Emanuel Cleaver (MO 05) knows how to hold a civilized event.
Today, Rep. Cleaver held an event in Lee's Summit, MO, that was about 1/2 crazies, 1/2 the rest of us. I'd guestimate about 200-300 folks at any one time. Several of Glenn Beck's 9/12 mouth-breathers were there with t-shirts and flags. The fortunate thing is that Rev. Cleaver (yep, he's also a minister) holds these events almost every month (he's done over 50 of them,) and his usual pattern is to have a sign-up sheet before the event begins. After a few remarks, he sits at a table and works through the list, conversing with folks one-by-one.
This worked out great for him today (so far anyway. I had to leave before the event finished up.) The table was set up in the outside courtyard of a local coffee joint. The staff kept a circle open around the congressman of about 8-10 feet. The congressman talked with folks for about 2-3 minutes each (over 100 had signed up.) The obnoxious folks did not know how to handle this style. They could not interrupt the Congressman's speech, because he did not give one. I heard some of them say they did not sign up to talk to him because they thought the clipboard was "some union thing." (That made me chuckle.) But he did hear from people who agree and disagree with him, in a civil, democratic manner.
There are several things to take away from this:
- Because the Rep is talking to folks one-on-one, he takes away the shout-down strategy of the last week.
- Because the Rep is talking to folks one-on-one, they can't say he is not "listening to his constituents."
- The local Democratic organization got its people out. It was a almost like a County Committee meeting over there, plus a bunch of regular Obama supporters and health-care-reform advocates. We had the Rev's back, and the crazies were mostly stuck on the outer edges of the crowd, where they belong.
- The County Sheriff and the Lee's Summit police were in polite attendance, allowing debate, but keeping a lid on things just by their obvious presence.
Perhaps other Democrats should modify their event procedure to be one-on-ones at a table. The whako-right lives on drama. If we can make these event utterly boring, the wind will go out of their sails. The best they can do then is hold their own events and preach to their own choir.
(Side note: How the heck did I turn on the 'Tip Jar" and what the heck is it?)