Town Halls Gone Wild

by Alex Isenstadt - July 31st, 2009 - Politico

Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress.

On the eve of the August recess, members are reporting meetings that have gone terribly awry, marked by angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior. In at least one case, a congressman has stopped holding town hall events because the situation has spiraled so far out of control.

“I had felt they would be pointless,” Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.) told POLITICO, referring to his recent decision to suspend the events in his Long Island district. “There is no point in meeting with my constituents and [to] listen to them and have them listen to you if what is basically an unruly mob prevents you from having an intelligent conversation.”

In Bishop’s case, his decision came on the heels of a June 22 event he held in Setauket, N.Y., in which protesters dominated the meeting by shouting criticisms at the congressman for his positions on energy policy, health care and the bailout of the auto industry.

It is just such hostile criticism that has always been the norm for Republicans who have had to face rabid left wing fanatics for years. Now Democrats are getting some of their own medicine because they have swerved left into communist-marxist-socialist country. That has enraged a great number of libertarians-conservatives-moderates who have never been that excited before. The Democrats did not expect anything but the usual mild Republican response. The Democrat problem is not the Republican base. The problem is a great number of people who have never cared about politics before, who just wanted to be left alone, who are becoming enraged at the idea that their nation will be turned into a Communist tyranny.

When the President starts firing business executives and lying about it, destroying the bankruptcy courts and lying about it, spending trillions of dollars in a wasteful stimulus program and lying about it, supporting failed banks that gave democrats campaign contributions and lying about it... proclaiming the planet is suffering global warming and denying the fraudulent science behind the claims... and now lying about his socialist health care take over... PEOPLE ARE MAD.

The response by the Democrats is... to stop listening to anyone but their left wing supporters. Representative Bishop is not the only Democrat who is hiding from the people who are upset. I guess that just proves that the claims of bi-partisanship were always a key part of the plan to keep lying to the American people.