Cohen Town Hall

cth01I just got back from the Town Hall meeting held by Tennessee’s 9th Congressional District Rep. Steve Cohen. I have to tell you, the turnout was pretty impressive. I livetweeted the event under the hashtag #cohen, as did some others at the meeting. Right now twitter search isn’t working too well, probably because of the DOS attack earlier this week, but you can follow me or just read my tweets from the event.

Thankfully, the event didn’t have as much of the hostility that’s been reported at other events, though there were some very vocal dissenters. While they were a bit disruptive, and their outbursts occasionally made it difficult to hear, the meeting went down without any real incident.

I arrived about 20 min. before the event was scheduled to start. At that point, the line was making it’s way around the corner. As we stood, waiting to enter, the line continued to grow. I’m not good at estimating numbers, but I would guess about 400+ people were in attendance.

Luckily I was near the front half of the line and was able to pick a spot upon entering. There were a lot of Seniors in the line and both the Congressional staff, and many of the attendees on both sides of the healthcare issue were cool about making sure those people had seats.

The meeting began about 15 min late, due in large part to the over-capacity crowd. The venue was pretty crowded, as the pictures that follow will show. After the pledge, which was punctuated by a shouted “under God”, and some general instructions by employees at his local office, Cohen began introducing members of his staff to groans from the people there to protest healthcare reform. Cohen brought his DC staff down for a retreat to meet with the local staff, and said he felt it was important that people know who’s working for them in DC as well as here in Memphis. At one point the crowd started getting restless, but was shouted down by a man who stood up and said, “I’m want to hear my Congressman!”, which elicited both applause and groans.

cth10After the introductions, a line of about 8 Doctors formed to talk about healthcare reform. Many expressed concern about the “public option”. Cohen made no attempts to disagree with them or anything, but allowed them each to talk for a few minutes about both the problems and their concerns. This was not scripted or pre-planned. I really think, in the end, it was an effective strategy to keep the opposition off their game, and some good points were raised, though they were difficult to hear and impossible to record due to all the mumbling and grumbling that was a constant at the event.

There were some interesting moments in the Doctor comments section, though they were hard to make out due to the noise in the room, but as I tweeted Cohen held his own for the most part. The anti-reformers interrupted just about anyone who spoke, even people who supported their position. At one point Cohen asked people to “chill”, and later challenged a guy with a ”No Government Healthcare” sign, to which he answered, “I guess you’re against the VA, Medicare and Medicaid”, which brought down the house. Also, one of the doctors noted to the anti-reformers that “yelling lies over and over doesn’t make it true”, and another said, “anger and fear was trumping truth and facts”, which brought an expected response from the anti’s.

cth13Once questions started, it became even more difficult to hear. The questions came from cards, rather than calling on people in the audience, another effective strategy at keeping the meeting orderly. Most of the questions centered around Healthcare, but some touched on Cap and Trade and other issues.

Over time, the anti folks started checking out of the meeting. Many left 30+ min early because they weren’t getting the play they wanted. Of course, the hardcore folks stayed at it, shouting all kinds of things that I can’t even remember at this point. I wish I could remember because it was some of the stupidest crap I’ve ever heard in my life, and I listen to right wing talk radio from time to time to get a laugh or get motivated against their messaging.

In the back of the room, where I was standing, the hyperbole was thick, and there was a lot of passing around right-wing chain emails and such. From that vantage point, I can say that there were more signs in support of reform, or the public option specifically than there were from the anti-reform folks, though theirs were more, shall I say, creative…if that’s what you want to call it.

cth21Cohen did his best to dispel the myths about killing grandma and the “Palin Death Panel”. I don’t think he convinced anyone on the other side, though by the end they were not feeling victorious.

After the meeting most of them just took their signs and grumbled their way out of the hall. Most of the supporters went up to say hi to the Congressman.

I wish I had been able to take better notes, though the livetweet from the phone made my juggling act pretty difficult. All in all it was a successful meeting, despite the attempts to disrupt.

Thanks to all the residents of the 9th District who gave up part of their Saturday to participate, and even those from Arkansas and the surrounding districts, whose intentions may not have been as constructive. It takes all kinds, and I hope that, perhaps some of the misgivings about healthcare reform were quieted…though I doubt it.

12 Replies to “Cohen Town Hall”

  1. Two things I found chilling:
    1. the “Under God” group shout during the pledge.
    2. That some attendees attempted to get in with weapons.

    As to the crowd: I just don’t remember any behavior quite like that at public events during the Bush regime. Do those people really think they can win by shouting down the opposition?

  2. Joe Spake, I was at a Marsha Blackburn event two days ago. Blackburn’s staff (I’m a little fuzzy on how having congressional staff work a book signing falls within ethical guidelines) asked a young woman to leave the area for wearing a union t-shirt and asked another to leave because she wrote “I deserve healthcare” on her baby’s t-shirt. But none of the people that disagreed with Blackburn did anything to disrupt her speech.

    I saw a lot of those same people at Cohen’s event today shouting over any speaker they disagreed with like they were a bunch of drunken assholes at a comedy club heckling the performer.

    Over the last seven years, I’ve probably been to over 100 political events. Townhalls, campaign rallies, you name it. Until today, I never had to say these words at a campaign event: “Take your f**king hands off of me and never f**king touch me again.” This because I told a belligerent heckler that I didn’t appreciate him shouting in my ear, and that I wanted to hear the speaker.

    This is what I’ve come to expect. While there are many fine conservatives that can debate issues with the best of them, far too many are craven cowards that are terrified of anyone being able to say anything they disagree with.

    The one that REALLY pissed me off was this doctor that was allowed to give a speech today. This little refugee from the Shire contributed nothing to the conversation that I couldn’t get by watching Glen Beck, but no one interrupted his vapid speech. When he was through, he stood against the wall that I was standing at and started heckling Steve Cohen.

    This brain dead little dried up turd of a man decided that he should have his say— But the guy who gave him the bully pulpit deserved to be shouted down.

  3. I was there today, and I have to say these town hall meetings are a horrible idea. The congressional Democratic leadership has been terrible. Stop the town halls immediately, get everyone back to DC ASAP, keep working, and ignore the loonies.

  4. Steve writes, “The questions came from cards, rather than calling on people in the audience, another effective strategy at keeping the meeting orderly.” Yes, because when you decide which cards you’ll read, you certainly can keep things orderly. That’s the nasty thing about free speech, it’s so damned unorderly.

  5. What I want to know and nobody is addressing IS THIS, ARE CONGRESS, THE SENATE, AND YES THE PRESIDENT GOING TO USE THE SAME HEALTHCARE SYSTEM AND GET THE SAME TREATMENT WE POOR SENIORS ARE GETTING ALREADY?
    We are the ones that are going to pay even though we have worked all our lives for MEDICARE WE ARE BEING REFUSED TREATMENT BY DOCTORS WHO WILL NOT TAKE MEDICARE NOW. What is going to happen in the future? If they cut our benefits what little we get and STILL PAY FOR YOU MIGHT AS WELL PUT US TO SLEEP NOW.

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