This is How It is Supposed To Work
The peripatetic Mike Stark went to a Town Hall Meeting held by Rep. Tom Perriello in rural VA, and found an interesting dynamic:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jFEOdLxuZpU[/youtube]
a gathering of people who may disagree and who even have some tough questions and no one got shouted down. Stark’s writeup of the event is worth the time. I have no idea if minds were changed, and that would be beside the point. Rep. Perriello had an opportunity to meet with some of his constituents where everyone got heard in a respectful manner. Meetings like this are probably what these guys had in mind this morning.
Tags: Health Care Reform
This is the norm, why do you act surprised? People who cheer a point of view expressed are just as valid as those who express it. Likewise those who jeer it after it had a chance to be expressed are valid expressions. Claire McCaskill had an interesting town hall on live television. I did not have a chance to watch most of it. People had exchanges with her. It was not a bad event. She got booed after she tried to mislead people on abortion funding (by saying the bill does not address it when she knows that the panel would be appointed by pro-abortion funders) and skip a real answer to the question. They pinned her down until she promised not to support it.
It looked like something that was a worthy exercise of citizenship.
It hasn’t been the norm so far — with teabaggers shouting people down, disrupting events and just performing for the cameras with the usual thuggishness.
As for the rest — you can take that delusional crap back to your own blog where people will actually be just delighted that you are lying to them.
She got booed after she tried to mislead people on abortion funding (by saying the bill does not address it when she knows that the panel would be appointed by pro-abortion funders)
Hey dopey? Link please. Which Bill? support your “fact”.
thank you.
Careful DV — the civility police will be out for you again.
Too bad the civility police have forgotten than lying and making up stories and expecting people not to notice isn’t exactly a highpoint of civilization.
so true, I better watch it or mr Civil will be down in dover raving like a lunatic against my rights b/c his Bible told him to.
The lack of civility is a team mentality thing, it is a infotainment thing, it is concerned people trusting information blindly that is given to them by people who are not in the business to inform, but to entertain and promote themselves and to keep the listeners and viewers coming back.
The lack of civility on all sides is a direct result of people not thinking for themselves, and the media regressing from its duties as an unbiased servant to the people.
Olbermann, Limbaugh, Hannity, Beck, etc. talking heads and radio talk shows are not preaching the truth, they are preaching biased talking points which keep people entertained and keeps them tuned in.
People need to get out of the political cloud of misinformation and start thinking for themselves. Media needs to stop being lazy and treating paid political consultants with agendas as trusted news sources.
What is the point of a free press when the press doesn’t exercise their freedom?
What has Olbermann been so wrong about to deserve to be grouped into that lot of disinformation merchants?
Is it just about style? Substance-wise, I don’t see it.
VC –
In the Libertarian fantasy world everything is shrugged off because everyone (except libertarians) is corrupt.
Really, it’s just laziness.
The first board sums it up….
http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2009/08/11/tomo/