For members of the 111th U.S. Congress, August has unquestionably been the summer from hell.
Like college students weary of a long hot summer of boredom and nagging parents, while aching to reunite with their school chums and crack the books again, so Congress must be counting the days when they return to the nation’s capital to escape the fury of belligerent constituents in a tizzy over health care reform.
Sen. Arlen Specter, for one, has been greeted with a battalion of boos, jeers and rowdy restlessness from voters, worried that health care reform, if passed, will lead the country on a fast track to financial ruin; meaning higher taxes falling on the backs of the middle-class, and more government intrusion.
The burning question is whether these town hall meetings involve real fears from real voters, rather than, as some on the Left have charged—staged pep rallies orchestrated by fringe elements of the voting public determined to relegate President Obama’s health care program to a premature death before Congress reconvenes in September.
No one seems to know the answer for sure. What is certain is without a specific bill to present to voters, Congress, but more specifically the president, is vulnerable to attacks their game plan is missing a playbook.
Carrying nothing more to these meetings than general wide-ranging sketches of health care reform, its message getting all the more confused while wasting precious time shooting down outrageous claims, like the myths of ``death panels’’-- the administration’s credibility with the American public, to a large degree, has been diminished. A recent Rasmussen Reports, for example, shows that 54 percent of voters think no health care reform is the better option than what Congress has rolled up its sleeve.
If Congress fails to pass a health care bill, or legislation is enacted with damaging compromises, that is, without a ``public option’’, these summer town hall meetings might be looked upon as the series of climatic events that turned the tide against Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress just when they thought it was smooth sailing
But town hall meetings are historically dicey exchanges that can lead to chaos, partisan bickering, while raising more questions than they really answer.
No one knows better about the choppy waters of holding town hall meetings than some former New York City mayors
In November, 1980, Ed Koch’s town hall meeting in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a predominantly black section of Brooklyn, ended with the New York mayor being swallowed up in an inferno of hecklers, charging him and his administration with racism and failing to provide black neighborhoods with adequate police protection. Koch was so incensed by the hostile attacks that he demanded another town hall exchange, only with the stipulation that those in attendance come by invitation only.
David Dinkins, too, met with some fierce attacks from voters in April, 1991, at a rowdy town hall meeting in Williamsburg, when the Hispanic community voiced anger over the mayor and Police Commissioner, Lee P. Brown, transferring Police Officer Hector Ariza after he was accused of assaulting a motorist. The Hispanic community protested Ariza was transferred to a desk job based on his political opinions in which he previously maintained Hasidim, a large and powerful voting bloc, were treated better by police officers in the 90th precinct than Hispanics.
One member at the meeting yelled out no one was leaving until they got Ariza back. The confrontational meeting ended with a team of supporters walking out chanting: "Ariza, Ariza’’!
In April, 1994, The New York Times reported on Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s appearance at a town hall meeting on the Lower East Side (Junior High School 56, 220 Henry Street), where he got an earful from an AIDS awareness organization ``Act Up’’, who were fuming that the city was considering cutting or eliminating the Department of AIDS Services, while holding signs that read `` AIDS cuts equals death. Rudy, this means war."
The mayor, facing a $2.3 billion budget deficit for the fiscal year, tried to defend himself through the dense commotion by shouting back: "You’re yelling and screaming isn't going to shed any light on this issue. It doesn't help your cause. It hurts."
As a result of the firestorm, the Giuliani administration announced the following month they were going to look for ways to continue AIDS Services.
The lesson that Congress could learn from previous New York mayors is that holding town hall meetings in hopes of putting out a fire—might very well lead to a raging wildfire.
When Congress does return to Washington, at least we won’t have to ask them what they did on their summer vacation.
-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com
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