Fear of Clowns

I read a craigslist posting about what I thought would be a wildly successful teabagger protest at the Obama health care rally so made it down there as the sun was coming up, about 6:45 am. There was at most a dozen people assembled at the corner. As they looked both really boring and really stupid (I only anticipated the second attribute) I abandoned my idea of getting them on video ("Does it seem weird to you that almost nothing rhymes with 'Obama' other than 'Dali Lama," "I'm sure we agree Obama can't prove he wasn't born in Hawaii, right," "How many days do you think it would have taken Jesus to create the Universe if he would have tried to go really fast?") So I walked across the block.

There was a slow procession heading away from the Target Center towards the Theater District which I first thought was a march but soon realized was a line being formed, dozens of blocks long.

When the line stopped unwinding, we sat. There, I did have a conversation with a crazy who stopped to tell those around us about the recent alleged ACORN scandal. The exchange went something like this,

She: At two locations, they found ACORN workers giving advice on how to set up a prostitution ring. They said to bring in underage girls from other countries and [blah blah, a few more sentences seemingly based on talk radio commentary].

Me: That's not exactly how it went, but I imagine if you went around to seven or eight McDonald's and asked them where to get coke or heroin, you'd find someone willing to give you advice.

She: But did you hear the Census severed ties with them because of it?

Me: Do you think that's a good thing?

She: Yes.

Me: So what's your point?

She: ACORN does a lot of other stuff and they're a really bad organization.

Me: Do you know what ACORN does for the Census?

She: They send out Census workers.

Me: Not really just that, the Census is a really important thing and they work with people, people who can (winger begins to walk away)

Guy in front of me: Hey, what's the other side of your sign say?

(she flips it over to reveal a message along the lines of "ObamaCare: Not Now Not Ever! Bad For America" and continues on out of earshot)

This guy was great, he strafed the line a half dozen times and got lots of cheers each pass.

At around 9, this group showed up and tag-teamed yelled passages from The Gospel of John. They shouted with the cadence and delivery of a drill sergeant; their form was nowhere near as engaging as the guy with the sign. Some of the crowd listened, most ignored, none taunted. I'm saving a video to employ the next time a right-wing Christian claims liberals want to silence any mention of religion in the public square.

Lining up for the security check. I asked those around me if Bush ever did anything like this - a public event where anybody could come as long as they lined up early enough. The responses were all in the narrow range between "I don't know but I don't think so" and "No." The word was that the first people queued up at 10:30 last night.

Here's the anti-healthcare reform crew which the allegedly way liberal Strib reported to number 200. Conceivably, their girth could have increased tenfold between the time I went in and ebbed equally before I came out. (rollseyes)

This guy was holding a "48 or 30 million?" sign which students of wingnuttery recognize as alluding to the varying number of uninsured in the US depending on the study's methodology. The correct response to this taunt is "how many million uninsured people is an acceptable level to you?" Obama's speech referred to "tens of millions" of uninsured. Had this cretin heard the speech, I'm sure he would have been astute enough in his wingnuttery to observe that Obama's Socialist handlers have not considered the issue enough to have ANY inkling as to the acceptable number of people who must resort the the ER as their first line of medical care, as divinely revealed by God in The Constitution.

Socialist Alternative had a big presence outside with the biggest banner by far. On their first parry, they had everyone chanting "What do we want? Single payer!" but after a dozen or so seconds, the crowd had changed "single payer" to "healthcare." Their best chant was, "Take the profit out of sickness, health care for all!" I clapped loudly each pass and it got me thinking that although my near-term sights are now on a public option, agitating for an ideal may be the best way of getting to the first goal. After all, shouting "Socialism!" in reference to a Medicare-like option available to all has resulted in some success by anti-reformers.

The other side of the sign five photos above.

Another effective sign: "Competition is good. Therefore, let the government compete."

I chatted with the Teamsters guy controlling the flow towards the metal detectors and thanked him for helping out on such short notice - he said he was receiving phone calls about it at 11 last night. The event went off stupendously and Jolanda (mentioned below) said it wasn't decided if it would be at the Target or Excel Center until the last minute. Perhaps I'm seeing design behind uncontrolled events, but Obama seems to be playing this thing with great political finesse: allow your opposition to go wild during the recess ("death panels"), let your opponent become their own worst enemy ("Joe Wilson: You lie!", "But only 30 million are uninsured"), then when Congress reconvenes, forcefully clarify that the opposition's main objections are bogus ("free insurance for illegal immigrants") and introduce your idea in terms that the public strongly agrees with ("everybody should have access to a plan like Congress uses"). Public option, whoo-hoo!

I was elated to get a court side seat. Beside me was a family from Trinidad. We first discovered we live in the same neighborhood, Laura said I looked familiar and my hunch that she worked at my bank was correct! Jolanda has worked on a lot of campaigns and was the one who had some information about the last-minute preparations. We talked about the Scotch bonnet peppers from the Caribbean I grow and made tentative plans to eat together at Marla's Caribbean Cuisine, which they go to sometimes and I'd tried to eat at for the first time last weekend to find it closed over Labor Day weekend.

Although it didn't hit me at the time, I'm now really moved at a statement the most recently immigrated family member made, "I never thought I'd be this close to The President of The United States."

Everyone in the first rows of Section 101 was hoping Obama would use the space in front of us to walk around in, but he stayed at the podium - only diverging from prepared remarks to end with his "Fired-Up, Ready to Go!" story.

Jolanda in her awesome shirt.

The biggest take-away for me is that Obama is committed to a public option. The cynic in me says my expectations were intentionally lowered in advance of the Big Push, but at the same time I realize I'm more a voter than detached observer.

The optimist in me keeps reminding me my disappointment on other policy issues may be due to a lack of patience: I can glimpse a political calculus aimed at encouraging a split among those that have enabled the disastrous GOP policies over the last few decades.

Although I rather expected it, I was disappointed that there was a ridiculously non-denominational prayer to several "creator gods." If you're going to pray in a multicultural context, there's nothing wrong with and a lot right with, "We'll now start with a moment of silent meditation."

Here's video of the crowd going nuts watching Obama step out of Air Force One and me getting a name-check on the family next to me.

(see part 2: excerpt with pictures)

// posted by Erik @ 9/12/2009 12:57:00 PM
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