sen. Sherrod Brown in Columbus last week, evidence of how much Ohioans want to talk to their elected officials about the hot-button topic.

One middle-aged man even ran halfway down the aisle trying to get Brown's attention. He said his wife has four incurable illnesses and he has been unable to get health insurance.

"Where do we go?" the man asked as other forum attendees yelled.

Sherrod Brown, the faceless successor to even-more-faceless Sen. Mike DeWine, pulling 200 people when just about everyone has cable TV? Jeebus H. Christ, that's rock-star numbers for a pol in the middle of the summer! Indeed, if you're Sir Paul McCartney, you'd be dying for a packed house.

And that sort of scene, of course, explains the larger point of the story, which is headlined "Most local lawmakers skip town halls":

Despite the intense interest, Brown is among the minority of Ohio lawmakers holding town hall forums this summer. Congress is on a month long recess, but according to an Enquirer survey of local lawmakers, only Rep. Steve Driehaus, a Democrat from West Price Hill, is planning any local events.

The Cincinnati Enquirer, needless to say, gets it wrong. It's not "despite the intense interest," lawmakers are passing on town halls. It's because of the intense interest. Whole account of what lawmakers are doing on their summer vacations here.

Comments

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Although I am sure these events have their share of batshits, I am finding this whole thing just delicious.

[BruceM]

Most people who are paid to show up somewhere do so. I don't see what's so amazing about it.

Insofar as some people are showing up without getting paid by the health insurance companies to rouse the rabble, it's due to their gullibility - detached americans will go somewhere to yell when they're told politicians want to install death panels and kill their family members and deny them access to their doctors. We could get the same morons to vote on election day if we tell them that the government is going to blow up the homes of people who don't vote. I don't want idiots to vote, so I think that's a shitty idea. Though if your constituency is made up of 100% idiots, you will disagree.

[The Ghost of Nancy Reagan]

"Indeed, if you're Sir Paul McCartney, you'd be dying for a packed house."

Paul will be joining me very, very soon. It is written in the stars.

[The Ghost of Nancy Reagan]

"Though if your constituency is made up of 100% idiots, you will disagree."

Hey Tony. When did you change your name to BruceM?

[Xeones]

Exactly, Bruce. There are only two possible reasons for people to protest Congress' health care schemes:

A. They're being paid to by the EEVUL 'SHURANCE CORPORASHUNS; or

2. they're stupid.

I mean, it HAS to be one or the other, right?

[Rich]

We could get the same morons to vote on election day if we tell them that the government is going to blow up the homes of people who don't vote.

Might a similar technique help with raising revenue?

[Xeones]

I almost forgot:

III. RACISM

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

Oh noes, teh 'shurance corporashuns!

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

You forgot

IV. FACISM!!(sic)

[Kant feel Pietzsche]

BruceM | August 18, 2009, 9:13am | #
Most people who are paid to show up somewhere do so. I don't see what's so amazing about it.

That's exactly what I thought as soon as I saw all those purple shirts in the crowd....er, um...

[Tomcat1066]

You know, it's funny. All the tea parties and protests I've been to, not a single person has been paid to be there. I've been gipped!!!!!

[Barney Rubble]

Four incurable illnesses and he wants to purchase insurance? I hope I never have insurance with a company that WOULD underwrite that policy. He wants welfare, basically, not insurance.

[JW]

Dear BruceM--Thanks you for your application for the position of troll.

Unfortunately, at this time, all of our troll positions have been filled by qualified applicants. We thank you for your interest in Hit & Run and wish you the best of luck in your search.

[Deidre]

Just a few FACTS about Brown's townhall (video from a blogger who was present: http://hourglass1941.blogspot.com/).

On Tuesday, August 11, I called Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown's COLUMBUS, OHIO office (614-469-2083 at 2:31 pm). I simply and politely asked "Is the senator planning on holding any town hall meetings during the recess?"

I was told by a staff member that the senator was going to have a town hall event "sometime this month" in Columbus. He suggested that I keep checking his senate site to see when one is scheduled.

A couple of hours later, a friend of mine posted that Senator Brown was going to be at The Ohio State University on Wednesday morning. I tried to call Brown's office back at 5:26 pm, but the office had closed, and the voicemail was full. I figured that either his Columbus staff was uninformed, Brown arranged this event in 2.5 hours or less, or the staffer lied to me.

I posted the event, and an Obama supporter friend of mine confirmed it. He told me (at 5:48 pm) that he had gotten an email about it "an hour or two ago." I asked if it was from Brown's office, and he informed me that it was from "some Obama organizer list." I asked if he would be willing to forward the email to me and he did. The email suggested that people show up at 9:00 am (the event was supposed to start at 10:15 am), and there was a link to RSVP. I found that the heads-up email to Obama supporters was sent "Tue, 11 Aug 2009 16:57:20 -0400."

I have continued to "google" Brown's senate site, brown.senate.gov, and have yet to find ANYTHING about the event.

I called Brown's Columbus office again at 9:05 am Wednesday morning, the morning of the event. I asked a staff member the same question as the day before: "Is the senator planning on holding any town hall meetings during the recess?" The woman who answered my call said, "No." This answer was different than the one I had gotten the day before from the same office. I then followed up with "Then what is going on at OSU Biomedical Center today?" She then said that it was a "roundtable." I asked what that meant. She responded that it was an event where he sits at a table with a small invited group and discusses issues. I thanked her and hung up. Later, I heard on 610-WTVN that a town hall WAS occurring. Angered, I decided to leave work to find out the truth myself.

When I arrived, I saw protestors from both sides of the issue. However, the supporters of the reform legislation being proposed had large, multi-colored signs saying "Health Insurance Reform Now/www.HealthCareForAmericaNow.org," "Organizing for America," and other mass-produced signs. Of the ones with whom I was able to engage in civil conversation, many were union members, one had an AFL-CIO t-shirt with a pre-printed health care message on it, another was a teacher, another was a state employee, two others were from EqualityOhio, and a few were from Planned Parenthood. People associated with Greenpeace were there with identical signs regarding global warming and a Greenpeace banner.

The people, with views similar to mine, who were protesting further government intervention into our lives, were not violent, not bussed, and had poor-quality signs (I grabbed a cardboard box from my back seat, and wrote five reform alternatives with a fat Sharpie).

My sign stated the following:
? Allow me to shop across state lines for my insurance.
? Allow higher HSA limits.
? Give me the same tax treatment as my employer.
? Get rid of state mandates on what plans MUST cover.
? Encourage (not mandate) employers to fund HSAs instead of choosing MY insurance plan choices for me. Empower ME to shop for what works best for ME.

I sought out information from my elected senator directly and was not informed of an opportunity to speak out about their plans from MY health care.

I also spoke with someone who did manage to get into the event. He showed me pictures showing that certain seats were reserved. He also told me that a man was handing out stickers to show support for the plan. When he and his friends refused, he said they were asked to get up from their seats and sit near the back of the room. They refused to move.

The day after the event, I called Rep. Steve Austria's (OH-7) and Senator Voinovich's office and BEGGED them to hold a publicly-announced town hall. Austria's office told me that he was going to hold a tele-townhall, not an actual one. Voinovich had no plans to hold any meetings of any kind.

I have every reason to be angry. I do not support the disenfranchisement of any idea or voice, regardless of party. People who were able to have non-partisan dialog outside probably was more productive than the stunt inside.

[CoyoteBlue]

My rep, Van Hollen, who as one of Pelosi's cabana boys is a vocal proponent of anything she tells him to be a vocal proponent of, and despite that half his constituents are federal employees/contractors, appears to be afraid to hold any townhall meetings.

Cabana boy is probably researching the healthcare systems in various Caribbean nations [not Cuba - that would be too obvious].

[Loupeznik]

gun-strapping freaks

http://www.theronhatch.com/wp-content/uploads/dscn3272.jpg

[hmm]

I get Claire "I just don't get it" McCaskill. I'd say something witty about her, but all I can come up with is evil trollop.

[JW]

Yo Coyote, you must be just down the road from me.

Don't sweat it, I've got Donna Edwards who is hardly any better. Still, she did replace that 400 lb. sack of shit Albert Wynn, so call it a wash.

[hmm]

Occasional stories of gun-strapping freaks...

Looks like more have turned the occasion of a townhall meeting into a reason to open carry.

The police and SS reaction are a welcome change. Of course the media and some others panic. My favorite statement, "The larger the gun, the more menacing the situation," is pretty funny. Size is everything when we are talking about scary.

[wingnutx]

The guy carrying an AR is wearing a tie, so he's obviously an insurance executive.

He's probably not really even black.

[CoyoteBlue]

JW,
It's not that I want to talk to cabana boy. He get's plenty of my opinions in the bi-monthly, hand-written, 18 page (both sides!) letters I write him. It's just I haven't been to a riot in years (I missed the recent small one, in downtown Silver Spring, at the anti-violence concert - so sad).

[JW]

It's just I haven't been to a riot in years (I missed the recent small one, in downtown Silver Spring, at the anti-violence concert - so sad).

I was down there that night and as the last young, shirtless hoodlum passed me, I told the missus how it would turn out, which she immediately got pissed at me for thinking.

I hate being right all the time. She got even more pissed at me when I showed her the news article the next day. I keep telling her to never question my stupendous powers of cynicism.

You *must* share with us one of those letters.

[BruceM]

Sorry guys, this one issue where it seems I disagree with most people here at Reason. The issue i'm talking about is not even the issue over whether healthcare reform is right/wrong, but whether the people yelling at the town halls are socially-conscious Americans exercising their first amendment rights over a political issue or whether they are just insurance company shills and racists. I have no doubt it's the latter. No doubt at all. I think most people here are blinded by idealism over the First Amendment to really see what's going on. Plus most people here innately have problems with big government (as do I) and see healthcare as nothing more than a big government plan. So because they oppose the plan on those grounds, they think the people yelling and screaming are like them.

THEY ARE NOT. The people making the news yelling and screaming at town halls DO NOT read Reason. They've never read anything in their lives, other than some Bible quotes and maybe one of Bill O'Reilly's zany books. They're blowing off steam over having a black man in the White House, and nothing more (except for the hired guns who are doing it for money).

So no, I'm not trolling to piss you people off. I've posted here for years and we're on the same page, politically. BUT, that doesn't mean everyone else who agrees with us on the macro level does so by the same principles.

When one of these wackos assassinates Obama in the next couple of months, and they learn the guy was a southern, jesusfucking, white supremacist, militia loving wacko too nutty for even the KKK, maybe you guys will come around to my point of view on this issue.

In hindsight it seems kinda nutty to think the first black president would not get assassinated, doesn't it? On the bright side, the Biden Administration might be able to get something done since it will cause the racists to cool off. Of course, you'll have Glenn Beck screaming about how they're giving Obama a state funeral (which we're paying for!) and saying nice things about him which is nothing but reverse racism because they'd never say anything nice about an assassinated white president.