Tea With Harry

I went down to meet with my Congressman today. I wanted to complain about his failure to vote for the health care bill. Harry Teague got elected in a usually Republican district thanks to the Obama landslide and the fact that the incumbent tried to graduate to the Senate. My guess is that his attempts to mollify the angry right will backfire - he can't win them over and he has alienated his core Democratic constituency.

A few dozen people had gathered in his Las Cruces office, most of whom seemed to be vocal Tea Party enthusiasts. I put in a few contrary words and after a while the Congressman retreated to his inner office to deal with constituents one at a time.

Six or eight of the tea baggers were gathered in the parking lot, so I went over to engage them. They were mostly elderly, and like me, eligible for Medicare. One who wasn't was covered by a State subsidized insurance pool. None of them admitted voting for the Congressman. I wondered why they thought it was fair for them to be covered by socialized medicine, but not other people. I made a pitch for European style universal coverage, but many seemed to be still fighting the revolutionary war. We were actually having a pretty good chat, with me listening more than talking, when a tea party agitator came over to work the crowd. I hated to leave the discussion to him, but I had other business.

I found it pretty interesting, and I got the impression that a lot of the crowd was persuadable. They were angry, but not too sure what they were angry about (except illegal immigrants).