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Missouri news, views, and issues - Show Me Progress

Right wingers venting about health care reform

by: hotflash

Tue Jul 28, 2009 at 15:44:34 PM CDT

At the Monday evening town hall, Claire's staffer Michelle Sherod listened politely as the wingers sent their message about why they hate health care reform. They lined up at the mike and spoke cogently, sometimes wittily, one after another. As it turned out, they were there to complain about health care, not the energy bill. And did they ever complain. It was fascinating.

To give them as much benefit of the doubt as I can muster, I'd say they were ... passionate. Unfortunately, for many of them passion is indistinguishable from rudeness. Basically, every time Sherod opened her mouth, regardless of what she had to say or how tactfully she expressed it, several people in the crowd of--I don't know, 400?--shouted at her. (The organizers planned for 150 attendees, by the way, and had to move us to a larger area when the crowd overflowed the meeting room.)

In the clip below, with Carl Bearden of Americans for Prosperity (aka tea baggers) standing behind her, Sherod opens the meeting. That hissing you might be able to hear at the end of the clip was a noise we heard often--the more civil ones in the group trying to shush the rowdies.

hotflash :: Right wingers venting about health care reform

The crowd was boisterous, but the speakers were usually clear about what they believed. One common theme was that universal health care is unconstitutional. This soldier says both he and Claire took an oath to defend the constitution, but if she votes for a public health care option, she owes him not an explanation but an apology-- for negating her oath.

The woman who followed the military man spoke on another theme: whether legislators would be willing to be on the plan they're proposing. She knew how to project her anger, and the crowd loved it, especially after she sat down. Because at that point, when the next woman came to the mike, you can hear Sherod saying McCaskill would be willing to take the public health care option. The crowd was, shall we say, skeptical?

The crowd was passionate to the point of high dudgeon. Though they deny it, it's no stretch to think they'd have pounded on the doors and windows of Claire's office, yelling so loud that the owner of the business on the second floor flipped them the bird.

They're frustrated, because McCaskill and Michelle Sherod may "listen", but Claire's not their gal. And what good does it do to whine to Bond about it? He has little power on this issue. They need for her to oppose the bill, and they know she won't. So they're pissed.

And paranoid. Hoowee, were they paranoid. More on that in a later posting.

Tags: missouri, health care reform town hall, McCaskill, (All Tags)

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Right wingers venting about health care reform | 5 comments

The biggest problem is that (3.00 / 2)

McCaskill seems to think that the people at this meeting actually voted for her in the first place.

She'll take their opinions seriously and vote like the Faux Democrat she's turned out to be and in 4 years, these people still won't vote for her.

by: grog @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 14:11:43 PM UTC

by: you @ soon

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I gave the wingers benefit of the doubt (3.00 / 1)

by calling their behavior passionate. But I did notice that quite a few of the progressives who attended left early. One of them tells me she was horrified by the mood and the behavior of the audience, and she said that a mutual friend of ours who stayed felt more and more intimidated as the evening went on. It was obvious that the woman who stayed and her friend were not standing up and cheering, so they were getting some hostile looks and wondered if they'd be safe as they walked to their car. Another acquaintance of mine who stayed and even spoke late in the meeting admitted that at one point she checked out where the nearest exits were.

I think all of these people, if they had been writing the posting above, would have used a harsher word than "passionate." I had mixed feelings. Some of the people in that audience are intimidating and scary. Most, I think, are just the dupes of unscrupulous Republican "thinkers". They're not necessarily mean. They have been misled.

by: hotflash @ Wed Jul 29, 2009 at 15:37:55 PM UTC

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A clever comment from a "G. Washington" in response... (0.00 / 0)

...to the ex-military man claiming that Sen. McCaskill owes him an apology (from Stltoday).

I have great applause for the young soldier, budding barrister of the Supreme Law of the Land, our beloved Constitution; the convention of which I presided over in the sweltering summer of 1787 in Philadelphia.
Most assuredly, our nation has grown and evolved over the years since I served Her - in many ways I do not even recognize the breadth of power She has assumed, both privately and publically. One thousand military installations circumferentially placed in locations around the world, both precipitous and safely removed from imminent threat? Unthinkable in my day. But it is a new day, indeed.
Having confessed that I am hardly familiar with the modern procession of public enterprise, let alone intimately expert, I would encourage the youngster to consider the ramifications of what he is suggesting.
He cites that for Congress to promote the health of our citizens is clearly beyond the purview of Constitutional mandate. With the heavenly and magickal science of medicine today, it is sad to see a citizen suggest that this favor of God should only be accessible to those of means and wealth.
In America, we always envisioned the favors of science and knowledge to apply to all, and not be solely reserved for the aristocracy or monarchy. Libraries of books in old Europe were not known by a nation's yeomen, but as Madison said, if a people intend to be their own self-governors, they must wield the power that knowledge brings.
As our young soldier, bless his service, has intimated that the general welfare clause should only apply to those specific powers enumerated in Article 1 Section 8, and not promote any health care plan, I would have him consider the totality of his suggestion.
After a cursory examination of programs birthed over our two hundred years since my office, that could be construed as unconstitutional and beyond his specific and subjective interpretation of the enumerated powers entrusted to Congress, I have compiled a list of a few that would have to be repealed if we, as a national family, were to heed his admonishment and direction.
-Repeal Social Security and Railroad Retirement.
-Repeal Medicare and Medicaid funds.
-Dept of Education abolished.
-Repeal Income Tax and the Federal Reserve Act.
-The Voting Rights Act should be repealed.
-Federal Election Campaign Act and the Federal Election Commission
-Repeal all federal campaign finance laws
-Abolish the Department of Energy
-A purging of all lands, National Parks, etc. which are held by the federal government without authorization by the Constitution.
-Repeal of federal wetlands legislation
-Repeal of the federal Endangered Species Act.
-Repeal of United States participation in UN programs such as UNESCO, Man and the Biosphere, and the UN Council on Sustainable Development.
-Repeal of the Biodiversity Treaty, the Convention on Climate Control.
-Repeal Hate Crime legislation.
I trust that cooler and calmer heads will prevail as we continue to evolve the experiment of republicanism embodied in these United States of America, lest, as we empty the dirty waters of a used bath, the baby will have also been dispatched.
G. Washington.