A New Kind Of Democracy? Or Not…
Much “ado” is being made of the town hall meetings that our congressmen/women and senators are holding throughout the nation, while they have their month long summer recess. Ostensibly these meetings are so that they can get out and be among their constituents in their area, and talk about the health care program that the senate is supposedly working on. So far….and if you go by all of the media reports, including ABCNews, NBCNews, and even FoxNews, it’s not going all that well for the politicians.
At some town halls people are chanting, “read the bill”, and at others it’s more of a one-on-one yet within a group. Probably the most absurd meeting took place yesterday in Houston, TX. when Congresswoman Jackson Lee interrupted the second questioner to take a phone call on her cell phone. Now how freaking rude is that??!! And the woman asking the question is a cancer survivor no less! Tuesday in Lebanon, PA. about 10 minutes from where I live in Hershey, Sen. Arlan Specter took a severe pounding from a number of his constituents. One man even getting right up in his face to the point that police officers and Specters own body guards moved in on the guy. Yeah….good ‘ole Arlan had 12 body guards no less! I guess he felt he needed them.
Now the Democrats are firing back the way they always do, creating lies, inciting arguments using union workers, and saying it’s the Republicans causing all the trouble. Even a brawl in one place causing one man to have to go to the hospital, now he’s suing of course. And the Dems are making up stories that people are being bussed to the meetings and are payed to create havoc, or that they’ve been urged by the special interest groups on the internet to attend the town halls and yell at the politicians. Which is complete bullshit! I get emails and certain email alerts from several conservative websites and think-tanks, and not one of them has urged me to get to a town hall and get stupid. The Dems are scared and it’s the only way they know to fight back…they can’t use the truth. It is such a horrible double standard it’s pathetic.
FOX News Poll: 52 Percent Say Town Hall Protesters Expressing Authentic Outrage.
-”Nearly half of Americans feel ‘frightened’ or ‘angry’ about the government being more involved in their health care, and a majority say the outrage being expressed by town hall protesters is authentic.”
-”Americans say the noisy protesters at town hall meetings are expressing authentic outrage. Some 52 percent think it is real outrage by concerned citizens — significantly more than the 29 percent who think the protesters are fake mobs planned by lobbyists and other opposition groups. More than a third of Democrats (34 percent), most Republicans (74 percent) and nearly half of independents (49 percent) think the meetings are an expression of real anger.”
-”Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from August 11 to August 12. The poll has a 3-point error margin.”
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/
http://pewresearch.com/
Personally I believe the outrage to be authentic. But I also believe that a certain kind of decorum should be maintained….even though you are angry and afraid. This too I find to be quite troubling:
“And what about the Obama administration’s request for people to send emails with information they see about health reform that seems fishy? A 57-percent majority disapproves of the White House asking people to do this.”
“Fifty-three percent think the horror stories they hear about what happens in government-run health care systems in other countries could happen here under the proposed plans, and if they were seriously ill an overwhelming 88-percent majority says they would rather receive medical care in the United States than in Canada. That includes large majorities of Democrats (86 percent), Republicans (92 percent) and independents (88 percent).”
But could you imagine if George W. Bush had instituted a request for people to email the White House with information about health care that they think is “fishy”? Man-oh-man…the Dems would be calling for special investigators, demanding a senate committee be put in place immediately, demanding that heads roll now, and the mainstream media would have a field day…even bigger than Obama’s Rev. Jeremiah Wright fiasco! Anyway….lastly, it would appear from the polls that not only is Barack Obama’s popularity numbers are starting to really slide, but polling of 1,000 registered voters nationwide say that they now trust the Republicans over the Democrats when it come to health care and all but one other category. Looks like 2010 is gearing up to be quite a sight, when we get to election time.
Democrats held a four-point lead on the issue last month and a 10-point lead in June. For most of the past two years, more than 50% of voters said they trusted Democrats on health care. The latest results mark the lowest level of support measured for the party on the now-contentious issue. On trust issues today:
Republicans over Democrats
Education: 41% to 38%
Social Security: 43% to 39%
Taxes: 59% to 35%
Education: 41% to 38%
National Security: 47% to 43%
Economy: 46% to 40%
Immigration: 43% to 35%
Iraq: 42% to 42% split
Government ethics: 34% to 31% Democrats hold a 3% marginal lead.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling the folks at the town hall meetings Nazis and they’re carrying swastikas!
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/
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Interesting; I didn’t see this post pop up on the main page. I must have missed it, but since there are no comments I’m guessing everybody else missed it too!