What exactly is it that you have against socialism, Dave Obey?
August 2nd, 2009 - Written by Joey
I joined a small group of tea party peeps at the Polk County Fair today, with the sole intention of asking Rep. Dave Obey a few questions. It turned out that the Polk County Democrats were having their monthly meeting at the fair and decided to have Obey speak during it.
He didn’t take questions and he didn’t talk to many folks after he was done speaking (I’ll get into that in a minute), but I did manage to yell a question out at him during his speech.
He was taking jabs at ‘Republicans’ for calling the Health Care Reform Bill “socialist’. He asked us if Social Security was ’socialist’. A few of us yelled out, “Yes!”. He then asked us if we thought that Medicare was ’socialist’, and we again answered “Yes!”. Of course this was appalling to many of the socialists-in-denial tucked under the small tent . Their mouths were agape even considering the idea that any American would think that the broke-ass social security system and the bankrupt Medicare system–both of which continue to soak younger generations dry–are socialist institutions.
So I yelled out, ‘So what is it exactly that you have against socialism? What is it about socialism don’t you agree with?’, or something like that.
Of course he didn’t answer me. He never does. But I decided that afterward, I’d find him and ask him that very question. I was, after all, interrupting his speech, which was a bit rude of me, I’ll admit. But I’m fairly certain that our Founding Fathers would have done the same if they were alive today, and wouldn’t be concerning themselves with being ‘polite’ at this point.
It was difficult to get to him at first, since the other socialists-in-denial were swarming him for a chance to shake his hand. Eventually, I saw a small opening and sneaked in just enough to hear Obey talking with a young woman. They were having an intense conversation, and she was obviously in disagreement with him. Just like that, he quickly turned away from the crowd–as Obey always does when he’s getting tough questions–and disappeared. This was all within five to ten minutes of the end of the meeting.
So once again, Obey refuses to listen to his constituency. The one or two times we see him per year and can ask him direct questions instead of emailing him only to get–if you’re lucky–some canned response in your mailbox three months later, and he vamooses when the questions get tough. Although I have to say that he at least didn’t push any of us around like he did Maxine Waters.
August 3rd, 2009 at 6:42 am
Hey! I found you! I am the “young woman” you mention and I am flattered! Young? Mmm… not so much.
I have been having some guilt over the way I acted yesterday. I didn’t intend to get so angry – I just couldn’t help it, so many months of feeling like he is not acting in my best interests just came pouring out. I was also a little P**** off that I had tried to get his attention and introduce myself, when he completely ignored me and went over to my friend and started to talk to him. He must have known I was going to be a challenge!
I felt worse for the other people who had questions for him – because of me they were not able to ask him.
Oh well – it was fun. No regrets. At least he knows there are some who are steaming mad about what is going on.
Nice blog, by the way.
August 3rd, 2009 at 7:09 am
Now you listen here, Jules, and you listen good… It was NOT your fault that Obey took off. This is classic Obey. Whenever the questions don’t go his way and are a little tough, he scoots out of there faster than a roach when the lights are flipped on.
I repeat: DO NOT beat yourself up. HE works for us. If he can’t handle tough questions, he’s in the wrong line of work. Well, we already knew that, but still…
NO GUILT, okay?
Hope to see more of you at these events!