UPDATE: If you know of a Republican town hall, tell us Who, When, and Where. We'd like to attend! :D SEE BELOW FOR RUMORED DATES AND TIMES of these elusive town halls! Speaking of which, Nyceve has a call to action to attend a town hall in Memphis and keep the wingnuts at bay and Slinkerwink has a list of urgent Dem town halls to attend.
So I went to a Republican town hall meeting last night to shout down his leveled and realistic plan for health care in America and.....oh hey wait...
maybe that was a dream....
Wait a minute...ARE THERE Republican town hall meetings?
Isn't that incredibly Not Strange At All that during this recess in the midst of organized astroturf rabies-rallies the Republicans would have so few, so poorly publicized public venues for discussing their no solutions for health care in America?
It almost seems.........
You know....
Planned out that way.
And while the birthers storm Democratic attempts at democracy, shouting down all discussion and whining about being shut out when they make obnoxious asses of themselves while the adults try to discuss this critical life and death issue, the Republicans don't even bother opening up for democracy.
They don't even bother trying to pretend they give a shit about democracy, or give a shit about what Americans want, or give a shit about hearing from Americans...
This fits the Republican pattern of disregard for the average american voice.
For eight years Republicans screened their crowds for dissenting personalities or voices. Pre screened questions to make sure they were friendly. And they kept dissenting voices from speaking to the media after town hall meetings. And they shut out potentially opposing voices and screened their own events...whoa, did I just post a Fox News link??? While I'm there let's see what the Bush White House said about why they shut people out...
“There is an active campaign underway to try and disrupt and disturb his events in hopes of undermining his objective of fixing Social Security,” White House spokesman Trent Duffy told FOXNews.com. “If there is evidence there are people planning to disrupt the president at an event, then they have the right to exclude those people from those events.”
Weird. Where were the All American teabaggers making a stink about fair an honorable discourse for the past eight years? I'll tell you where...they were snickering in Bush's pews as the waves of opposition were shown the door and blocked from media interaction.
Meanwhile as a general rule, Democratic leaders are LETTING these dissenting people in. No screening. No pre-questioning. No early registrations. Straight up democracy, no ice.
And by some folks' reckoning, we're going to lose this debate simply because we actually give a shit about American democracy.
Our representatives are seeing a light show of intimidation and thuggery intended to make them think that opposition represents the majority. These maniacs are trying to control the agenda through fear because they can't win in a Democracy. And the lack of Republican town hall meetings shows that they are absolutely complicit in this reprehensible and dangerous tactic.
We HAD our day of reckoning last November. We the People SPOKE loudly and honorably in PURE American tradition and the Teabaggers and Birthers lost. They LOST. They lost HUGE. They lost even though they had their fits and protests and intimidating thugs and the braying of Beck and Limbaugh and attempts to disenfranchise voters.
They threw everything they had at us, and they lost.
And we plowed through it. We worked our asses off and faced threats and intimidation to put into office the people who are there RIGHT NOW. They are there because of US. They are in power because of US. Because we had no fear and WE stood up for the principles we expect them to follow through on. The people braying and screaming right now will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever vote for the Democrats casting the votes, no matter how they vote.
That's the one thing our representatives need to keep in their brains when they stand to vote on health care reform and a strong public option, because that day of reckoning will come again.
Dates and Times of rumored Republican Town Hall Meetings. Show Up. Make some News. Be respectful but be visible. It'll be interesting to see if these are the real deal...
Heck...maybe the rep will actually show up
Thanks to user banjolele "Seriously, here's a Republican Town Hall
meeting here in NJ from yesterday. I found out about it only last night, but I considered going as it's not too far away from here.
The Republican who sponsored it (Lance) declined to show up to his own meeting. Enjoy the video:"
Arizona:Rep. Trent Franks
08/22 01:00 PM: Town Hall - First Assembly of God Church, 1850 Gates Avenue, Kingsland, AZ, 86401
California
Lungren - Getting dough from the Koch oil company - thanks to AmericanRiverCanyon
Tuesday, August 18th 7:00-8:30pm
Citrus Heights
City Council Chambers
7117 Greenback Lane
Citrus Heights, CA 95621
Lungren
Saturday, August 22nd 10:30- 12noon
Jackson
Civic Center
33 Broadway
Jackson, CA 95642
Lungren
Wednesday, August 26th 7:00-8:30pm
Rancho Cordova
American River Room
2729 Prospect Park Drive
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670
Monday, August 10, 2009
CLAIREMONT COMMUNITY COFFEE
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific
LOCATION: LiveWell San Diego, 4425 Bannock Avenue, San Diego, CA 92117
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
RANCHO BERNARDO COMMUNITY COFFEE
8:00 AM - 9:00 AM Pacific
LOCATION: Ed Brown Senior Center, 18402 West Bernardo Dr., San Diego, CA 92127
Illinois
* 9 to 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at the DeKalb County Farm Bureau, 1350 W. Prairie Drive, Sycamore.
* Noon to 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 8, at the Ogle County Farm Bureau, 421 W. Pines, Oregon.
Kansas
Kansas Rep. Todd Tiahrt is having one Tuesday 8/11
Where: Wellington Public Library - 121 W. 7th St., Wellington, KS.
When: Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2009, 8:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m.
Ohio
Steve LaTourette: Twinsburg OH next Thursday at 10:30 am. It's at the Twinsburg Senior Center. Anybody know where the "Senior Center" is located?
Oklahoma: http://www.news9.com/...
Texas
Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) is having a town hall (0 / 0)
on Wednesday, August 19, 2009, 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. at 825 W. Irving Blvd., Irving, Texas 75060.
LIST OF ALL TOWN HALL MEETINGS FOR DEM AND REP
http://www.cprights.org/...