Congressman Scott Murphy held an open meeting today just north of Valatie, NY at the Golden Harvest Farms market. Murphy is the freshman Democrat who triumphed after an extended battle to represent the congressional district Kirsten Gillibrand held until being picked to replace Hillary Clinton as NY Senator. I live just outside the district which curves in a huge arc in eastern upstate New York. It covers a lot of territory, much of it rural and solidly Republican until the last few years. Since I was only about 30 minutes from the meeting locale, I thought I'd show up and see what there was to see.
There was a good crowd for this outdoor setting on a truly beautiful summer day in the Hudson River Valley. I'm terrible at numbers, but I'd guess at least a 100 people showed up. (It's a little hard to be precise, because the Golden Harvest Market was doing business as well. (More)
The national news has twigged that Congressional Democrats are getting some vocal, even violent turn outs when they come back to their districts and try to meet with their constituents. So, I was interested in seeing how the process would work in Upstate New York.
Maybe it was the locale, maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the visible police presence (at least two), but things were a bit more orderly here. Local media was there covering the event and interviewing people, and plenty of signs were in evidence. Judging by those and t-shirts as well, the wingnuts who've been trying to shut down these meetings elsewhere (here's a sample) were balanced and maybe even overmatched by opposing groups determined to let their voices be heard as well.
It just might be that the wingnuts have realized they have to walk it back a little? I didn't see any swastikas on signs, or some of the other offensive symbols that have shown up elsewhere. I spotted a man who looked like some kind of organizer briefing them before things got started, and what I managed to overhear suggested they realize looking like thugs or crazies hurts their message.
There was one guy who didn't get the memo apparently and showed up wearing a tri-cornered hat left over from a teabagger party. There was some real derangement on display as well. More than one person was convinced that 'Obama Care' is going to kill old people (a woman wearing a t-shirt "Future Soylent Green"). There was "If Socialized medicine is best, why didn't Ted Kennedy go to Canada?" (Socialism apparently is just around the corner.)
To be fair, there was one taunting sign from the 'liberal extremists' that I noticed. "Black President, Latina S/C Justice - GET OVER IT" Most were more to the point though, like singlepayerny.org " Single-Payer Health Care: One Nation, One Plan".
But what also made a difference was this: every time one of the health care opponents started to get into the angry shouting at bits of Murphy's intro talk, there were many more voices telling them to "Let him speak." Showing up works. These people who are trying to stop Healthcare reform in its tracks are scared, they are angry, they are determined, and they are NOT interested in Sweet Reason. If they are the only ones who show up for these events, they're going to carry the day.
We have to show up, and we have to keep showing up. It didn't end with the election back in November. We are into serious pushback from the right wing now, and we can not relax. Sara Robinson has an alarming post up that is a sobering read. The conservatives know they're on the ropes, they can't compromise, they won't even try to meet the rest of the country halfway. They've got a bunker mentality and are openly beginning to move in a very alarming direction.
Now, the guessing game is over. We know beyond doubt that the Teabag movement was created out of whole cloth by astroturf groups like Dick Armey's FreedomWorks and Tim Phillips' Americans for Prosperity, with massive media help from FOX News. We see the Birther fracas -- the kind of urban myth-making that should have never made it out of the pages of the National Enquirer -- being openly ratified by Congressional Republicans. We've seen Armey's own professionally-produced field manual that carefully instructs conservative goon squads in the fine art of disrupting the democratic governing process -- and the film of public officials being terrorized and threatened to the point where some of them required armed escorts to leave the building. We've seen Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to "a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress."
This is the sign we were waiting for -- the one that tells us that yes, kids: we are there now. America's conservative elites have openly thrown in with the country's legions of discontented far right thugs. They have explicitly deputized them and empowered them to act as their enforcement arm on America's streets, sanctioning the physical harassment and intimidation of workers, liberals, and public officials who won't do their political or economic bidding.
I'm not going to go into a detailed analysis of Scott Murphy's talk - because in a way it was totally unremarkable. It was a Congressman speaking to his district, talking about what he's done, what he hopes to do, and how well things are going overall in his first 100 days in office. He addressed local issues (it's not all about health care, after all) like the new advanced computer chip foundry coming into the region, and dairy farmers going broke because they're not getting enough money for the milk they get from their herds. He talked about cutting back the numbers of the F-22 fighter, and spoke about how the stimulus package seems to be working - although we're not out of the woods yet. At least the economy isn't about to melt down at any second the way it was 7 months ago. He also talked about things he sees in Congress that he's powerless to do anything about - like additions to bills that he may not like but he has to vote for if he supports the main purpose of a bill.
Murphy did devote a lot of time talking about the various health care bills out there, and tried to cover some of the major points. He pointed out for example that the 'free' care people get at emergency rooms isn't. We've decided hospitals have to treat people rather than letting them bleed to death on the street. The hospitals have to pass that cost on to those who do have insurance. Murphy appears to have been doing his homework - by all accounts he's a really smart guy and he both looked and sounded the part.
While Murphy didn't explicitly say so, he was making the point that people who object to having to pay for healthcare for the uninsured under reform plans are already paying for it now. And it stands to reason if you can give them care before they need to go to an ER, it should be cheaper. This is the kind of thing that the shouters and disrupters are keeping from being heard.
After Murphy got through his remarks, he opened up for questions from those present. A microphone was provided, and people were asked to line up for a chance to talk. At this point I decided to head out; things seemed to be going pretty smoothly. I did as Murphy had asked at the beginning of his speech and helped stimulate the local economy by buying some peaches and fresh corn on the cob at the market on my way out. I see he has more meetings scheduled around the district. Let's hope sanity prevails - and let's work to make it happen.