We got well over 100 Dems out to oppose those harassing our Congresswoman;Repubs got very few indeed

My original post
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=8584064&mesg_id=8584064

Our Congresswoman Lois Capps was ambushed at a private meeting for Arthritis medical professionals, and that may have had something to do with her decision not to have any town hall meetings this month. Therefore the opposition decided to raise a stink on the sidewalk outside her local office. That was how this started.

Our strategy was to arrive an hour early and outnumber them, and we did, by at least 20 to one. We deployed to all 4 corners of the intersection with our signs and kind of ragged chants and so forth. Among the crowd (which I thought was at least 150) I met a number of my friends, always a nice thing, but also some new young faces like the woman from Organizing for America.

The disruptors were noisy, I'll give them that, since they came with some kind sound system on a big red pickup truck. They dispersed into our crowd with signs like "The Constitution is non-negotiable" and "You want free health care? Just wait till you have to pay for it" and "Capps is a Yellow Fraud" and other equally rude things about corruption and payoffs. The signs on the truck were all about Ron Paul, and the young men using the sound system all seemed to have no idea that they or anyone they cared about could ever be seriously sick.

There were just surprisingly few of them. Our local tv station said there were none at all, which had to be a bummer for those that did show up. :-)

Oh, and the cops were there, as planned. Not very many of them either, but quite visible so as to let it be known they were there.

Altogether it was a very good day. Some shouting, no shoving or fighting.

My throat and eyes are a bit sore, as we had ash raining on us the whole time. The La Brea fire over the hills and up the coast has grown to 50,000 acres (according to the news) and the wind was in our direction. It's well away from Santa Barbara/Goleta -- it's the canyons and national forest around Santa Maria that's in danger.

That's all the news from the Central Coast. :toast:

Hekate

I am glad to see so many Democrats, elected and constituents both, starting to stand up to these hooligans. Maybe the tide and public opinion are turning against them.

My congressman is a fool. He is a very conservative republican. He is against anything Obama and the Democrats want. About sixty percent of the people in this district think he is wonderful and right about everything, despite his poor voting record. His town hall meetings are full of right-wingnuts. We send people to let him know that everyone in his district does not agree with him. That is all we can do for now.

:pals:

for once did not focus on the fringe.

BTW, it's getting more and more absurd how these people claim to be Constitutional experts. Their "expertise" on the Constitution seems to be as sketchy as their "expertise" on the bible. They cherry-pick a few things here and there but ignore the rest.

was only going to be holding town hall teleconferences.

He's decided to hold five actual town hall meetings.

What we did was okay as far as it went, but I wish we could have had an actual town hall meeting here. We have got to turn the tide on these anti-democratic forces.

Hekate