Or how I learned to sit quietly and not scream at others!
For the first time in almost 5 years I went to see a politician and he is a fairly progressive guy. The last time is did this was in Montana at a picnic with Senator Max Baucus. I sat next to him while we ate and asked him several times why the senate finance committee took all restrictions off credit card companies. Never did get an answer...he acted as though he had never heard of it. By the time I was done with this town hall I remembered why I quit going to these little get togethers.
This town hall had a little bit of everything for the political junkie...right wingers spewing faux news talking points like parrots, progressives trying to resurrect the 60s and independents desperately trying to get someone to listen. Where do I stand? Somewhere between the progressives and the independents and, as Brian Keith said in "The Mountain Men" FEARSOME CONFUSED!
I came to this meeting with eyes wide open and a list of questions to ask our illustrious leader, properly numbered in order of my concern. I had number 493 in those lotto like tickets they issued and, although every number around that was called, somehow they missed me. Oh well, some questions on my little list were answered but only once we got past the tea bagger and her complaints about illegal aliens (fox would have been proud).
One question concerned energy policy and the senator explained he had been in favor of nuclear until the recent problems in Japan. Where do we go from here, he asked? Well now he's in favor of gas...saying that we have huge untapped reserves in our county. Clearly he has no idea about fracking and I hope someone will clue him in soon. On banking he says he never believed in too big to fail but feels they are on the right track with the CFPB. Once again he seemed a bit naive as though the CFPB will solve all problems. On immigration he's a big fan of EVerify, as am I. He talked about the last big attempt to resolve this issue and how we have failed to enforce the laws already on the books. Until you punish the employers you can't possibly resolve this issue.
The one issue I really wanted to ask about was Justices Thomas and Scalia's inability to show impartiality and whether the senator would be willing to introduce a call for impeachment in the senate. Although I didn't get to ask this question I did get to pass it on to his aide from Salem and request a response from his staff. Hopefully someone will listen? Yeah, right!