Cardin spoke of an “exchange” in which consumers could shop for health care, but he left more undefined than defined. In fact, throughout his speech, and the Q&A answer that followed, he frequently spoke of things he wouldn’t vote for – a bill that didn’t pay for itself would lose his support, for example – but he did not once tell us what he wants in a bill.
But to be fair, he never really had the chance.
We need to come up with a new name for these events that are hijacked by the desperate minority. They cannot be called town halls–not when the event is dominated by an unruly bunch of thugs uninterested in debate or exchanging ideas. These people came out to hate.
What a difference between Southside, VA, and Towson, MD. Seriously folks, when I decided to go to Danville to cover Tom Perriello’s event, I expected the worst. By the end of the night, I had been pleasantly surprised. The people were genuinely concerned, a lot fearful, plenty misinformed, but above all, willing to listen. Perriello’s town hall was a model of civics and democracy.
On the other hand, I went to Ben Cardin’s event unsure of what to expect. Hannity, Limbaugh and Beck have been encouraging disruptive behaviors, but Maryland is a solidly Democratic state, and Ben Cardin is a fairly popular Senator. Well, the wingnuts won this one. It was like they passed out licenses for senior citizen to act like four year-olds. From the beginning, the crowd was loud, disruptive, disrespectful and obnoxious. It was 90 minutes of unruly children screaming invectives about illegal aliens, taxes being too high, and Cardin telling too many lies.
Of course, virtually every one of the criticisms was without merit.
The room was packed to capacity. I talked with a few attendees after the event – and I’m pretty sure I found an Astroturfer, but that’ll be the subject of a later post – but the best action was at the protest across the street. That’s where I found the couple in this video.
I chose these folks for this post because they are exactly demonstrative of the ill-informed and gullible shock troops being deployed by the radical right. Compulsory abortion?! Is no lie too grand? Is there anything these people will not believe about Democrats and President Obama?
There is something wrong with our country when these folks aren’t recognized for barking-mad fringe elements that they are. Instead, David Broder will tell you that these folks are representative of “Real America.”
Sorry, but I’m ill now.
Related posts:
- John Garamendi, CA Lt. Governor, Congressional Candidate, Will Talk Public Option Today on FDL
- Teabaggers to Burn Perriello and Pelosi Effigy, While Diane Watson Caves on Public Option
- Marcia Fudge: Will Only Vote for a Bill with a Public Option
- Senator Conrad Says He’ll Vote Against the Public Option
- Surprise! Redux: AMA Folds Half-Way On Its Opposition to Public Plan Option; Obama Keeps Up Pressure
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Sorry to hijack this thread, but comments are closed on the Recess Event widget–
How can you scale it down so it fits in a column narrower than 300? It’s way too wide for my sidebar (and totally screws the Soapblox template when I try to put it on the front page), but when I cut the width it just cuts off the text and boxes within the widget. How do I scale down the fonts and such so it fits in a narrower (say, 200 or even 150) width setting?
Thanks
Cardin responded to an email I sent him a few weeks back in which I asked him if he supported the public option:
“I believe that Americans should have a choice between private insurance and a public alternative. A public option that sets the standard for quality, efficiency, and cost would create incentives for healthy competition that will serve the interests of all Americans. It would help keep the industry honest, while providing a mechanism for advancing quality-enhancing and cost-cutting strategies essential to the future viability of our health care system. I agree that a public plan option should be a core component of health reform, and I have written to HELP Committee Chair Kennedy and Finance Committee Chair Baucus to urge them to include such an option.”
From the AFL CIO Blog Now about Netroots Nation. There is a comment ( #1) that talks about who sits on the board of directors of insurers and msm. Add this to list why the truth is not being told http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/08/10-7
Claire McGaskill has a bunch of these crazies yelling at her right now at a “town hall” on MSNBC. They tell her she’s lying, that they don’t trust her, that she’s not telling the truth. This after she promised there would never be a single payer bill out of Congress, something I would have expected to delight them.
They are deranged by hate, fear, and their own adrenaline.
This was a horrible mistake by Democrats, not to be organized for this if the House, at least, hadn’t passed a bill to explain to Americans.
Every time Claire’s asked about something “in the bill” she says it’s not in the Senate HELP bill, that the Finance Committee hasn’t passed a bill, and that the House has three bills. Then they call her a liar.
You are SO right.
[my bold]
It takes nonsensical and emotional issues to make average Americans do the bidding of wealthy Republics for no actual benefit to themselves.
Are you for real? You stated you have been to a couple of these events…most of the people showing up are over 65. Ya these guys are really hard to deal with, I bet they are a lot tougher than the goons sent out a couple days back that injured a couple guys. Its probably the nice clothes, or the swastikas on their arms that made them look tough.
You are saying that “we are lying’? Again are you kidding me? Obama’s administration are the one’s who cannot tell the truth about this bill. People are actually able to read it now that is has been slowed down quite a bit and they are not liking what they are seeing.
Also, most of you writing on posts seem to think that the public option will fix everything once it is implemented. Do me one favor, go talk to any MD at local office and ask them what their #1 problem is? The answer will be Medicare reimbursement. The next thing out of their mouth will be how they have to limit the amount of patients with Medicare they take, because of this problem. Not sure if you know what the latter means, but that is rationing. So my question to any of you is: Why on earth would anyone in their right mind want the government to be in charge of something they have not been able to control since its inception?
Lastly, Hannity and Limbaugh have never promoted anything beside going to these town halls and “letting your voice be heard”, thats it. Check your article Gregg, most of what you wrote is dead wrong.
First, no one would read the bill, so Noot and the Republics can lie as much as they want about what it contains. Second, there are no Democrats charismatic enough to get enough air time to either explain what the bill says or to correct the lies errupting from Noot, the Republics, and News Corp.
No, we are deranged because a health care bill is being crammed down our throats with little to no regard for what people actually want. Most of us do not want this bill, do not like this bill, and are starting to get a little pissed off with this mocking tone various members of congress have toward us.
For example
Mike, you ask a key question: ” Is there anything these people will not believe about Democrats and President Obama?”
I believe it might be instructive, or even constructive, to ask this of the Birth/Deathers outside town halls. Ask them — “Is there any negative story about President Obama that you *wouldn’t* believe? What if I told you he was coming to your house, RIGHT now, to rape your wife and children? Would you believe that? What’s your limit to how evil and crazy and America-hating you think this guy is? Do you think he has tentacles and horns and hooves?”
It would be interesting to see one of them simultaneously attempt to sell their brand of crazy while insisting that their crazy isn’t nearly as crazy as *REAL* crazy…
Thanks for your efforts.
It doesn’t take charisma. It takes someone that knows the facts and is committed to upholding Democratic values. McCaskill sure isn’t one.
No one will hear the facts if the purveyor can’t get coverage. The networks are going to feature the charismatic over the bland every time. Noot gets on the air as much as he wants. Which Democrat, outside of Obama, can do that? The Republic message dominates the news and will become the perceived truth unless corrected. That takes coverage and that requires charisma.
its amazing that it takes next to nothing to make ostensible ‘progressives’ root for passage of faux reform that mandates the purchase of crappy, for profit insurance, and strips $35 billion dollars away from Medicare over 10 years?!?!
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories…..5016.shtml
if you plan on gettin’ old, thats voting against your interests, allright.
Do you ever have to pull the “I’m a Marine” ace in the hole on these people?
To the Moderator…That’s nice. Can’t handle differing opinion so you don’t post my previous two posts. That’s really “open minded” of you.
Mike: I’ve lived in Towson for the past 15 years or so. While it may be have somewhat more Democrats than Rethugs, it’s pretty even, and I would guess that a lot of the Towson Dems are of the “moderate” variety. It’s a mostly white, mostly affluent northern suburb of Baltimore, with lots of private schools nearby (Calvert Hall, Notre Dame Prep, Boys Latin, St. Pauls, Loyola, just to name a few). Even the local “public” high school (Towson High School) behaves more like a private school. Back when Bob Erlich was just a House rep, his headquarters was in Timonium, just north of Towson. He’s still hugely popular in this area, and represents sort of the quintissential northern Baltimore County “hard workin’ no-nonsense white guy” that so many around here fall for. Our rep now is “Dutch” Ruppersberger, an old-fashioned machine Democrat who might as well be a Blue Dog.
It’s funny/sick to hear these clowns whine about government programs. If it weren’t for actions of this kind, there would’ve been no Federal highway program and these knuckle-heads would still be driving on dirt roads.
With regards to the whole “death panel” issue, well, legislation ought to be introduced that mandates that anyone in a coma that hasn’t left clear instructions as to what they want to happen to them in those circumstances will automatically undergo a sex change operation and gay wedding. Geez, haven’t any of these people had to deal with medical emergencies or relatives with critical illnesses? How can any marginally functioning mind turn “resuscitate /do not resuscitate” into a death panel?
As an older person I am not surprised at my generation acting like 2 year olds myself. They are the “me” generation, the YUPPIES, the one who sat at Be-ins and cried about the horrors of the world ~ and then began their stained glass/imported wine/organic tea businesses and used the money that on designer preschools for their kids, fancy Mercedes, and trips to Europe for the summer. Now they are scared because they are losing it all with the “investments” they made in the stock market and their fancy homes that are worth half of what they paid while they were flying high.
I knew these people as my peers and let me tell you they ARE spoiled brats. They are 2 year olds. Because they got their educations for little or nothing, Mummy and Daddy didn’t have to mortgage their houses to pay for it, and they used government money to start their businesses, edged themselves out of paying taxes (since they are “entitled” to all the infrastructure that they expect the poor to pay for and then not be able to use), and their student loans, if they had any, were for pennies on the dollar, if not downright grants that were given away for nothing except a little paperwork.
I watched this all as a low income single mom with amusement and horror all wrapped up in the same smile. I cannot make any excuses for them. They are studiously ignorant they always have been, blaming the poor, pretending they weren’t racist when they were, and living the high life as they felt they were entitled to have while selling off everyone they could for a buck.
I am sorry you young people have their mess. Just keep in mind there were lifelong activists like me and others my age who tried to stop it. We were just flicked off the map with the “greed is good” mantra. Please accept my apologies for my generation …
Cat in Seattle
Funny that you would peg Ruppersberger as a machine Democrat without mentioning that Cardin is a career politician in a state with a strong Democratic machine. He comes from a family of Democratic officials and served in the state legislature as a young man. He even rose to become one of the top party leader in Annapolis. Then he served 20 years in the House before becoming a Senator.
I like Cardin myself, but let’s not pretend he is anything other than a machine politician.