Faces of the Astroturf Town Hall Meetings

Excerpt:



The town hall meetings that took place across the nation in the month of August in the United States were attended by thousands of people in the various venues. Ironically, the vast majority of people who turned out to complain and protest that other people would get government run health care if the health care reform bill is passed with a public option are on Medicare.

The town hall meeting I attended was illuminating. The man in front of me confessed he worked for an insurance company. The woman with him worked with insurance companies at a local hospital. The man in front of them told me he just goes "wherever they send me."

The woman next to me held a sheaf of about 200 sheets of paper. She said she gets all of her information from Glenn Beck. She was one of the few people in the town hall meeting who was under 50.

(snip)

The picture above is one I took of the town hall meeting by turning around in my seat. I was on the second row. You can be sure that 95% of the people in the photo above are on Medicare, government run health insurance. But they don't want the working poor to have the same access to health care that they have. Where is the Christian charity of the American people that profess to be so pious and religious? What happened to the "What Would Jesus Do?" bracelets and stickers? They disappeared when the questions got tough and turned instead to TV entertainers like Glenn Beck. Perhaps they should be wearing WWGBD bracelets because these people have forgotten the very tenets of Christianity.

want.

Being "Christian" doesn't mean anything in this country anymore. So many claim to be Christians, but they all define it differently.
Many of them have no clue what Jesus would do or did.

why would his followers have splintered into more factions than any other religion? The messiah is supposed to unite and save humanity, not be used as a tool to divide people and start wars. :crazy:

him themselves, but just get their views from the powers that be in their sect. Many of the sects likes to use him for their own agenda.

Why would people claim that workers should pay for Medicare for people over 65 but not for themselves?

Why do people over 65 think they're entitled to taking the money from workers?

It's not just lack of Christian charity, it's outright theft.

Even then. "Communism", "Anti Christ" etc etc. I bet they also had "Unamerican" and "Socialism" there too.

Deja Vu again.The times may have changed, but the rednecks never do.

I would wager that Time is going to exterminate them of "natural causes" soon enough.

Either way, they and their ilk can't be dead soon enough.

for Republicans only in the super-secret section of the bill.

right before the Boomers. Oddly enough none of this generation ever served as president of the U.S. we went straight from the Greatest generation to the Booomers for our presidents. The Silent Generation were trained to keep their heads down, work and not complain. They got jobs, lifetime marriages and affordable houses and college. They didn't get so much sex, drugs, rock and roll as following generations.
In 1979 I worked at a market research company who was doing research for the RNC for Reagan. I was analyzing focus groups and what stood out is the people voting for Reagan were the Silent Generation people who were really freaked out about the social changes and bad economy of the 70's (though they generally had theirs moneywise) and younger Boomers and Xers (think Alex Keaton) who felt like they were never going to get theirs. It was very interesting, but I've forever after felt bad that I helped to supply information that helped get that fascist Ronnie Rayguns elected.

No offense. I was young and stupid once too.
I would have voted for the ferrengi (perot) if I was of voting age in 92 (missed it by THAT much)

People who liked daddy ray-gun really didn't understand what was going on. I had the same issue.
When I was a kid (5 in 80) I thought uncle sugar was all good, except for the bad parts.
darn welfare queens, and all that.

It was easy to be taken in back then.
The thing people forget about, was the constant fear of nuclear annihilation that was CONSTANTLY over our heads.
Even now, with global warming, the sense of imminent destruction just isn't there like it was then.

I remember vividly nightmares I had about Soviet invasions and being blown to bits in nuclear holocausts.

people who think it was great in the 80's forget that.
We live in a good time (even better when it was Clinton's game)
We are living in relative world peace - Iraq and Afghanistan aside.
Even in Ireland it's fairly peaceful.
No IRA bombings in ages.

We just did not have that in the 80's and before.

That said.. omfg! What idiot turns down free* healthcare!!!

"You" do Realize they are L A U G H I N G at us in the US for this right?

I don't care if the solution is uniquely american... i'm HAPPY with a CANADIAN solution!

One of them thanked the teabggers in his sermon!

The christian right is the main reason we have problems in this country. No other first world country has an immoral healthcare system like ours and no other country has the christian right either.

They're the root of all evil!

JESUS CHRIST
(Woody Guthrie)

Jesus Christ was a man who traveled through the land
Hard working man and brave
He said to the rich, "Give your goods to the poor."
So they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.
Jesus was a man, a carpenter by hand
His followers true and brave
One dirty little coward called Judas Iscariot
Has laid Jesus Christ in his grave


He went to the sick, he went to the poor,
And he went to the hungry and the lame;
Said that the poor would one day win this world,
And so they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.
He went to the preacher, he went to the sheriff,
Told them all the same;
Sell all of your jewelry and give it to the Poor,
But they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.


When Jesus came to town, the working folks around,
Believed what he did say;
The bankers and the preachers they nailed him on a cross,
And they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.
Poor working people, they follered him around,
Sung and shouted gay;
Cops and the soldiers, they nailed him in the air,
And they nailed Jesus Christ in his grave.


Well the people held their breath when they heard about his death,
And everybody wondered why;
It was the landlord and the soldiers that he hired.
That nailed Jesus Christ in the sky.
When the love of the poor shall one day turn to hate.
When the patience of the workers gives away
"Would be better for you rich if you never had been born"
So they laid Jesus Christ in his grave.


This song was written in New York City
Of rich men, preachers and slaves
Yes, if Jesus was to preach like he preached in Galillee,
They would lay Jesus Christ in his grave.