The Wealthy Elites Play the Racists for Pawns at a Town Hall Meeting in Maryland

On Monday night, Maryland Senator Ben Cardin held a town hall meeting at Towson University, just north of Baltimore.

I was at the protest before Monday night's town hall meeting on healthcare hosted by Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin. Here are my impressions of last night:

I went to the rally and got there about 5:35 –already there were signs posted saying the event (a huge line already waiting to get in) had reached capacity.  I hoped members of Healthcare-Now of MD were there early.

The organized right-wingers were there in droves – I estimate (and I am not the best guesser) at least 1,000, maybe more.  They were bused in from all over MD from what I was hearing.  There were maybe 500 of us, perhaps more –again a guesstimate.  Osler Drive was lined up on both sides for a very long way but the majority of them were the right-wingers.  They were all along the west side of Osler and a good deal of the east side where we were.  I’ll be interested to read the estimates from a more reliable source than myself.

I have never seen such hatred, vitriol and racism in all my life – and I do not say that lightly.  It made me physically ill – I could stand the heat, but I couldn’t stand the hatred and racism.  We all read about it, we know it – but having it in your face in such large and angry numbers is hard to deal with.  There were posters of Obama as Hitler, the Democratic Nazi Party, Keep Your Laws Off My Body (except for abortion – I asked) and various and sundry examples of ugliness.  Some Lyndon LaRouche supporters along with anti-immigration and tort reform.  Also a lot of “killing the elderly, euthanasia” type signs.  And of course, our favorite – “No Socialism.”  As I looked across Osler at these people, they were screaming and angry – and they often came over to where we were to provoke us and to out-shout us.  The comments to me as I walked up and down with my signs were appalling.  Just ugly, ugly, ugly.

I am telling you this for a reason.

Folks, this is NOT about healthcare or anything remotely resembling policy or any particular issue.  This is about the naked anger of the right wing being out of power and not accepting a black man as President combined with their own racism – it’s thinly veiled at best, but it’s racism.  I venture to say that this is the least thinly veiled racism I’ve seen for a long time – they have taken those gloves off.

When people say “I work, I’m not paying for anyone else” – that’s about African-Americans and Latinos - period.  I stated so to a couple of young women and of course they countered me with extreme anger and then one took my picture to show her children what’s wrong with America (I worry about that – these people love to post pictures of people they want to make targets).  Later I asked one older woman very calmly – she was calm herself – if she cared about other people besides her own family and loved ones.  She looked me in the eyes and said “NO, I don’t”.  I was lost for words.  I heard over and over people saying “I work, I don’t want to pay for anyone else.”

And a lot of “healthcare is a privilege, not a right” – “ you people just keep wanting more” - a lot in that vein.  And of course excoriating “socialism” was a favorite.   I asked one man, who was screaming at us how he could live with so much hatred every day.  He whipped around and yelled at me “I keep it coming every day” – he was so angry I thought he was going to have some kind of attack.  These are people we see on the street every day, I’ve worked with them  – and when I say they are filled with hate, I do not exaggerate.  I finally had to leave around 7pm – I couldn’t take any more of the ugliness.  I was literally sick to my gut.