squashed:

It was ugly. While the crowd was pretty evenly split in terms of support or non-support, but the shrillest portion was decidedly against it. Earlier today, I was urging people to get involved and attend the meetings themselves. I’ve revised my view. Don’t bother. It’s not worth it. There are people I respect who oppose healthcare reform for a variety of reasons—but they weren’t the group that showed up to scream at John Dingell.

It was actually the second meeting. So many people showed up that fire capacity in the room was exceeded. A number of the conservatives had elected to stay outside when people lined up, march in a circle, and chant, “Just say no!” Then, when the room filled to capacity when they were at the back of the line, they complained that “they aren’t letting Republicans in.” What they lacked in common sense, they made up for in decibels.

First they screamed at the AARP guy—even though AARP hadn’t taken a stance on the bill. But they yelled that they had been sold out, apparently because this guy was facilitating the townhall meeting.

Then they screamed at the uninsured women in a wheelchair. They didn’t even wait to see what she had to say.

Then they screamed at Dingell. Even though Dingell is an 80 year old guy—he’s one of the most powerful people in the country. Don’t pity him. And if you have a good reason to scream at him—go ahead. But they weren’t screaming at him for good reasons. They were screaming at him because, apparently, he “hadn’t read the bill.” I guess he just wrote it. Also, everything Dingell said about the bill was “a lie.” Does the bill mention euthenasia? “No.” STOP LYING TO US!

I took one thing away from this. Talking about healthcare reform with these people is futile. If you’ve read much that I’ve written, you know that I don’t say this lightly. Normally, I support dialog with anybody over anything—and I get excited over almost any kind of civic engagement. But this was miserable.

Forget dialog. Let’s go into bulldozer mode.