NY-20: Scott Murphy Congress-on-your-corner

by: Andrew C. White

Mon Aug 10, 2009 at 20:06:51 PM EDT

Or Congress-in-your-coffee-shop as this one happened to be.

Democratic Representative Scott Murphy has been holding a series of events around his sprawling 10 county rural district. These events are not specifically health care events rather they are what he would have been doing anyhow picking up a particularly successful practice of his predecessor Kirsten Gillibrand by energetically spending his home time travelling the district meeting constituents in small local venues.

Saturday's event in Valatie has already been well diaried here. This one was held at a much smaller venue in a more rural hilltown area. It also happened to be in my beautiful neck of the woods in eastern Rensselaer County.

Consequently this was a quiet and civil meeting of constituents and Congressman. The nice thing about the fear mongering astroturfers staying home is that a great conversation was had respectfully, politely, and reasonably between the Congressman and the people of the local towns.

There were several people there with very real concerns about what health care reform was going to mean for them, their businesses, their families, their employer provided health care, etc. Without all the delusional fear mongering these very real questions and concerns were able to get the airtime and consideration they deserved.

I've said all along that the vast majority of my Republican neighbors are good and decent people that have the same concerns and wants as we do. Where we mostly disagree is in priorities of our shared problems and the proper solutions to our common problems.

Remove the fear and you get real people talking about real issues and real solutions. We may not come away agreeing but we can come away with mutual respect and consideration for each other.

Then again... there was this guy....

Peace,

Andrew