Living in Wisconsin, I've gotten accustomed to having easy access to Senator Feingold at least once each year. He made a pledge in his first campaign to have a Listening Session in every county in the state each year. It's not always easy to go, as the sessions are often held on weekdays during business hours. But I always find a way to go, and I often go to sessions in other nearby counties. I don't always speak at the sessions, but it's so interesting to me to hear what's on the mind of my neighbors. Usually there's a mix of topics, with a few that are ever-present, like health care, Veteran's affairs, No Child Left Behind, abortion, and Iraq and Afghanistan. Generally, there's a mix of people, supporters, opponents, and people on a mission to deliver a message about their specific concern. But it's always been civil, and I leave with a good feeling about the state of our democracy. Until yesterday.
Yesterday there were two Listening sessions, in St Croix and Pierce counties. I live outside of River Falls, which is mostly Pierce County, but I live in the little slice of town in St Croix county. This was a good time for the session, we did a Feingold canvass in River Falls last Saturday, and tonight there's a fundraiser (a celebration of several anniversaries of gay unions among Russ' local supporters). I was pretty sure the turnout would be high, since there's been so much press about town halls being disrupted and so on. Pierce county is more liberal than St Croix, which is one of the fastest growing counties in the state. Pierce has the local UW campus, but is generally more rural than St Croix.
The Pierce county session was in Ellsworth. The turnout was pretty high, at last year's meeting there were probably 50 people. This year it was probably a little over 100. Mostly it was seniors, many of them farmers; with the rest a mix of young and middle aged folks. The way these sessions work is, Russ has staff there ahead of time, who hand out question slips. You fill out your name and address and describe the topic you want to speak about. These are gathered, and Russ calls your name and you have the floor. How long you get to talk depends on the turnout, since he tries to give everyone who wants to the chance to contribute. The sessions are always scheduled for an hour, but he's usually there early and will get started right away. His aide has a Please Conclude sign, and once he holds it up, you're expected to wrap it up. Russ starts off with a brief statement, explains the process and calls the first name.
So, yesterday's started out as usual. There are some people who turn up each year (like me!), this year we were greatly outnumbered by the people there just to talk about health care. The tone stayed pretty civil, and people were polite about letting people speak uninterrupted. The thing I noticed most was that about half the people there were talking about things that they obviously cared about and had given a lot of thought to. The other half seemed to be reciting talking points that they didn't always actually understand. I was astonished by some of the ridiculous things people had to say, and angered at the attitude that anyone who was for reform of any kind was a socialist (not that there's anything wrong with that-socialist is probably the closest descriptor for my own beliefs). One guy stood up and proposed that we go back to the system of the early 1900s. What's that, you may wonder? That was when people created volunteer clinics to serve poor areas. Russ made a very mild comment about the feasibility of that. The one person there who, to me, epitomized the problem I have with all the hype and hysteria spread via the media, was an elderly woman who got up and pretty much just babbled, about how the deficit was stealing her money, and Obama is stealing her freedoms. By the end, she was just repeating one thing, that by stealing money, freedom is also taken away.
Russ dealt with all this admirably. For those opposed who spoke rationally, he would respond with a comment, about what he saw as a point he'd look into or consider, or that he understood but didn’t' agree and why. But a lot of times, he'd just nod and call the next name, or thank them for their comment and move on. There were a lot of people demanding answers. "Senator, yes or no, will you vote for the health care reform bill?" To which he responded (to several different people who all asked exactly the same thing), there is no bill in the Senate, so I can't say whether I'll vote for it. He'd reiterate that he is for a strong public option and would only vote for a bill that meant real change, and also included a way to pay for it. He also mildly challenged people on stuff-like that when Bill Clinton left office, the deficit was zero. That the unnecessary war in Iraq, based on lies, was a big factor. I would never have been able to stay so patient and polite in the face of so much stupid. I'd say the split on health care was pretty close to 50/50.
A couple hours later we went to the St Croix County session, in New Richmond. The fact that it was in New Richmond caused some concern, it's the only town in the area that participated in the whole Tea Bagging thing. This one was held in the HS auditorium, and from the start it was obvious it was going to be ugly. From the parking lot to the HS, and inside, there were people with signs. As we left the parking lot, there was a woman with a sign accusing Feingold of killing babies. My husband just had to challenge her, and I let myself get dragged into it very briefly. I said, "It's not a baby!" To which she responded, "Oh, so what is it then, a dog?" All I could think of was Barney Frank and his dining room table comment. There was no rational response possible, so I walked away. My husband stayed, he loves to bait those people, but I take it much more personally and can't stand it. Anyway, I went in and sat down and listened. The people with signs spread themselves out to all areas, but they all seemed tobe checking in with a guy in the row in front of me (that would be the front row). I overheard them talking about who made it today from far away, and how they were going to take this over, etc. (We noticed later that the most vocal hecklers didn't sign up to speak, my theory is they didn't want to put down their address.) My husband came in and immediately started a discussion with one of the sign holders. Again, this person wasn't interested in a discussion; they just wanted to repeat their pre-rehearsed talking points. Shortly thereafter, Russ showed up and the show began.
The firt few names called were all people who were opposed to Health Care reform. Of any kind. Their main points were that the deficit is too big already, and that, by the way, is ALL Obama's fault. It didn't take long for it to become obvious that most of these people had no idea AT ALL what Feingold is all about, or what his positions on different issues are. For one thing, he is a fiscal hawk. He is a strong supporter of second amendment rights. He voted against most of the things that people were throwing out as examples of his supposed tax and spend ways. So that was an interesting side show, watching them try to recover when their whole arguement was blown away by him simply stating his position or voting record. They just didn't know where to turn. Usually they'd mumble something and their buddies would all start clapping, stomping and yelling.
I was the first person to speak who was for reform. I started out by saying a public option is just that, an OPTION, not a mandatory program. I started with that because I was sick of hearing how health care was being RAMMED DOWN OUR THROATS! Not sure who that comes from, probably Rush, he seems to have an obsession with things rammed down ones throat. Anyway, as soon as I said Public Option, the yelling started. It was really intimidating in a way, so many angry people screaming at once. Russ said, Hey, I didn't notice Sharai heckling any of you when you spoke. It's her turn, so let her speak. They did quiet down long enough for the rest of my brief statement, which was about how I didn't want to be part of a private insurance scheme that allowed an insurance company CEO to be paid two billion dollars. I couldn't help myself, I said That is INSANE!! The few of us there who were for single payer or public option, or just any kind of reform knew that we needed to make as much noise as possible, so there was clapping when I finished, loud enough to be heard over the jeering. And so it continued. I really couldn't believe the number of people who spoke on the same topic using the same phrases. For the most part, Russ would just move on to the next person without comment. People who had points that sounded like the result of their own thinking got at least a thanks for being here. One of their big ideas was to ask Russ to pledge this or that, or to demand that he answer yes or no, senator! The effect of which was pretty blunted by the time the fourth person asked him to answer the exact same question. There were some real whackos there. One guy clearly on the anti side stood up and uttered the word UNION, which immediately caused a chorus of Communists! Marxists! Which really confused the poor guy, here he was being attacked by his own side and called names he was just calling Obama. Priceless moment.
Another highlight was one of the last people to speak. This woman started ranting about how would he feel if he suddenly had to start paying into social security like the rest of us! And what about the cost of living pay raises for Congress, would he take a pledge to give that back? When she said that, my husband and I just looked at each other and said She picked the wrong senator to throw that at! Russ has long been opposed to the pay raises. Whatever the salary is when he's elected, he keeps that as his salary for that term, he's returned over $70,000 to the treasury. Plus, senators do, and always have, paid social security like everyone else. So Russ had a great time with answering her. Oh, another highlight was when my husband spoke. He started with, I was going to talk about renewable energy as a path to sustainable peace, but listening to everyone has changed my mind. I see that there are a lot of upset people here, and I understand you are scared, and feel helpless and powerless. Well, there was an election, and that's what happens. Now you can understand how I have been feeling for the last eight years! As you can imagine, that went over well with the quarter of us who were Dems or on that side at least. With the others, not so much.
Again, Russ handled the situation really well. Sometimes people demanded that he answer "questions" that were more provocative statements, or that he'd already responded to. Several times he pointed out that this was a Listening Session, and if he's talking, he can't be listening. A couple times he said, "Didn’t you hear me, I just answered that question!" It was funny, too, by about half way through, the protestors were much more subdued. They weren't able to provoke Russ, he was unflappable, and they weren't able to prevent the rest of us from speaking. All that rationality must have been putting them to sleep or something.
I don't mean to say, by the way, that everyone who was on the other side was unreasonable, or that people shouldn't express their opinions to their elected representatives. But there were so many people who were quite obviously there to cause trouble, to disrupt the session, and that the opinions they were expressing were just things they had heard and were repeating.
The overall impression I got from the day was that people sure are selfish and petty. So many said, I have good health care, so why should I care? Oh, and over half of the 47 million without insurance just don't want it. Really, when you factor out the people who don't want it or are illegal immigrants, there are ONLY 5 million of them, and why should we get excited about just 5 million? Besides, all they have to do is just get a job! Despite the people who stood up and said I have a job, but it doesn't have benefits...guess they ought to just go get a better job! Simple. There were just so many contradictions and numbers obviously just made up.
Afterwards, I realized that day to day I lead a pretty sheltered life. Other than around 9/11, people take pains to not discuss politics or controversial issues at work. (Working in MN, the exception to that has been the Favre mania of the last couple weeks). My neighbors are pretty apolitical; it's almost scandalous that we've had yard signs up. So I didn't realize that there were so many people easily influenced and misled, and so many people who live in my neighborhood are lost and confused because of what they hear on the radio and TV. That they'd rather let someone else do their thinking for them. One of the people who stood up and spoke was my old high school hockey coach, who I'd once admired so much. I'm feeling pretty disillusioned today.