Diane Black's town hall meeting last night........

[socialist_n_TN]

A group of us went out to Diane Black's town hall meeting last night. For those not in TN, she's a Republican representative in one of Nashville's suburban counties and she sits on the House Budget Committee with Paul Ryan.

It seemed to be a pretty well attended event. I would guess maybe 200 people or so. Of that 200, maybe 50 to 75 were Dem/Progressive. We were pretty loud though. I'm proud to say that I got told to shut up by the people sitting in front of us 5 or 6 times. And all I was doing was holding her feet to the fire on her answers. She would answer with a half truth or start to spout propaganda designed to obfuscate the issue and we had to TRY and keep her on the subject. Apparently, we weren't supposed to do that. For myself the personal high point was when she started talking about the wealthy "job creators". She didn't seem to have a good answer when I brought up the fact that DEMAND creates jobs, NOT the rich.

She kept repeating the "Medicare is broke and we're just trying to fix it" propaganda line. I don't recall her admitting that the Ryan plan (which she voted for) actually DESTROYED Medicare by privatising it. She talked about how the Republicans had put the budget proposal out there and were willing to talk about it. She didn't answer my question (shouted from the floor) about how you could have a productive meeting on the budget when revenue enhancement was taken off the table.

Finally after the meeting, when a group of us were outside a Teabagger couple came up to a group and started to become belligerent with us. The wife was trying to get him out of our faces and he kept shoving her out of the way. The cops were called and a report filed. But no blows were exchanged and no one was arrested. :)

I didn't expect to change her mind, but as I've always said, you don't argue to change the minds of the RW, you argue for the ones who AREN'T yet convinced. To give them an alternative. I think we did that.

Nothing yet in the local newspaper about the meeting, but it was fairly late. We'll see if they have anything about it tomorrow. If not, it's been ignored.

[monmouth]

1. I try and find a new "hero" every day. You're it for Tuesday. Thanks

for your great story..

[socialist_n_TN]

7. THANK YOU for the kind words............

Although as I said, I was just part of a group. And I want to give them some props too. Our Middle Tennessee MoveOn council is pretty darn impressive. We've organized 3 or so actions and participated in about 3 more and we're still going strong. Since they (MoveOn) are non partisan and ISSUE based, I would suggest EVERYBODY get involved in their areas. It's bottom up democracy. And no, you don't have to be a socialist to get involved. :)

There was one thing to me that was funny though. We had a post town hall meeting with some Dem activists that were there and someone from that group mentioned how left we (the MoveOn group) are. I thought it was funny because it appears to be a pretty moderate group to me. I'm DEFINITELY the MOST left member, but I usually am in whatever group I'm in. The rest of the bunch is moderate left to left/liberal. It just goes to show what we face in Tennessee.

[Eddie Haskell]

2. Wish I was there.

I need a tea punching bag.

[socialist_n_TN]

8. Find a MoveOn council in your area to get involved with Ed

They're issue based, hence nonpartisan. It's bottom up democracy.

BTW, welcome to DU.

[xchrom]

3. Recommend

[socialist_n_TN]

9. Thanks for the rec.........

:)

[asjr]

4. Thank you for standing up for fellow

Tennesseans. Now--PLEASE go after Marcia Blackburn! That smug, self-adoring little B makes me so mad I am afraid to confront her for fear I would be jailed.

[socialist_n_TN]

6. Oh trust me, I agree about Ms Blackburn........

She's a Capitalist Toady Supreme. However, I guess she doesn't have town hall meetings and since I'm not in her district, I couldn't get a meeting to save my life.

Jim Cooper is my rep and I'm trying to get a sit down with him for myself and the MoveOn group I'm representing. I've got the preliminaries out of the way, so it's just a question of will they/won't they. I hope they will. For a Blue Dog, Jim's actually pretty good. Votes with us about 75/80% of the time, but that 20/25% are puzzlers. To talk about that is what I want the meeting for.

[rurallib]

5. had a thought: Maybe if these folks had to swear on a bible

to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth before a town hall, it would be more - uh -fun.
We would either hear some interesting stuff or find out they really don't believe in god.

[socialist_n_TN]

10. Interesting idea rurallib...........

I like it. Most of these people claim to be such "Christians". It makes me wonder how they would get around it. They'd probably just lie and ask Jesus to forgive them.