I watched the whole meeting on television, which was nice because I didn’t have to be too close to some of the wackos that showed up there!
President Obama’s health care reform proposal was defended last night by Congressman Mike Thompson, who showed up at Redwood acres and stayed longer than expected.
It was obvious that some people, who just wanted 15 minutes of fame, were there to protest issues totally unrelated to the topic at hand. Time and again, I winced as they babbled about their personal agendas.
I lost count of how many times Thompson had to shut people up while someone else was trying to speak. My only surprise at this kind of behavior was that the “big mouths” weren’t wearing tinfoil hats!
Looking at the scope of the whole meeting I can only conclude it was a “dog-and-pony show” that did not result in anything but a chance for people to blow off steam. How many intelligent questions were asked about the issue at hand – health care? While you’re trying to count them, how many sane alternatives to the proposed problems did you hear?
I had the sense of a crouching beast (as opposed to a human audience) threatened to engulf Thompson at any moment. It’s a good thing he’s a military veteran, because he needed to show some balls to back off the crouching beast at times!
This inability to no longer have civil discourse in so-called town hall meetings is reflective of society today. Polarization goes beyond the Republican’s and Democrat’s inability to agree on anything. Our whole country is polarized by people who live on “sound bytes” and who avoid facts that may go against their emotional beliefs, and what the political pundits say they should think.
I heard, and read on some of the local blogs and TV station, that some people thought the meeting went pretty well. Hmmmmm….now there’s a sad statement. There was actually a time when public meetings weren’t dog-and-pony shows that had clowns interrupting every five minutes.
As It Stands, welcome to the breakdown of our country. Chaos creeps in with cretins leading the way!