I drove to Blackstone, VA tonight to participate in the Town Hall meeting being held by Congressman Dave Brat. And it went downhill from there.
Since Brat’s 7th district was redistricted, Blackstone was “new” to the 7th, so Brat had scheduled a meeting with his new constituents. I arrived just after the meeting began at 7:00 PM, and as I neared the venue, I could immediately see a mass of humanity clustered on Main St. There were so many folks present that the meeting room had to be closed to new arrivals due to room capacity constraints, and I was not able to enter the venue (The attendee ratio was probably at least 5:1 anti-Brat, so if you value his representation, you should consider putting in the effort to show it). Luckily, there was a speaker placed outside the room so we could all hear what was happening inside, and a large crowd of anti-Brat protesters clogged the street immediately outside where Brat was speaking (we could see him through the glass front windows).
What I witnessed tonight regarding protester behavior was absolutely appalling. Immediately I could see the “cue cards” being used to manage the crowd/herd (so they could all respond in unison upon command), and respond they did. Brat would be asked a question, and then in many instances the crowd would chant over his response, making dialogue nearly impossible. There was little back-and-forth respectful sharing of one’s position…mostly what I saw and heard was a group of disrespectful people acting like adolescents who didn’t get his/her way, and then acted out.
If you’re going to travel to a Town Hall meeting, have questions asked, and then simply shout over the responses given…why even go? The answer of course, was easy to see from around the crowd itself. There were many, many media people there, happily capturing all the manufactured outrage against Brat. Its seems that was the entire point…to create a media spectacle. I 100% support the constituents rights to question their representative, but at least give the person a chance to respond. The recycled Occupy Wall Street bleating of “This is what democracy looks like” showed this evening NOT what democracy looks like, but a mob intent on shutting down real dialogue in favor of hooting and hollering to get its point across.
Shame on you Virginia…you can be better than this.
Great description. I was there for the whole little display of rude and obnoxious people. They behaved like five years olds who figured if we shout loud enough we will get our way. Everything they talked about, everything they shouted was support for huge government to take care of all their wants and needs. It was humorous their shouting this is what democracy looks like….don’t know what country they were referencing since the United States is not a democracy it is a Constitutional Republic. By this statement alone their movement is invalidated.
This is OFA at it’s “best”. Contrived and planned. And the media is all over it. Fake news.
Actually what you are saying is not true- no cue cards, no managed crowd. My wife and I showed up there along with all those other so called “Unruly, disrespectful Leftist protest mob.” We learned all we know from the Tea Party- thank you for training us. We are only organized by the horrific fight going on for our country. We will continue to fight for what we believe. Please get used to it, as we aren’t stopping. (See- I used please!)
Your assumptions are simply wrong.
Yes, constituents who disagree with Brat came to the Town Hall! No, we were not paid, some of us drove nearly 2hrs each way to ask him questions, since the letters we get back from his office showed that he was neither listening, nor respectful to us!
The response cards were not cue cards, they were a way to show Brat how each of us felt about what he was saying. Your assumptions that a few were telling the others how to respond is just laughable. Hasn’t it occurred to you that we all simply agreed? We all hated his flippant, vague responses? Well, we simply didn’t like his answers.
We were organized, yes. We discussed in advance what concerned us most, what questions we should ask, and it was with the hope that Brat would take us seriously and actually try to represent ALL of his constituents in the future. Organized doesn’t mean paid. We had as much right to be there as you did. Suck it up buttercup. We won’t be going away.
As the replies here indicate, this was indeed an organized agit-prop operation. As to who ultimately organized it and whether money was involved, we’ll see. I won’t be shocked. This has all the hallmarks of an astroturf rent-a-mob, which we know is standard Alinsky operating procedure.
“Unruly, disrespectful Leftist protest”is spot on! I decided to see what was going in town after work. Rounded the corner to Main Street and could here the crowd outside chanting bullsh**t, bullsh**t, bullsh**t from a block away.