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Edited on Tue Aug-16-11 08:39 AM by spooked911
Last night, I went to a town hall meeting held by my extremely conservative congresscritter, Todd Rokita (R-IN). Rokita was elected to congress for the first time in 2010, took over the seat from Steve Buyer, who retired after a small scandal. Rokita could be called a tea-partier in mentality but is very articulate and has some brains. He was Indiana secretary of state before running for Congress, and did some controversial things there, such as pushing for the onerous state ID law for voting.
There were probably about 500 people there. This is a conservative, middle-class, semi-rural congressional district. I think the audience was 100% white, mostly middle-aged, probably 60% male.
I think the experience was a sobering look at what we are up against.
He gave about a 15 minute talk before taking questions for about an hour and a half. His powerpoint talk focused on the federal debt almost completely, and he put up a scare slide showing a huge red increase in federal debt -- the "Great Tidal Wave of Debt". He noted how Medicare was paying out far more per person than what was being put in. As a solution, he pushed massive federal cuts and a balanced budget agreement. The audience mostly lapped it up. Rokita's whole philosophy seems to be that the government needs to get out of the way of business, and that it is red-tape and regulations that are holding business back. That was his whole solution to the economy-- cutting govt regulations and govt spending.
While this is all very wrong and upsetting, Rokita was very slick, calm and "reasonable" and it was hard to get mad at him. The whole meeting was very non-partisan. I don't think anyone said Democrats once. As one-sided as it was, there were few if any blatant lies. Very little wingnut-ese-- the closest was some references to "Obamacare".
I didn't say much or ask a question because I was taking it all in and trying to get a feel for the crowd and what their concerns were.
Probably the most maddening thing was when Rokita took a hand vote of how many people wanted to let the Bush tax cuts expire. Probably 3/4 voted no, and then Rokita asked how many wanted the cuts expire just for the rich. Fewer hands overall, but probably 2/3 still wanted to keep the cuts for the rich!
He said before the debt ceiling vote, his calls were like 4-1 for voting "no", and he did vote no.
Half of the questions were from people who really supported him, and some people wanted to know how they could get the word out to the American public about this-- and for politicians to cut the crap and talking to Americans like they are dumb.
The ONLY real contentious questions were from people asking about American manufacturing and the loss of jobs to free trade. Rokita was an unapologetic free-trader, and this is a potential weakness. But no one seemed extremely upset about this, and most of the focus was on govt spending.
What was interesting was things that were NOT mentioned, not even once:
1) banking and the financial scandals
2) wealth disparity
3) religion/gays/abortion
4) Iraq
5) terrorism
6) sex scandals/corruption
7) money in politics
8) Fox News
9) 2012 Republican candidates
Some interesting stuff from Rokita (towards the end he let it hang out more and was less circumspect/ less diplomatic)--
He's worried that the "soul of the country is being sucked into a huge government program"
He talked a lot about how "Obamacare" cuts Medicare.
Worried about govt bureaucrats controlling people's lives (the light-bulb example came up).
Was very obnoxious telling the unions he was disappointed that they didn't push for more road building programs in the 2009 stimulus (!?!).
He said he co-wrote the Ryan Medicare plan, and at the end, was openly pushing for cuts to Social Security and Medicare as a way to solve the debt problem, but it got glossed over.
Said MORE people in the US need to pay federal income tax-- only 50% pay now. Used the stat that 40% of Americans pay 90% of taxes (something to that effect).
Said (about solving US debt problem) his side was pushing broccoli and the other side is pushing twinkies.
He did say we are in three theaters of war we don't need to be in (didn't say which ones), and no one argued. I would bet he means Libya, Afghanistan and Iraq but don't know for sure.
Things that got big applause--
1) a comment form the audience about term-limits in Congress
2) a comment from the audience complaining about "Obama-care"
3) a comment from Rokita about closing the border
4) a comment from Rokita about doing more oil drilling in the US
5) a comment from the audience about reforming the tax code
Overall, it was very sobering and just makes me feel hopeless we can ever have a fair discussion of these issues with the right. They are in their own world, and are happy there. And they are on a mission to cut the govt, and are slick about selling it.
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