Protests against Republican members of Congress continue to take place around the country. Yesterday, GOP House member Steve Chabot was challenged over his support to defund Planned Parenthood and received stiff resistance from the crowd over his response. Think Progress has a transcript and video:
MODERATOR: Why do you stand against funding Planned Parenthood when public funds are not used for abortion and Planned Parenthood is so important to poor women’s health care?
CHABOT: Relative to Planned Parenthood, they are the largest abortion provider in the United States.
AUDIENCE: No! No! No!
CHABOT: Well, they are. [...] But the folks in Congress, like myself, who happen to be pro-life, aren’t satisfied because we know money is fungible and you can take out of one pot and use it, you don’t have to provide the same costs out of that particular pot.
CONSTITUENT: Do you have any proof of that happening?
CHABOT: [Silence] Next question.
Video:
This is far from an isolated incident. In addition to the list we posted on Monday of local media reports on three dozen town hall protests, Rebuild the Dream has a new video of twelve more protests that were covered by local television news:
Some of these protests are happening in big cities, and some in small towns. They are happening in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Washington, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New Hampshire and more. Some have a couple dozen people, while some have over one hundred. A lot of them are getting local press, and that freaks out any member of Congress.
After the August 2009 town halls and the late winter protests in Wisconsin earlier this year, it is no longer justifiable to be cynical about the ability of protests to make an impact on public opinion, elections or legislation in this country. Find and sign up for a rally near you with MoveOn or Democracy for America. The best way to stay hopeful is to keep fighting together with springs in our steps and our hearts on our sleeves.