When I woke up this morning, I just couldn't stop thinking of the MoveOn email inviting me down to the Supreme Court. We're brand new to Washington DC. I'm actually still unpacking boxes and waiting for our furniture shipment to catch up with us. I haven't introduced myself to the local progressive establishment, so I had no folks expecting me, no job to do, no volunteer assignment to give me a purpose. I wasn't sure about going at all. But I couldn't not go... I live so close, what would it hurt?
When I first arrived, I managed to work my way into the crowd in front of the Supreme Court. My goal was to reach a high spot where I could take a few photos (I'm only 5'4" so height is pretty important) and I found myself on the wrong side of the dividing line. Instead of being smack dab in the middle of supporters, I was staring at Don't Tread On Me flags and listening to a shrill woman in a microphone complaining how everyone took over her press conference. I don't think she liked the Tea Party folks or the Obama supporters; her main goal was to make sure we knew that abortion was a sin. I hadn't realized that abortion had been a major part of the Healthcare Reform. So I made sure to stand nearby with my Medicare for All sign held high (I had picked it up off a pile up front) just in case any press wanted to take her picture. I caught the eye of a fellow progressive sign holder and we just about winked at each other. We had both obviously been to these types of events before.
The Tea Party folks in Washington DC are like the Tea Party folks in San Antonio. They like to chant USA, USA, as if they own the words and no one else can utter them. When I made a comment to a guy next to me about it being a strange thing to chant when everyone in the crowd was so obviously supporting America, he brought up the shoe bomber. I think he was confused as to why we were there. He continued to let me now that abortion was wrong and that the picture of the aborted baby on his back should have been the picture of a proud living American. I said it was a shame that the mother had no access to birth control and he told me that using it was a form of abortion. I let him know that I had two boys at home and that I proudly used birth control to help plan my family and he wasn't so sure what to think of that. I don't he's met many women who admit to using birth control.
The best conversation of the day, however, happened just before I crossed the street into the fray. A group of four young women were pointing and taking pictures and I heard one of them utter a statement about how those people were protesting nothing important and another who said she hoped someone got arrested. They were there with their school group - probably a local DC school taking a field trip. They began to wonder what the big deal was all about. I turned and I told them. Nicely, of course. And they started to ask me questions - about the Supreme Court, about the health care act, about what might be taken away. They were immediately engaged in the conversation. Until their teacher pulled them back to take a photo with the group. It was yet another lesson that our youth are ready to be drawn in; they just need the people around them to care enough to talk about the issues when they're interested. It's what we call a Teachable Moment with my own kids.
When the news was announced, I was still standing on those steps, sort of in between both sides. The supporters started yelling in happiness and the Tea Partiers were confused - some were trying to celebrate and others were looking at the other side like they had gone crazy, cheering for a result that repealed the mandate. Obviously - the Tea Partiers were confused by the announcements on CNN and Fox News. They hadn't tuned into Scotus Blog. Their mistake to rely on the traditional media for such an important announcement, don't you think?
Progressives hung around talking and chatting with each other, content in not making big announcements or turning the event into a campaign speech for anybody. As I left a little later, the Tea Party was still talking into the microphone - shrill and angry and more off-topic than I have ever heard them before. They were thrown a loop today. I don't think that this ruling was even a remote possibility in their eyes and they didn't have the memes ready to throw out there. For once, it seems, the conservatives might be playing catch up. It's a good feeling. I hope it lasts for a while.