I attended a community meeting today, held by Jared Polis at Vic's Espresso and News here in Boulder, Colorado.
ban nock had a diary up earlier, but here's my take.
Sorry! No blood on the floor -- no violent confrontations (at least while I was there)!
But what I did hear was a great deal of interest and concern about health care from citizens (and not just from supporters). Two take home lessons (if you can't stay for the pictures): 1) SHOW UP! We need your voices and bodies out at these events, folks. There are more of US than THEM -- but we need to show up! 2) Be calm, have rules for discourse at the event (I'm talking to you, staffers!), and enforce the rules!
It was a good day for democracy!
Congressman Polis at the far right-front.
More photos and the story below the fold...UPDATED WITH VIDEO!
There was a much larger crowd than was expected by the staffers, with the teabag crowd vastly outnumbered by the number of reform supporters.
There are actually a greater number of conservative folks in Boulder than folks outside this district might expect, but they tend to be (like everyone else here) of a higher education level -- or of higher income, or both. In any case, they were outnumbered, so they were not doing any shouting down of any audience members (see Rule #1). I emphasize that point because this seems very important in containing the shouters, at least in the meetings I have seen where there has been the most "shouters".
Congressman Polis arrived right on time for the 8 am start. Just like many who attended this morning, I thought the format would be town hall, but that was not the case. The staff (I'm omitting names because of security concerns) handed out numbered cards, rather than take questions from the crowd at large, which irked a number of people in the audience (especially the T-baggers!). But those were the rules, and the staffers stuck by them. (Rule number 2). But Mr. Polis did open up with a short greeting, which ended with a rousing cheer for passing health care with the public option (Yeah!). He took four questions from the crowd before calling the range of numbers to the table.
The first question was a hostile one, which was actually booed and hissed by the attendees, but they did allow both the question and answer to be heard. I only remember it was a RWTP question (Right-wing talking point), disposed of easily by Mr. Polis. But one of the questions was from a woman who was very concerned that the Public Option not be so weak as to cripple publicly funded health care for a generation. Many in the crowd were concerned that the public plan be strong enough that people would actually choose this plan as a viable alternative. Any baggers attempting to interrupt were "shusshed" by the crowd, so peer pressure was sufficient to control things at our meeting.
I was in the second group of about 10 questioners that got to step up to the table behind which Congressman Polis stood. He would probably have preferred sitting, but the large crowd was blocking the sidewalk in front of all the shops, and it was difficult to hear each other. Staffers were valiantly but unsuccessfully trying to create a space between the crowd and this table, and allow traffic to move through. Some questions were hostile to reform, like one from the helmeted woman in this picture below. The congressman was patient, and addressed her question (about a "trojan horse" public option gobbling up the world of health care). He stated that the multi-billion dollar health care companies wouldn't just disappear overnight -- but they would need to adapt to a new business model (my paraphrasing). Quite frankly, she was old enough for Medicare, so I don't understand her concern. I find it fascinating that Medicare recipients should try to prevent me from getting the same level of care they already have. :-(
In any case, most of the questions (including one by the man second from the left) were supportive; the man pictured had a question for the Congressman about Polis' opposition to the surtaxes in the bills passed by two of the House committees, and his vote against passing it out of committee. The Congressman responded that he felt the concerns he had about small business taxes in the bill he voted against in committee. He felt those concerns were now addressed. That was my question, dammit!
So I switched gears a bit. I wanted an assurance that Polis would not vote against the overall PO health care bill based solely on the surtax issue, and while adding weasel words, he seemed to give that assurance.
I went among the crowd for a few minutes, and even listened to a few of the baggers arguing (in a civil fashion, for once) with others in the crowd. He didn't have any real plan to fix anything, just that he had health insurance, and didn't want me to have it for some reason, or didn't want to help me get it. They're all filled with fear, barely disguised, below the surface.
I left feeling a bit less concerned about Polis' boneheaded move (IMO) in voting against the bill in committee -- I think he will be a stronger voice for reform after he has heard from more of the progressives here. Overall, this was a good day for democracy -- and that makes it a good day for reform. When all of the arguments are aired in this fashion, I have no doubt that health care insurance reform will win the day! But something we progressives should always remember:
We ARE all in this together, even the baggers. Let's not lose sight of that in our vociferous advocacy!
VIDEO UPDATE:
As you can hear, it's discussion, not raving; it was quite loud, so some had to speak loudly for their questions.