Congresswoman Donna Edwards (Dem, Maryland-4th CD) held a town hall meeting tonight, not specifically advertised as about health care, but that ended up being the only topic.
First off, she did a terrific job. More on how later.
Donna’s district includes parts of both Montgomery County and Prince George’s County. This town hall took place in Montgomery County, in an area that is strongly Democratic but less solidly Dem than Prince George’s. It is also more racially mixed than Prince George’s, which has a higher African American population. (More below the fold....)
My guess is that about 80% of the audience were health care supporters. Wingers did come and they made themselves heard. A handful of LaRouche people had a few large posters and gave out glossy magazines. The room, a gym, had 200 seats which were all filled early plus probably 100 people were standing. We did reach the fire code limit and some people had to wait outside to get in. But there was none of the angry banging on doors to be let in and I’m guessing because most of the folks outside were supporters. (In general I think the bigger the venue the better especially if it is less friendly territory, so the wingers can’t make the dramatic gesture of banging on the doors, which the TV cameras love.)
Organizing for America (OFA)did an excellent job of getting people to attend, handed out stickers and posters and I got notices from some other organizations. Medical students from Johns Hopkins University med school came in their white coats. There was a contingent of immigrant rights supporters. So the room was dominated by supporters of health care reform.
Donna set the tone early, saying we would all respect each other’s opinions and hear each other out. Her first remarks were about some of the myths. She talked right away about the end-of-life/living will questions and her own experience, where the whole family discussed with her father what he wanted when he was very ill. I was very impressed that she – unlike so many other Dems – observed the basic messaging (Lakoff) rule about not using the terminology of the opposition. Not once did she utter the phrase "D**** P****" or any of the other winger words.
She said early and often that "we are not reducing Medicare," stressed that competition in the insurance marketplace will keep costs down, talked about help for small businesses, how we will pay for it all (I’ll avoid a lot of detail here).
Read the rest of the post by clicking here.
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