Town Hall a la Astroturf

First, I need to compliment House Representative, Peter DeFazio (D), for scheduling town hall meetings during the recess. He sent out newsletters and posted this information well in advance. In the face of the firestorm over what’s going on in Washington, D.C., it takes a standup guy (or gal) to face the music, especially when you know there’s going to be a lot of discord. My two senators, on the other hand, are pretty hard to access. One has a town hall out on the coast, in a remote town, and the aides handling phone inquiries have to repeat the mantra to keep watching the website as some future meetings are in the works. Let’s see, today is August 13, and Congress reconvenes in September. Hmmm. 

The town hall I attended was in Cottage Grove, Oregon. It was to be an “inside” event, but when the organizers realized less than half of the crowd would be able to be allowed in, they wisely “punted” and brought the sound equipment to the parking lot where all could listen to Congressman DeFazio.

Here are a few observations:

There were no buses bringing in organized protestors. 

Constituents lined up in an orderly fashion - almost like rule followers.

Nobody had a Swastika.

Most attendees were 40 years of age or older.

There were very few protest signs displayed. Interestingly, the ones which were massed produced and dispersed were in support of the Health Care Bill and the present actions of Congress and the President. Although these were mass produced, they were mixed strategically through the audience as opposed to clumped together.

The only profanity I heard was a 70s something liberal telling a 70s something conservative to “F*** off.” Later he told the same guy to “Shut up.” And later, “There’s more of us than of you.” At one point, these 2 septuagenarians started to square off, promising to offer some interesting techniques, but a couple of like aged women intervened and spoiled the show.

The structure of a town hall is frustrating as people in the front row get to ask questions while those of us 3 or more rows back only enjoy having the blood drain down our arms. (Which brings up another point: The constituents remembered their training from school and raised their hands to be recognized.)

People asking questions get no opportunity to rebut the answer given by the legislator. Consequently, the legislator’s answer has the psychological appearance of being “the truth.”

A tactic being used heavily by the ruling body in Congress and the White House is to repeatedly say “There is a lot of misinformation out there.” Therefore, any concerns raised, especially ones that create doubt among the audience, are relegated to concerns based on misinformation.

 Another commonly used tactic is to shift the blame from the decision makers on Capitol Hill to the private insurance companies. It’s interesting that private companies that provide jobs, freedom of choice, competition to provide better products, competition to keep rates down, companies that must file justification with state insurance commissioners, companies which need to diversify into a variety of corporate activities to sustain catastrophic losses, and companies which regularly figure out how to survive on very slim profit margins given expense and loss ratios - these companies are demonized as not having to play by the rules. First, if that’s true, why is the Obama administration (enforcement branch) allowing it to happen? Second, because it isn’t true, why would Congress put forth a bill that members contend encourages choice among the private insurers? And finally, does Congress actually believe that government insurance will be able to provide the quality of private insurance? (Think of the post office, the department of motor vehicles, - just about any government job where employees never have to worry about getting fired for inefficiency and have no incentive whatsoever to be more efficient, courteous, and professional.)

At the end of the day, I respect Congressman DeFazio for lining up many town hall meetings where constituents could voice their concerns. On the other hand, I’ve lost all respect for my senators who are hiding. Unfortunately, the town hall with DeFazio carried the air of a meeting allowing unhappy constituents a chance to vent, with the congressman putting in his appearance so he could say he listened.There was no real sense of potentially acting upon what the People were advocating. Rather, the congressman can now boast that he’s accessible, he listens, and now...it will be business as usual.