# These town hall meetings have been interesting **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 23, 2017, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549 "2017-02-23T13:53:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![zimaane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a3d4f5/32.png) [@zimaane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zimaane)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/61 "2017-02-23T21:53:34Z")
I thought about something like that, but it seems a stretch for anyone to be surprised that a Republican wants to repeal the ACA, which seems to be the focus of a lot of the protest. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/62 "2017-02-23T21:56:40Z")
Even in a place where most people voted republican, for isnstance, a lot of people didnt, and it doesn’t take a lot of people to fill a town hall. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/63 "2017-02-23T21:58:49Z")
> [@zimaane](#): > > I thought about something like that, but it seems a stretch for anyone to be surprised that a Republican wants to repeal the ACA, which seems to be the focus of a lot of the protest. Well, we have seen that there are some conservatives who were in favor of repealing “Obamacare” because they thought it was something different from the ACA. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/64 "2017-02-23T22:04:02Z")
Also, the promise was “repeal and replace” with what they promised would be something better. They’ve never defined the better idea, at least not to my satisfaction. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/65 "2017-02-23T22:10:48Z")
> [@sleestak](#): > > By moron, do you mean honest? By honest, do you mean Honest-To-God-Moron? Independently, I find that both are true and accurate. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/66 "2017-02-23T22:21:09Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Entitled to stay alive? In the wealthiest nation in world history? Sure. And to whom should she (and I, for that matter) send a thank-you note? You? Yes the compassionate, progressive liberal who believes humans are entitled to use aggressive force to get healthcare by virtue of being born into wealth. The difference between them and elitist conservatives is hard to discern, for conservatives too lavish privilege onto people based on where and to whom they are born. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/67 "2017-02-23T22:34:28Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Forget to sign out of one account before replying with your sock? Maybe he’s just a fan of **WillFarnaby**. There’s a first time for everything… ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/68 "2017-02-23T22:43:36Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Just because **some** people game the system doesn’t mean the system isn’t serving a useful purpose overall. > > It is more efficient, and cheaper in the long run, to have a universal-coverage national health insurance system than to deny poor people healthcare and scold them for being too shiftless to afford it. I find it interesting that the same people who think it’s smart for the wealthy to cheat and game the system (see Trump) would rather poor people die than let them get away with it. And by interesting, I mean disgusting. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/69 "2017-02-23T22:46:38Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I wonder how much time this entitled woman spends thanking taxpayers and higher-premium payers for subsidizing her and her husband’s healthcare. Actually I don’t. > > The welfare state has produced these perpetual children who throw tantrums when they don’t get their free stuff. It is not in the best interests of society to encourage this behavior. You demonstrate _no_ understanding of how the ACA works at all, let alone any nuanced perspective. You demonstrate only that you are a voracious swallower of bullshit “news” promulgated by bullshit “news” organizations. Idiot. I have used the ACA since its inception. I pay for my participation in the ACA. Every year, I am happy to pay more in premiums than I receive back in medical care. I am happy to pay my share in taxes, too, to make sure others receive care when they need it, instead of being bankrupted because they happened to draw the short straw in keeping their good health and didn’t manage to amass enough wealth to pay for rich coverage. Premiums paid by participants for the ACA ain’t no free ride, as you keep wrongly insisting. I also pay a lot in taxes as a self-employed person. You be sure to let me know when I am to receive an annual check-the-box questionnaire to send in with my tax return, indicating what items for which I am willing to be taxed and those I am not. I won’t be ticking the boxes for schools, since I have no children. Nor will I elect to pay for senseless, costly wars that accomplish exactly nothing except to create even more costly problems, or subsidies for fossil fuels and farm corporations that don’t need them. _None_ of us gets to choose where our tax dollars go. I’d rather have mine go toward subsidies to help the less fortunate have access to medical care than anything else I named above. More than that, I’d prefer to eliminate insurance companies (and their obscene profits on the backs of sick people) altogether and move to full single payer. You want to stop paying for subsidies? Get rid of health insurance companies making their guaranteed profit in the middle. Moving to single payer would put me out of business. Worth it. I’ll be at my local town hall meeting on Saturday to voice support for my senators, who already get it and are pushing to keep Obamacare and improve it by adding the public option that President Obama originally wanted. You know; the once forcing insurance companies to get real about their profits and actually compete. Funny thing. I expect my senators to be actually be present at the meeting. ETA: Actually, I would pay for schools as I understand their importance to the public good. A fact you apparently don’t appreciate when it comes to the health of the populace. ---
**Author:** ![aurora\_maire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aurora_maire/32/328_2.png) [@aurora\_maire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aurora_maire)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/70 "2017-02-23T22:50:49Z")
> [@Captain\_Amazing](#): > > Even in a place where most people voted republican, for isnstance, a lot of people didnt, and it doesn’t take a lot of people to fill a town hall. I keep seeing reports where Republicans are saying that Democrats are showing up in \*their \*districts. Are they admitting that they are so gerrymandered that there shouldn’t _be_ Democrats in those districts? ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/71 "2017-02-23T22:53:01Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > First the conservatives tell us that Democrats aren’t winning elections because they’re not paying enough attention to the economic problems of working-class white people. > > Then when working-class white people try to tell their Republican representatives about their economic problems and demand that their elected government do something to help them, conservatives fall all over themselves to sneer at those people as tantrum-throwing children and irresponsible feckless idiots. > Honestly? **The main reason why white working-class people have so many economic problems is because their Republican politicians exploit their support to screw them over in favor of enriching wealthy and business interests.** And a chief reason why Democrats lose elections is because Republican politicians are very good at dishonestly blaming Democrats for their own exploitation of their white working-class constituencies. > [@Kimstu](#): > > [**sleestak** , talking about white working-class voters on 10-13-2016](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=19697438&postcount=56): > **sleestak** , talking about white working-class voters on 02-23-2017: > > When **WillFarnaby** calls them entitled ungrateful tantrum-throwing children for complaining about Republican attacks on affordable healthcare, he’s just being “honest”. The white working-class is fine when they are working, just like any other working class. When they turn to politics, that is when they get confused. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/72 "2017-02-23T23:43:42Z")
> [@curlcoat](#): > > Ya know what? I am really sick of the assumption that I have no idea what it is like to be poor just because I am tired of paying almost 40% tax to support them. I was BORN poor (my parents were idiots) and I left home at 18 to get away from abuse and ended up living well under the poverty level for several years. With poor people. > > Now days, I am middle class tho the husband is close to retiring so we may end up losing that. Why can’t all those idiot poor people just marry into money like you? Those freeloading fuckers! > [@](#): > > I live across the street from a family in a $600,000 home whose kids got free lunches at school for awhile because their public situation was that they didn’t have enough money to pay their mortgage and car payments. Except there were five adults living in that three bedroom house, so they had plenty of money to feed their three kids lunch, they just didn’t tell the schools that they had income from three more people. I know many people who get around half their income under the table. I know a woman whose 14 year old had a baby and then moved in with the dad after about four months, yet all of the freebies for the baby kept coming to grandmas house. She used to joke about getting so much stuff they had to throw it out. Etc. People game the system. Yeah, those dicks. How many people do you know that aren’t gaming the system? Have you talked to the ones who need the system? The ones who weren’t able to leave the abuse of idiot parents? What are you going to do when you hubs retires? Game the social security system? ---
**Author:** ![race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c4cdca/32.png) [@race\_to\_the\_bottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/race_to_the_bottom)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/73 "2017-02-23T23:55:03Z")
> [@BigAppleBucky](#): > > I’m going to one with my representative tonight. He’s a Democrat so I expect a more sedate meeting than folks like Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Yeah, Tom Cotton is a real up and coming GOP slimeball, one of the worst in a real den of snakes. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2017, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/74 "2017-02-23T23:57:12Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Yeah, those dicks. How many people do you know that aren’t gaming the system? Have you talked to the ones who need the system? The ones who weren’t able to leave the abuse of idiot parents? What are you going to do when you hubs retires? Game the social security system? Well remember, Republicans would rather have 98 people starve than have 2 people cheat the system. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/75 "2017-02-24T00:06:11Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > The white working-class is fine when they are working, just like any other working class. When they turn to politics, that is when they get confused. Remember, folks, when white working-class voters are angry at _Democratic_ politicians because of their economic problems, they’re intelligent and hardworking “real Americans” who have been overlooked and short-shrifted by out-of-touch elites who unfairly disparage and mock them. But when white working-class voters are angry at _Republican_ politicians because of their economic problems, they’re feckless, shiftless spoiled children throwing tantrums because they can’t get something for nothing, and expecting other people to take care of them because they’re too stupid and ignorant to understand political issues. Glad we got that cleared up. ---
**Author:** ![k9bfriender](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k9bfriender/32/3283_2.png) [@k9bfriender](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/k9bfriender)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/76 "2017-02-24T00:08:23Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Well remember, Republicans would rather have 98 people starve than have 2 people cheat the system. The other 98 didn’t deserve to eat anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/77 "2017-02-24T00:17:04Z")
[Meanwhile, low paid people in the heartland are hoping that Trump will save them.](https://apnews.com/9b6824edd567411db1c4853c5ad0778f) _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/78 "2017-02-24T00:25:36Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > Remember, folks, when white working-class voters are angry at _Democratic_ politicians because of their economic problems, they’re intelligent and hardworking “real Americans” who have been overlooked and short-shrifted by out-of-touch elites who unfairly disparage and mock them. > > But when white working-class voters are angry at _Republican_ politicians because of their economic problems, they’re feckless, shiftless spoiled children throwing tantrums because they can’t get something for nothing, and expecting other people to take care of them because they’re too stupid and ignorant to understand political issues. > Glad we got that cleared up. Great straw man bud. ---
**Author:** ![Battle\_Pope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Battle\_Pope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Battle_Pope)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/79 "2017-02-24T00:27:25Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > [Meanwhile, low paid people in the heartland are hoping that Trump will save them.](https://apnews.com/9b6824edd567411db1c4853c5ad0778f) > > _sigh_ He’ll save them in much the same way Clark Kent saved his father in _Man of Steel._ ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549/80 "2017-02-24T00:36:22Z")
Or how Rutger Hauer saved Paul Reubens in _Buffy the Vampire Slayer._ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/these-town-hall-meetings-have-been-interesting/780549.md?page=5)