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Town-hall confrontations make Specter—and Dem efforts for health care reform—look good

My colleague Purple in Pennsylvania has argued this week that Specter’s town hall performances show his limits in a reelection campaign. In short, he believes that Specter came out of the showdown looking bad and weak.

I took a very different lesson from the town halls. While readers know I am no great Specter fan, I thought the sight of Arlen Specter bravely standing up to hysterical right-wing nuts screaming in his face about socialism and God’s vengeance made him look strong and statesmanlike. Next to these loonies, Specter looked positively senatorial, and was again able to make headlines for sticking up for key parts of the President’s agenda, including health care reform.

As I have argued before, every time Specter gets widespread coverage for acting like a mainstream Democrat, he wins points in the 2010 primary campaign. His defense of liberal policies this week looked all the more poignant in the face of those angry fringe elements.

Some in the mainstream media have argued that the debate over health care reform has already been won by the right wing. I think that, to some extent, the right has been able to control the message and muddle the President’s. Yet I believe we are beginning to see a tipping point. The fact is that a majority of the American people still want to see reform. They want government to lower costs and expand coverage, while retaining the option to keep their own insurance—the key points of the Obama plan. Up until now, Republicans have been successful as painting Democrats as out of touch with the mainstream on this issue.

Two things happened this week that are changing that imagery. First, Sarah Palin made her ridiculous statement about Obama “death panels,” a fabrication that was immediately picked up as a talking point by right wingers across the country. This made up fact simply didn’t pass the smell test, and I believe that when most sensible Americans hear this kind of outrageous attack, they start to question what other lies Republicans are telling them in order to stall comprehensive reform.

Compounding this image of conservatives doing anything they can to stall progress is the parade of crazed right-wingers shouting down, physically confronting, and even bringing guns to town hall forums across the country. These fringe groups, funded by special interests like FreedomWorks and the health insurance industry, think that they are spoiling the President’s agenda by assaulting these events. In fact, I believe these performances are having the opposite effect—certainly all liberals, and even most moderates, are looking at these wingnuts with a skeptical eye, wondering why they cannot express themselves in a more civil manner.

Their outbursts and confrontations serve to discredit the entire right-wing movement, and lend an aura of respect and credibility to the beleaguered public officials putting their own safety on the line to host democratic forums dedicated to answering the public’s legitimate questions about many of the pressing issues facing our nation.

With the right going apoplectic, the President has kept his cool, moving forward in his usual workmanlike manner to keep health care reform on the top of the agenda. If all goes well, Democrats can use this opportunity to push for the sensible health care reform that this country desperately needs.

August 13, 2009 at 8:53 am

--Adam Schwartzbaum

Tags: Arlen Specter

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