Last night I attended a town hall hosted by Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia. Former Vermont Governor and Chairman of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean, M.D. made an appearance, so I knew I had to go. I didn’t bring a sign or intend to loudly advocate for reform. I just wanted to see what a town hall was like and hear what my representative and Dean had to say. I was blown away by the line of people wrapped around the high school’s gymnasium. There were a lot of media there. People were mostly calm, waiting for the doors to open. Pro-reform folks asked people to sign various petitions. Anti-reform folks walked around with pictures of Obama with a Hitler mustache. One man wore a cape with a picture of a gun on it, along with the sentence, “Try taking it away from me.” He shouted into a bullhorn about the war in Afghanistan and the national debt. So many people were pissed about the national debt. I’m not fond of it either but I’m not focusing my rage on our current president. Another man waved a Bush/Cheney ’04 sign. I guess nobody told him they won.
Some anti-reformers stood at the building’s entrance shouting at anyone with an Obama t-shirt or Health Care For All sign. I was shocked when I realized we didn’t have to go through a security check. I sat pretty far back in the bleachers and watched as both pro-reform and anti-reform activists walked up and down along the first row, encouraging people to cheer and chant. There seemed to be more pro-reformers than anti-reformers but the anti-reformers were 100 times more unhinged. The pro-reformers were more organized and it seemed to me their intention was to take care of business. The other side was more interested in making a spectacle. I had a lot of white Boomers and college aged libertarians screaming “NO!” and “DEREGULATE!” (?) into my ears.
A rabbi started things off with a prayer. Anti-reformers booed and heckled him when he prayed for expanded health care! Then Moran began by explaining his support for reform and debunking ten myths about health care reform. He was barely audible, as screaming opponents interrupted him every 30 seconds. Dean was greeted with applause and boos. I was very uneasy, sitting there surrounded by so many unstable individuals. The man directly in front of me read from a Tea Party brochure and tore up the pamphlet provided by Moran’s people. He got agitated whenever the woman next to him cheered for the public option. People were getting in each other’s faces, fighting about whether America is becoming a communist country. I stood and clapped whenever Moran made a good point but otherwise I kept to myself.
One of the myths Moran addressed was that the public option would include federal funding for abortion. If only that myth were true. He reassured the crowd that abortion would be covered only in the case of rape, incest, or a threat to the mother’s life – all red herrings. How will they determine that an abortion-seeking woman has been raped? They won’t. Assault victims on the public plan will simply go through with unwanted pregnancies, which is what anti-choicers want. Private insurers must cover abortion with funds kept separate from government subsidies. This Time article explains the abortion issue well.
Whilst Dean was speaking, a man down front in the folding chairs section stood up and began shouting and pointing his finger at him. I thought I heard him say something about baby killers. Eventually some people near him stood up and urged him to cut it out. Moran, clearly frustrated and exhausted, told him his outburst was unproductive and referred to him by name: Mr. Terry. It dawned on me that the raving lunatic before me was Randall Terry from Operation Rescue, who has been traveling the country disrupting town halls this summer. After a few more minutes of his “demonstration,” he was escorted out of the building.
Dean and Moran then took questions from the audience. They tried getting an equal mix of questions from supporters, the opposition, and undecideds. The questions had been written on cards and placed into a box. The screaming continued throughout this segment. A few times, an anti-reformer would rush up to the microphone pretending to be the person whose question had been pulled. Moran nipped their performances in the bud and scolded them for being impostors. I didn’t learn much from the Q&A. More than one person asked Moran whether he and his family would be taking the public option, which drew excited yelling from the antis in the crowd. I don’t know what the Moran family has to do with anything, as they already have health care coverage.
The night ended without much fanfare. People filed out of the auditorium and headed home, most believing the same exact thing they believed before the event. I’m encouraged by the pro-reform demonstrators I saw there, even though the television cameras flocked to those with incendiary anti-Obama signs. I hope we win this fight, which I consider a civil rights issue. I credit the semester I spent as an intern for Senator Edward Kennedy with solidifying my commitment to progressive politics. He was a true champion for the little guys and gals, and called universal health care the cause of his life. I wish he were able to help us see this through. May he rest in peace.
Fantastic post. I don’t really have much to add except that I think it is so important that people keep recording what is going on at these meetings. Both my parents worked all their lives for the NHS and I can’t believe that the anti-reform activists are outright lying about British healthcare and using it as an example of the evils of the free healthcare model (they also seem intent on implying that no one in the UK has any choice but to go on the NHS which is a complete lie, you can pay for private healthcare if you want to).
Anyway other than that RIP Senator Kennedy and thanks again Sarah for a really clear and calm post.
America is a total shitshow. My English family is calling me daily trying to make sense of the violent resistance to expanded health coverage. I have no explanation or excuse. Lately I have started to blame England itself for starting this whole experiment by sending us the religious fanatics they didn’t want.
I can’t believe SarahMC and Randall Terry were in the same room and the world didn’t end!
The flashes of fear that you expressed makes my stomach hurt. The thought that you can’t express yourself without shouting lunatics on all sides is making me incoherent.
WTF IS THE MATTER WITH PEOPLE? They were heckling a rabbi? This is what the right wing has become: a raving pack of nutjobs incapable of civil or intelligent discourse.
RIP Ted Kennedy. I’ve never entirely forgiven you for Chappaquidick, but I thank you for all you did for women and families. I’ve always wondered if that was your way of atoning.
@JD: Riiiiiight? She texted me that and I was all afraid she was going to give him a trademarked tongue-lashing.
@PSoul: I got that text and wrote back “Was he booted out with your foot up his ass?” Because it seemed entirely likely. I’d have put good money on SarahMC in that fight.
Emilyanne, one of the reasons I decided to go is because I agree that it’s important to record these events for ourselves. I wanted to see what’s really going on.
I was very far away from Terry so no chance I could get into it with him. Luckily the pro-reformers were good about shushing the disruptive antis – like during the freaking prayer. Honestly my mouth was hanging open. The room felt like a pressure cooker.
JD Regent – i’ve long thought this, I have a theory that all America’s problems are down to the fact that it was founded by Protestants from the puritan wing of the church because countries colonised by Catholics generally have revolutions against the church and a period of enlightenment which is a better thing all round (admittedly Ireland and Poland contradict this theory but still…)
But I thought Jesus was anti-health reform and the pro reformers are Nazis? Harassing praying rabbis is so family values!
@emilyanne: I’m sure you’re right. Which is why England is now pleasantly secular and has decent national health care. Smart thinking, shipping those Puritans to the New World.
No chance you want ‘em back, is there?
Emilyanne, yes. Our Christian religious life is anarchic and endlessly malleable, splintering off into a million new kinds of Christianity so that there isn’t one church to organize against. You can just start your own. The individualism that is the source of the American conception of freedom makes collective action and communal identity incredibly difficult to develop. Also, this place is just way too big.
Sarah, when I heard Randall Terry was at that townhall, all I could think was, “did Sarah kick him in the nuts???” What if he had been sitting right next to you? omg. Phew. I’m so vicariously worked up!
SARAH! This is awesome. I was immediately envious when you said you’d be able to go.
What on earth must be going through someone’s mind to get them to heckle a rabbi? And what does health care have to do with Hitler or guns? So many questions that have no answers.
There is so much anger in our world–and it seems like it was highly concentrated in that room. How frightening. Did you go alone? I think I would have been too afraid to.
I also had the exact same reaction as bluebears when I heard about Randall Terry.
@kithkin: Full disclosure: I was there too.
If Moran et. al. were not looking to provoke the wingnut crowd, the rabbi’s prayer might not have been the best tactic. The quote from Genesis had to do with Joseph’s interpretation of Pharoah’s dream, describing seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, at which point they were supposed to seek out a man “discreet and wise”. I think it’s deliciously ironic that they used the Bible against these psychos, but it’s not too big a mental leap, especially for skeptics, to have read the invocation as a transparent fawning over Obama by his cult of personality. But those people in the bleachers were neanderthals, so the heckling was par for the course.
I technically went alone but I met up with friend of Harpyness BearDownCBears.
Oh hai Bear!
CBC — awwwwww shit! Never underestimate a religious liberal’s skills in passive aggression. I should know; I was brought up by two of them.
Oh that is awesome.
I’m glad you both made it. Like I said I would have been really scared to go alone. I am kind of a wimp, though, especially when it comes to crowds of angry people.
But Howard Dean!
The prayer made me cringe, for sure. I just rolled my eyes and kept my mouth shut. I didn’t recite the pledge of allegiance either. The crazies put extra emphasis on “under god” just minutes after interrupting the rabbi.
@BeardownCBears: “I think it’s deliciously ironic that they used the Bible against these psychos, but it’s not too big a mental leap, especially for skeptics, to have read the invocation as a transparent fawning over Obama by his cult of personality.”
I strongly suspect the irony was lost on the wingnuts. They are not known for their keen powers of perception.
Also, the evangelical freakshows HATE it when Jews break out the Bible, as though it’s theirs and we’ve somehow co-opted it.
@BDCB: I’m disappointed! as a Bears fan I would expect you to kick some ass outside in the parking lot. (kidding!)
I have to wonder if the madness will ever end. Those against reform seem hell-bent on drowning out any and all attempts at rational dialog. This is not how problems are solved — do they really think everything is just fine with health care?
Randall Terry makes my skin crawl.
NefariousNewt, I get the feeling a lot of antis think that everything is just fine with their own health care and they don’t care about anyone else.
I think others have legitimate concerns about the reform efforts but they are few and far between.
I am not super enthused about the plans myself, because I consider them band-aids that don’t go far enough. I don’t think the solution to the health care crisis is to give insurance companies more business, you know what I mean? But I support Obama’s effort because I think it’s better than nothing.
@SarahMC: I completely agree with you. I mean, I’d like us to have Canada’s health system (or France’s or Sweden’s or Israel’s), but I know that much change at once is simply not possible. So we have to start out with this. Hopefully when when people see that health care reform doesn’t result in the end of the world, we can move on to enlarging/improving it.
@BeckySharper: True, yet my point was it was a little too obsequious for me too. It was creepy in that it was a prayer, too, at a public forum (but not nearly as much as the Pledge, which I caught myself mumbling out of habit, which is weird because I don’t think I’ve said it in years).
What’s frustrating is out there exist middle-class people with what they consider suitable health insurance, but they’re worried about this public option approach because they’re either afraid their costs will go up due to the repeal of the tax benefits exemption (which is popular with economists lefty and conservative alike) or because they’re scared a public option will drive what they have out of business. When the crazies get really vocal these folks are drowned out, even though they’re the opposition that’s at all worth listening to. I won’t line up with them, but I think they should be able to vent their legitimate worries.
The problem I had with the recent analysis by a certain guest editor at a site we all frequent is that I felt she implied that all citizens who opposes a public option on a fiscal basis are rich and selfish and hate poor people, whereas I suspect many of them are union workers without a ton of disposable income who are defensively looking out for their own nest egg. When the Dems do recognize these folks, they attempt to dismiss them by equivocating the cost per taxpayer of funding emergency-room-care-as-health-care with its replacement, the cost per taxpayer of instituting preventive care and expanding subsidies and entitlements. Uh, I’d really like to see the numbers on that (but hey, maybe my skepticism is misplaced).
Like I said, if these modest-income insureds end up having to pay some more to expand Medicaid and subsidize people so they can buy into a public plan, fine, but I think more of us should realize and register that they were compelled to make a sacrifice. If we can engage their worries over the next couple of months in good faith then perhaps we’ll have more luck selling the plan. Unfortunately, last night didn’t give me much hope for that.
@bluebears: You know, speaking of the NFC North, I saw Favre show up to the little shindig. He got in line, then he got out of line, then he got back in line, then he left again until finally he ran out of time to get in and he had to attend a town hall he didn’t even want to play for, er, I mean, go to.
@BDCB: but was he having fun in that line? you know, like a kid?
I’m glad we had one of our own there, SarahMC!!!
I have to admit that this whole kerfuffle is extremely agitating to me and it makes it hard to concentrate on the issues. It’s reaaaaal easy to get emotional about this stuff.
But that’s where we differ from those dingbat antireform morons. At least we’re (mostly) open to dialog and we ask constructive questions. We’re not the ones screaming obscenities and propaganda to try and further our cause. And yet, they’re the ones who get all the press.
It’s another form of silencing–drowning out the rational to focus on the irrational.
I can’t BELIEVE that they heckled a rabbi!!
Disgusting.
That’s my generalized take
Great piece, Sarah.
I was reading the New Yorker today as I subwayed around the city, and there’s a pretty good piece by James Surowiecki about just the thing that BearDown mentions. Definitely worth a read: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/financial/2009/08/31/090831ta_talk_surowiecki
Oh…to be in the same room with Randall Terry. He gave a talk here in my little VA hamlet a few months ago (2 days after Tiller was murdered) actually, and when I found out about it, my husband actually had to talk me down. Fortunately, I also understand that I would have tried to rationalize with him and there ain’t no rationalizing with zealots.
Speaking of zealots…too many crazies screaming about evil in this health care “debate.” Can’t make any sense out of all the noise.
I’m seriously on the fence about the proposed plan. I think, unequivocally, that health care needs reform. I have worked in it as an administrator and unofficial patient advocate for years and believe, without a shade of doubt in my mind that the only people NOT getting screwed in the equation are the insurance companies. I want to be firmly in Obama’s corner…but I don’t see enough that is tangible in this bill to make me comfortable.
SarahMC, thanks for the report. It makes me feel a little better to hear that there were more pro-reformers there than what the news generally shows (you’re right, the media focus tends to be on the bat shit crazy people). That said, it disheartens me that you went to a town hall meeting ostensibly meant to foster dialogue on freakin’ heath care, and you felt uneasy or anything less than 100% safe; that shouting and fanaticism dominated. It’s hard sometimes to cling to the hope that factually based discourse can prevail over the mentality of “I say it and therefore it is true.” Legitimate debate about health care reform is good; allowing this country’s political and social policies to be guided by lies and stubborn ignorance is not. I have to keep reminding myself that, as dismal as Bush’s approval ratings got, there were still people out there who thought he was doing a good job right up until the bitter end. It’s likely those folks who are coming out of the wood works now. They were relatively quiet while their guys were in office for 8 years, and now they’re ranting and raving.
Holy Moses, I would have had a panic attack. I thought the county caucus was bad enough and we were all Democrats there. Thanks for going, I don’t think I’d be able to face it.
Isn’t it interesting that people compare Obama to Hitler, then shout obscenities at JEWISH CLERGY in the same breath? Not that the Hitler trope isn’t already a logic fail, but JESUS H, people!