Hell froze over today. I actually felt sorry for Blue Dog Jim Marshall

[RubyDuby in GA]

Went to his town hall meeting in my county today.

Batshit crazy doesn't even begin to cover this crowd. Crazier than a shithouse rat is getting close, but even that doesn't quite get it. I typically don't agree with him on much. I don't even consider him to be that much of a Democrat (we all know republicans more liberal than him), but the nearly all white, old crowd (5 African Americans out of maybe the 100 that were there) didn't care. It was an opportunity for a mob to get together to bitch and moan about how evil the government is. How evil Nancy Pelosi is (I guess she's their bogey man now that Teddy is dead). How the Democrats are ruining America.

I heard all the usual buzz words: "death panel", "tort reform", "welfare queens", etc... They cheered when Glenn Beck's name was mentioned. I was told I was a bad person because I told the crazy libertarian who tried to steal the show that if he hated a strong federal government so much that he should move to Somalia.

It really pissed me off that I actually didn't ask any of the questions that I was going to before we got there. I was going to go after him for not supporting a public option, for being in the pocket of Big Ag or Big Pharma or any of the millions of other things he normally pisses me off about, but I just couldn't. I actually didn't want to pile on to him. I was actually shutting the people up around me that were trying to go after him for being a Democrat. I felt like I had to protect one of my own.

We have a big tent and today I felt like he earned his place in it.

p.s. My husband and I and the 6 other healthcare reform supporters who were in there actually were a bit worried about getting out of there. I've never been so happy to see our new Democratic African-American sheriff walk into a room in all my life!

[firedupdem]

1. Glad you were there. I probably would have felt the same way..

sad that these angry mobs are running loose like this. Horrible.

[Pirate Smile]

2. Someone (I think maybe it is Tweety) has said repeatedly that a lot of Democratic Congresspeople

from Cities and/or more liberal areas really don't understand how it is for the Democrats in the more red and rural areas of the country. Your post reminded me of that statement.

I know people sometimes want to shrink our tent - more "pure" Democrats - but we do need a broad coalition and we are certainly much more likely to get even Conservative Democrats to vote with us then we are ever going to get Republicans to vote with us. We know in the House that we can lose a lot of Dems and still pass legislation with 218 votes.

[Cha]

3. Wow, Ruby! I guess you aren't near

the floods that are being addressed by the Admin?

I'm sorry for your awful experience..I'd be shaking with anger..I know how I am when one fearmonger lets loose.

[RubyDuby in GA]

4. We've had really bad flooding in some parts of our county.

And it's about to start raining again.

I'm a flaming liberal and literally sat there shaking my head at the sheer stupidity of those people.

[leddytech]

5. Huh? What?

You said:

"I was told I was a bad person because I told the crazy libertarian who tried to steal the show that if he hated a strong federal government so much that he should move to Somalia."


-----

Maybe you were told you were a bad person because its a dumb thing to say, and makes zero sense?

No government = anarchist

Small government = libertarian

[BlooInBloo]

6. Did he make the bed he had to lie in? Otr has he been trying to improve the bed?

If the former, then I wouldn't feel sorry for him. If the latter, I would.