I have received notes from some readers who have tried attending their local town hall meetings, only to find it an exercise in frustration. I want to encourage them that they have not wasted their time—but first a couple of descriptions of their experiences, so that anyone who has not yet gone to a town hall can get an idea of what he might be in for.
From Florida, Rick Marchetta reports:
"I tried to attend my district's town hall meeting to hear and perhaps question my congressman, Robert Wexler, on August 20. I was curious whether he was going to be available for such an event and had been frequenting his web site for press releases or other announcements. Nothing. Then I received a notification from South Florida Tea Party of the scheduled town hall.
"I decided to arrive 1-1/2 hours early believing this would allow me an opportunity to register and take a seat. Earlier, this spring, I attended a Wexler town hall on real estate reform and banking reform at the same civic center and had no problem with parking or seating. Boy, did I get a surprise. The town hall was set to begin at 1 PM. On the way to the civic center I heard on the radio that all tickets were sold out! Tickets! I had no idea they were selling tickets! It turned out that the Alliance for Retired Americans had 'sponsored' this town hall and had made it a ticket only event, passing out tickets to their members, thus assuring that this particular town hall was packed with community activist retirees fully committed to universal health care (as is Wexler). No chance to have my voice heard by my congressman….
"The newspapers estimate that approximately 500 anti-Obamacare protesters were outside and at least that many supporters. Inside there were 500 almost entirely committed to universal health care.
"The reason I bring this to your attention is to make the point that the battle is far from won. Obama's roots are firmly entrenched in community activism…. They have collectivism instincts and herd together when threatened, and they are taking the offensive….
"I don't have confidence that collectivism is truly on the defensive. Not by what I witnessed."
He provides a link to a news report on the event, which begins with this amusing line:
The key to a orderly town hall meeting, it seems, is a closed door. The Florida Alliance for Retired Americans turned its annual healthcare forum into a ticketed event mostly for its members, ensuring a friendly audience for US Reps. Alcee Hastings of Miramar and Robert Wexler of Boca Raton….
But outside the closed doors of the South County Civic Center was the hollering, finger-pointing and sign-waving that has defined public meetings on health care this month as Congress contemplates sweeping reforms.
"No Obamacare! Free market. Free America," shouted Everett Wilkinson, chairman of the South Florida Tea Party, over a bullhorn.
From Southern Virginia, Catherine Hughes reports on a town hall with Tom Perriello, the congressman for my neighboring district. I've dismissed Perriello's "Tom in Your Town" appearances, because they seemed to be oriented toward one-on-one meetings with constituents, but I have to give him more credit. It looks like he has been facing his constituents in public.
"Perriello came into the room about 5 minutes late, and as he passed by I reached out and handed him a small 'don't tread on me' flag on a stick. He was expecting to shake my hand but instead I gave him the flag and said 'here, take this.' He accepted the flag and laid it down when he took off his jacket.
"He took questions in threes and then responded. He commented that this was his 13th Town Hall in 18 days…. He was pleasant and seemed to have a practiced answer for every objection. Some positions he took: He and a group of freshmen had been part of a group asking to postpone passage of the health care bill until September. He was firmly against abortions being paid for in the bill. The health bill would be deficit neutral. He was from a family of doctors and understands better than most what they faced and for this reason would be on their side. He has read the house bill three times.
"Most of the questions and comments were from those against the bill and the local head of the Republican party had the bill there in print…. Several offered support for the bill…. It was most interesting to see the anger from one questioner who told him he had stood in the rain for 16 hours on election day helping him to get elected, and Obama and Congress had all the power, so why wasn't the single payer option the only option for the plan? This man was very unhappy.
"The most eloquent speaker was Dr. Bailey from Bracey, VA, a well respected family practitioner…. In his soft spoken manner, he beautifully explained that doctors have to artificially inflate their prices because Medicare has set the standard about what percentage he will be paid and the insurance companies have followed their suit. Government regulations have already hurt the medical field. He has to plead with insurance companies to get them to sign off on a simple drug like one that will decrease stomach acid. He has to order a battery of expensive tests to CYA when a patient comes in complaining of vertigo to avoid civil liability. He said most doctors were very unhappy and America was facing an influx of doctors from foreign countries because not many Americans wanted to practice and face all the hurdles and liabilities that he does. He called for Tort Reform. He was an extremely popular speaker.
"He was followed by a pharmacist from Chase City who recently spent $4,000 and eight months to get recertified so he could dispense a diabetes test strip. If he had not done this, he was threatened with having his Medicaid "license" pulled and given to another pharmacy. He stated he has to keep 20 to 30 pages of documents for each drug he dispensed and was deluged with record keeping. His point was that there was already plenty of senseless government regulation and interference.
"Finally, a gentleman closed with some good points and simple questions to Perriello such as how it would all be paid for….
"He felt our wrath, we made a statement with our signs, and will be ready for another day.
"When we got home, I felt defeated. Anything said went on deaf ears. These town halls are merely an exercise for Perriello so he can say he actually went out and listened to his constituents. My husband reminded me that it was 10 to 1 against health care reform and that Perriello tried his best to ignore that. But I get the feeling that some kind of reform will indeed pass and then they will get single payer in the end anyway."
This is going to be typical of a lot of people's experience: that they seem to be talking to a brick wall. Their congressman is already committed to the agenda of the left and will either evade his constituents or, if he is a slicker, more confident type, let their comments roll off his back.
And yet, even at these events, your impact may be greater than you realize. Part of the reason Perriello puts on a brave face is that he won last year's election, unseating a Republican incumbent, by less than 700 votes. So when the leftist stands up and complains that he campaigned for Perreillo and is angry that the Democrats aren't pushing us straight into socialized medicine, Perriello is thinking: I need that man. I need enthusiastic leftists who will stand out in the rain and knock on doors to drum up votes for me. So he does not dare to renounce the leftist cause. And yet, he also knows that the people in that room were 10-to-1 against this bill, and that they may be motivated to campaign against him and vote against him next year.
Do not underestimate what this kind of dilemma does to a politician. Right now, I am sure he is looking for a way to avoid having the bill come up for a final vote, so he won't have to anger his anti-socialist constituents by voting for it—but in a way that will not make it look like his fault, so he won't have to disillusion his leftist supporters by voting against it.
The same goes, by the way, for that congressman down in Florida who only goes to fake town hall meetings packed with supporters. Believe me, he knows that his town hall is fake and that it does not reflect the views of his broader constituency. These guys are practiced at putting on a brave face and looking unruffled in public. But on the inside, they're making calculations, and those calculations are moving against Obama's health-care plan.
And also remember that your target is not just your own congressman. Politics moves in odd ways, and be assured that other congressmen are watching your town hall meetings as a measure of the overall mood of the American people. So while your congressman might be a committed leftist whose vote can't be swayed, you might sway the vote of another congressman who is on the fence.
We've already done this with Chuck Grassley, the Iowa senator and notoriously liberal Republican who was expected to lead the Republican cave-in to a "bipartisan" compromise on this bill. But Grassley has tipped against the bill.
Mr. Grassley's criticisms echoed those of other Republicans who have turned more decisively against Democratic-led legislation in recent days. Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.) said Sunday that President Barack Obama should focus on boosting the economy and drop health care until "next year or in subsequent times." The Senate's No. 2 Republican, Jon Kyl of Arizona, said last week, "There is no way that Republicans are going to support a trillion-dollar-plus bill."
Mr. Grassley…is typical of Republicans whose rejection of a public option has hardened over the August recess….
Questions and comments from the crowd of mostly older retirees were generally sympathetic to Mr. Grassley's positions. "The mood of the country is sour," said Charles Anderson, 74, who retired from the retail grocery business. "People are as distrustful of government as I've ever seen."…
Mr. Jensen, the mayor, said Mr. Obama received about 60% of the votes here in the 2008 presidential election. But Mr. Jensen estimated that 90% of this town of about 4,500 people were leaning against significant health-care reform because of the potential cost.
"People have worked hard here all their lives," Mr. Jensen said. "They see this as having to pay to take care of someone else."
In a good article on Republican resistance to Obama, Fred Barnes points to the relative firmness of the Republican opposition in Congress—something that should not be taken for granted—and points out how it yields dividends in its effect on the large bloc of conservative Democrats.
What the GOP has done best has been to make and win arguments. This is the key to successful opposition. Seeking compromise, being conciliatory, pretending bipartisanship exists when it doesn't all play into the hands of the majority. These tactics are a ticket to permanent minority status. By making the case against Mr. Obama's policies, Republicans have given themselves a chance to again win favor with voters….
Their first big step was to oppose the economic "stimulus" package. Many in the media insisted Republicans had a death wish when they unanimously rejected it in the House and by a near-unanimous vote in the Senate. The press was wrong. This was the smartest move Republicans have made all year, one with several positive repercussions….
There's an even more important consequence of Republican opposition. It's preventing dozens of moderate House Democrats in Republican-leaning districts from going for ObamaCare. They won't vote for it without Republican cover. Republicans are 40 votes short of a House majority, yet they're thwarting Mr. Obama's chief domestic priority. That's effective opposition.
This is a timeless example of the power of a committed minority. If a bunch of Republican politicians—people not noted for standing resolutely on principle—can have that effect, think how much a principled minority of the American people can accomplish.
The momentum is already beginning to shift. A new announcement has done even more damage to Obama's agenda. It turns out that the already astonishing deficits projected for the next ten years were underestimated. They actually add up to $9 trillion, and you can bet that this is still a low estimate. As this report notes, that announcement "provid[es] further fiscal fodder to opponents of Obama's nearly $1 trillion healthcare overhaul plan."
Electorally, the public turn against Obama's agenda will have wide effects. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is already polling well behind his likely Republican challengers and may lose his Senate seat next year.
And the long-term effects could be even wider. An op-ed in the Washington Post notes that "The arguments that have been made against the public option (a health insurance plan sold and administered by the federal government) apply with equal or greater force to Medicare." Thus, "If you are against the public option, you should be deeply, fundamentally, bitterly against Medicare." Absolutely true. But he then uses this as an argument in favor of Obama's plan, because he assumes that everyone supports Medicare.
I'm not so sure that this is true. In fact, the upsurge against government controlled medicine could be harnessed into a political campaign to roll back the wide government involvement we already have. In his note to me, Rick Marchetta stressed the important of having our own, positive agenda for the free-market reform of health care. I agree and will have much more to say on this soon.
But keep something in mind when you go to your town hall meeting or to future tea party rallies on this issue. The prize is not just influencing your congressman's vote on this one bill. It is influencing the overall political direction of the country and turning the political momentum in favor of free markets.
This is an achievable goal—maybe not in your district, but definitely on a national scale. And in this battle, any show of resistance to statism makes a difference.
