Could be. That at least seems to be the thinking at the drown-them-out halls, such as Sen. Blanche Lincoln had in Russellville yesterday.
Shouts. Jeers. “Marxists.” “Communists.” Etc.
Tonight for Lincoln, Pine Bluff. Then Jonesboro. Just hope no one gets a finger bitten off or a punch in the face. Maybe some more people will press her on the parsing she’s doing on “public option.” Is she flatly opposed? Or only opposed to government-financed public option?
Speaking of town halls, E.J. Dionne has thoughts on media coverage of them.
Health-care reform is said to be in trouble partly because of those raucous August town-hall meetings in which Democratic members of Congress were besieged by shouters opposed to change.
But what if our media-created impression of the meetings is wrong? What if the highly publicized screamers represented only a fraction of public opinion? What if most of the town halls were populated by citizens who respectfully but firmly expressed a mixture of support, concern and doubt?
There is an overwhelming case that the electronic media went out of their way to cover the noise and ignored the calmer (and from television’s point of view “boring”) encounters between elected representatives and their constituents.
It’s also clear that the anger that got so much attention largely reflects a fringe right-wing view opposed to all sorts of government programs most Americans support. Much as the far left of the antiwar movement commanded wide coverage during the Vietnam years, so now are extremists on the right hogging the media stage — with the media’s complicity.