Welcome Home To Vitriol, Chaos At Local Meetings

Returning home for the late-summer break, members of Congress should expect greetings that range from icy to outright hostile.

Angered by House of Representatives votes on “cap-and-trade” energy legislation, afraid of costly changes to the health care system, or still rooted in bent beliefs that the president wasn’t born in this country, citizens have been shouting down returning members of the House who are holding town hall meetings. One of the most famous, so far, is Rep. Tim Bishop, D-N.Y., who was surrounded by protesters and had police officers escort him to his car for safety following a town hall meeting. Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius got the same treatment Sunday in Philadelphia at a town hall meeting on health care.

More Republicans likely will have to face the birthers, the howling conservatives who insist the president is a native of Kenya and therefore ineligible to be president.

Obama, who turned 48 Wednesday, will never convince the lunatic fringe that his birth occurred in Hawaii, despite verified documentation. Yet some Republican members of Congress seem content to walk a line with these kooks, saying: What a great country we live in that allows you the right to ask these questions. Instead of saying: When are you going to drop the nonsense and accept the documented truth?

Real answer: The former placates the base; the latter loses elections.

This summer’s real difference is that the Democratic leadership has told its members to sell the health care message by way of town hall meetings. And leaked Republican memos reveal strategies designed to disrupt those meetings and “rattle” the congressmen leading them.

What happened to meetings designed to educate people, answer questions and listen to their views? Well, those went the way of the political dinosaur. It’s obvious that these meetings are seen as staged events. Conservatives see them as forced platforms to preach a health care message they don’t want. Sowing chaos is the wrong way to oppose any issue.

Citizens in the 9th Congressional District need information and a chance to ask questions. Rep. Rick Boucher has scheduled two town hall meetings this month – one in Dublin on Aug. 18 and one in Abingdon on Aug. 20 – to discuss health care reform. How likely are boos and jeers? We’d say 100 percent. This is America and citizens are allowed to express their opinions. But we hold out hope that rabble rousers won’t take the day. Free speech comes with responsibilities, too, such as listening to others instead of shouting down a message you dislike.

The health care reform message is shifting to focus most on insurance costs, bureaucracy, portability and guaranteed insurability. We should all keep listening – because increasing health care costs threaten to destroy our personal wealth.

Boucher also has taken heat – and certainly will take more this summer – for support of the American Clean Energy and Security Act. It’s a plan that narrowly passed the House and faces an uphill battle in the Senate. As we said in May, the plan is far from perfect, but we do believe it is a smart step toward reducing carbon emissions without destroying American industry and jobs.

Citizens have many big issues to consider this summer. So we encourage them to attend these forums and be part of the respectful discussion.