Tonight I attended a Town Hall Meeting by Rep. Jim Moran (D-VA8) at a high school in Reston, Virginia. Congressman Moran's special guest for the evening was Dr. Howard Dean. The turnout for this event was pretty heavy. Heavy enough that it needed to be moved from a 300 seat auditorium to the gymnasium, which seated about 2500. I took some photos, but most of them were pretty blurry (I really MUST get a new camera!), but I included a few of them here.
The meeting was scheduled to begin at 7:00 PM. The doors were to open at 6:00. I was planning on leaving my home in Arlington, VA, about 23 miles away, at about 4:00. At about 3:15 I was surfing the Web to find more information about this event, I happened across a right-wing blog (Which shall remain nameless; partly because I would not give the person who owns the site the time of day, much less a plug, and partly out of shame that I allowed such vile filth to download into my laptop.) I noticed on this blog that one wingnut was urging another wingnut to arrive "insanely early" to "cover all of the entrances" to the town hall. So I immediately got up and ran to the car.
I arrived at about 4:05. The media were out in full force. Disseminating misinformation live from the scene was a Faux News mobile propaganda unit, which was parked prominently outside. There were also a couple of unmarked live trucks and trucks from the local TV outlets. I saw a few people running around with CNN badges. There were plenty of print reporters on hand as well.
There were already maybe a hundred people there. As I approached the line to enter, I was a bit concerned because the only people I saw were wingnuts. They were out there airing a potpourri of grievances, from health care, to gun control, to investigating CIA interrogation tactics, to God knows what. It was like the Republican party had ADD. FOCUS, PEOPLE! FOCUS!
There were a couple of disturbing protesters. A couple of Hitler signs. A couple of Obama-as-the-Joker t-shirts. One struck me as particularly inflammatory. It was some guy wearing an Obama mask pretending to beat a white woman with a whip. I didn't get a photo of it. I wish I did. Hopefully somebody else who was there got a picture of it and can post it here.
At first, I was a little bummed that I wasn't as close to the entrance as I wanted to be. Then I noticed something very odd. Most of the people around me weren't actually waiting in line. For all of their bluster about getting to these town halls early, sitting up front, etc. Most of these anti-reform people didn't seem terribly interested in getting to the head of the line. They were much more interested in making a spectacle of themselves in front of the TV cameras. For that matter, they seemed to be having a helluva good time protesting for the benefit of one another. So I strolled up closer to the door. The pro-reform volunteers had a table set up near the entrance and were taking names, passing out placards, buttons, stickers and handmade paddle fans so that people could keep themselves cool. I ended up being maybe the tenth person in line. While the anti-reform minions were busy yukking it up amongst themselves and mugging for the cameras, the pro-reform peeps were getting to the front of the line.
So, when the doors finally opened around 6:00 I would say that at least 90% of the people from the door back about 30 or 40 yards were pro-reform. (There was another entrance on the other side of the building. I don't know what was going on over there.) I was able to get a seat in the second row, center on the floor of the gym. The only reason I didn't sit in the front row was because all the seats had RESERVED signs on them, but seated all around me were progressives. We appeared to dominate the front rows in the center of the floor, directly in front of the stage. The wingnuts ended up mostly in the back and off to the sides in the stands.
The crowd was fairly quiet and very well-behaved for most of the hour before Rep. Moran and Gov. Dean arrived, but it ultimately turned into shouting and cheers from both sides. That was when you were able to really gauge just how strong the progressive presence was. The anti-reform bozos started chanting "We can't afford it!" and hundreds of OFA pro-reform signs went in the air and hundreds of voices just start chanting "YES WE CAN!", completely drowning out the chorus of wingnuts. There had to be about a 3:1 ratio of us to them!
Then there was this chucklehead with a "Cripples Against Obamacare" sign, which was attached to a crutch...
I know! Classy, right?
Seriously, they did ask him to remove the sign, but only because those of us on the floor were not allowed to have large signs of any kind so that we wouldn't block the view of those behind us. Kind of like when they don't allow people to bring umbrellas to football games. I'm sure this guy feels like his First Amendment rights have been trampled by the Big Socialist Machine. As you can see from the photo, he was getting lots of media attention. I don't know if he moved into the stands or what, but I'm pretty sure this "cripple" was fully capable of playing basketball in that gym.
At one point, I stood up to look around and who was standing not six feet away from me talking to some guy in my row, but Howard Fineman, Senior Washington Correspondent for Newsweek and regular analyst on Countdown with Keith Olbermann on MSNBC.
I didn't talk to him, but other people did. He signed some autographs and shook a few hands. He was very gracious.
Rep. Moran and Dr. Dean finally came out at, I think, about 7:10; anti-reformers struggled like hell to get their booing heard above the roar of cheering supporters.
Rep. Moran spoke first. People tried jeering and booing right off the bat, but were quickly shushed by others in the crowed. This would be repeated frequently throughout the evening. He welcomed everybody and introduced a rabbi to start things off with a prayer. He was heckled at points during his prayer and was roundly booed by these so-called "people of faith" on the right when he prayed for a health care system that was badly in need of reform. Then some Boy Scouts came out and led us in the Pledge of Allegiance.
Then Rep. Moran stepped back up to the microphone. He did an outstanding job under very tough circumstances. He talked at length about the need for health care reform and how he favors a public option (I'd like his language to have been a bit stronger. "Favors" is not "committed to", but then I didn't feel like he was just blowing smoke either.) and went on to dispel 11 myths about health care. He spoke for about 45 minutes or so, I guess.
The pro-reform people had Rep. Moran's back the whole night. There was a lot of shushing of hecklers and when the anti-reformers started booing, the pro-reformers drowned them out with cheering and applause.
Then Rep. Moran introduced Howard Dean. The crowd was largely in control up to this point, but as soon as Dr. Dean began to speak there was a large disruption in the middle of the gym. It was bad enough to stop the meeting. It took me a minute to realize who it was and what he was saying, but then it dawned on me that it was Randall Terry, that lunatic from Operation Rescue, and a handful of his supporters. Terry was standing on his chair screaming "Baby killer!" at Dr. Dean.
This photo isn't very clear, but that's Terry toward the left in the brown jacket and white t-shirt with his arm raised. Rep. Moran identified him by name, but not by organization to the crowd. He then offered to give Terry the opportunity to ask the first question, which is a LOT more than I would have given him. Apparently Terry was only interested in calling Dr. Dean a baby killer. He was finally escorted out by the police after a few minutes.
Dr. Dean spoke only briefly about the need for health care reform with a robust public option. I'm pretty sure he's aware that he's one of the more reviled people on the left by the wingnuts and tried to keep the disturbance his presence created to a minimum, but by the end of the evening, after helping Rep. Moran answer some questions, it was abundantly clear that Howard knows health care reform COLD!
The question and answer period was informative, but relatively uneventful.
At the end, Rep. Moran stayed for a while and talked to constituents. Dr. Dean; aware, I'm sure, of his status as both a rock star and a demon with this audience, slipped out behind the stage.
The crowd departed peacefully.
For me, the takeaway from this town hall meeting was how much more organized and civil the pro-reform side was than the anti-reform side. It seemed to me that we were there to take care of business and they seemed to be there to put on a sideshow. Sure, they had the outrageous costumes, signs and props, but we had the numbers. We also had position on them, ensuring they were scattered around the periphery of the gym. WE shouted THEM down when necessary and, thus, maintained a relatively orderly meeting.
Most importantly, we didn't let any of their bullshit go unchallenged.
UPDATE #1: BruinKid has more information on Randall Terry's activities at this town hall meeting. Apparently he and his Operation Rescue minions were the ones behind the Obama-whipping-the-white-girl protest outside the school, among other things.
UPDATE #2: You can now watch this event in its entirety on the C-SPAN website.