Unruly Mobs

You may have heard some rumors about certain "unruly mobs" supposedly "crashing townhall" meetings that congressmen are trying to have around the country. This might be disturbing, or maybe pleasing, to you. Depending, I suppose, on your point of view about the meetings, civil disobedience, and the actual issue they are trying to discuss at these townhall meetings.

Well, as some guy on the internet, I happen to be fully capable of filling you in on the details.

So, you might have heard something about health insurance or health care or something like that lately. Don't worry. Nothing has happened yet. And your duly elected representatives are on recess, a lot of them are holding meetings where just any ol' person can show up and ask questions about what they are up to. That's cool.

Then, you hear on the news about "mobs" that are "attacking" these meetings and you rightly are asking "Wha?" It turns out that on one hand the Democrats are saying that Big Evil Insurance Companies are hiring professional agitators ( sort of like the kind you would pick up at your neighborhood ACORN headquarters ) in order to disrupt these meetings. Then, on the other hand, you have Republicans saying that these are just ordinary folks wanting to voice their opinion.

So which is it, Some Guy On Internet?, you ask me.

Well, like most things I hope to cover here on SOMEGUYONINTERNET, it's neither. You probably already suspecting that anything coming from either the "regular" news or politicians is going to be mostly lies. Politicians are awesome at lying without even trying, and "journalists" are great at photoshop along with lying.

First, the Democrat lies. No one is being paid to go to these meetings other than the congressmen and/or their staffers. ( Yes, and/or means that you might go to one these and still only get to talk to a staffer and not the actual congressman, who is probably out hiking the Appalachian Trail ) Oh, they might shout a bit, but have you ever been to or seen on these townhalls? It's a friggin' nightmare, and it's amazing anyone gets heard half the time.

That takes us to Point B, the Republicans. Love these guys. However, you and I both know there is no such animal as an "ordinary American" who goes to a freaking townhall meeting on anything. We are way too lazy about politics to do more than vote. And that's a burden already. We might work up the gumption to write a letter to the road commissioner asking why in the world they feel the need to do road construction on the only way in or out of my subdivision exactly on the first day of school? Other than that, ordinary, everyday citizens of These United States have more important things to do, like working, or playing WoW.

Mostly, these "unruly mobs" you are hearing about are the same as they have always been. Old people. And I don't blame them. Have you seen this old people meeting on the new health care bill? Yeah, they get grumpy and all, but it's not like their suddenly going to march on the capital. They'd probably break something. They are pissed because congress are being the same bunch of idiots they always are, except this time they apparently hit a nerve with the "nothing-better-to-do-than-go-to-a-townhall" demographic.

Now, that may sound condescending. And maybe it is. But these people, the NBTDTGTAT group, ( how is that pronounced? ) have to listen to us complain day in and day out about what congress and the president are trying to do to our perfectly good health care. ( Yeah, it's pricey, but as we say here on Some Guy, "You get what you pay for" ) So, they hear this, and agree of course, and hear more of it and all you and I ( the "ordinary" people ) do is complain and never actually do anything about it. So, they pack up their protestin' gear and head off to a meeting to make sure that people who can do something actually will do something.

They provide a great service. They are not "ordinary", they are definitely outside of the ordinary. Maybe, we might call them Extra Ordinary.