Stop holding town halls and take the stage away from barfer/teabag movement.

[Union Yes]

Why enable the White Nationalist movement by continuing to hold these useless meetings?

I've attended a few th's in my lifetime and never saw the need for them. Nothing good ever came out of one of these meeting that I could ever see. No one's mind was ever changed as a result of a th meeting.

Why provide the stage, the megaphone, and the national media spotlight. Thats exactly what these Reich Wing nuts want. Media exposure and Dems are giving them a free stage.

Imagine what the barfer/TB movement would do without this stage? W/O these th meetings?

What would they do? Protest at their small meaningless teabag/barf rallies.

Relegated to being powerless bands of White Nationalists viewed as fringe lunatics.

Why do our Dem pols enable their cause? Why provide the stage, the megaphone, and the national media attention?

[regnaD kciN]

1. Unfortunately, if you stop now...

...the message will be "the teabaggers have won." And the conventional wisdom will develop that what really happened was, not a bunch of lynch-mobs organized by the Republicans and Big Pharma interfering with freedom of speech, but lots and lots of outraged "ordinary Americans" expressing their opposition to socialized health-care. Stopping the town halls now would pretty much guarantee the defeat of any reform. :-(

[Richardo]

2. that's exactly what they want.

As it is, they'll backfire more than persuade.

[janedum]

3. Right Wing Radio = Right Wing Movement

The Dems are STUPID.
They never passed a "Truth in Media" bill last year so, what America has is radical right-wing propaganda blasting on the radio 24/7. Some of the stuff I hear at nite on talk radio is frightening .. I mean NAZI GERMANY stuff. This is not "free speech". It's simply PURE, UNADULTERATED HATE.
The Town Hall disruptions are a result of Beck, Savage, Limbaugh, etc ....
As long as the DEMS keep being stupid and don't make the airwaves FAIR AND BALANCED, they will have these problems.
PERIOD.
I bet if those disruptors had been black protestors at a Repukelicon event, THEY ALL WOULD'VE BEEN TASERED!
Dems are weak and naive.

[cali]

4. Lousy idea. And the townhall meetings I've attended with Bernie

are certainly not useless.

[frogcycle]

5. Do local tv with call-in questions

sure, it will be criticized as "hiding" and the nutjobs will claim a "victory"

But meanwhile, a much bigger audience will get to hear calm, well-stated answers to their concerns without sweaty, spittle-spraying assholes shouting them down

This requires money. Local small businesses that are getting hammered by healthcare costs ought to pony up for 5, 10, 30 minutes of airtime.

[spanone]

6. it's called democracy.

[Stevenmarc]

7. Card'em, if you want to attend a town hall meeting, you should live in the town

It should be for constituents, period.

[lonestarnot]

8. Fuck that!

Those fuckers don't have power. Stand up to them and put them down at townhall meetings, or dog-pound meetings. Bullshit on even an inch.

[tomreedtoon]

9. Run in fear, UnionYes?

You mean, the way that unions ran in the face of mismanagement and outsourcing? Yeah, that worked really well for the workers, didn't it?

No. Dig in your heels. Stand your ground. Don't run in the fear of ignorance and hate. Show the courage that used to be part of the American national character. Show up and face down the Limbaugh zombies.

[zbdent]

10. I heard about a good method to take their "weapon" away ...

set up a table for people to sign up and talk with the congressperson ...

and have the c.p. meet with them, one on one ... can't have an angry, shouting mob of one ...