Fear and Loathing at Town Meetings
“People are uneasy and maybe a little angry.”
That was Rep. Dan Boren’s observation about the mood of people in his eastern Oklahoma congressional district.
A couple of hours after he made that comment, Sen. Tom Coburn told me this:
“People are fearful and angry.”
Coburn made that comment before I told him what Boren had said.
Both were back in Oklahoma for the two-week Easter break and they, along with other members of the congressional delegation, traveled around the state holding town hall meetings.
Rep. Frank Lucas, R-Cheyenne, said he had 51 people come to a meeting of his in Boise City, a town in the westernmost county in the Panhandle. Doesn’t sound like many, but Lucas said it was a record for him. And he said he was given 13 tea bags at the meeting — symbols of the tea parties that were held around the country two weeks ago to protest government spending.
“People are riled up,” Lucas said.
Boren, D-Muskogee, said some of the anger stems from the federal bail-outs.
“There’s bail-out fatigue in general, whether it be TARP (the Troubled Assets Relief Program) or autos or anything. They just feel like people are being rewarded for bad decisions.”
Boren said there was also a “general malaise” and that he tried to reassure people that “we’re going to be okay.”
“We will persevere and we’ll get out of this (economic) situation,” he said.
Coburn, R-Muskogee, said people have the right to be fearful and angry.
“They have the right to be fearful because this Congress is just thinking of the short term instead of the long term. And they have the right to be angry because (lawmakers) are mortgaging the future.”
Coburn said he also had huge turn-outs at his town hall meetings.
Boren, Lucas, Coburn and other members of the delegation can be seen here talking about President Barack Obama’s first 100 days in office.
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Comments
I’m not so concened about our economy as I am the loss of FREEDOM we have (and it appears continue to loose) with this administrtion. If we loose most of our rights and priviledges as American citizens, CAN WE EVER REGAIN THEM? AND, HOW DO WE DO THAT? I love this country and am angry that it is held in such low regard by the person in the oval office.
I am disgusted and flored that our leaders in this country are destroying our future by puting us in debt so deep that we may never recover. I can not believe that they are rewarding the wealthy people that got us into this mess. It’s very clear the bailout money is not doing the job. All it has done is wind up in foreign banks and the wealthy’s banks. Give a reasonable portion of these billions to each U.S. citizens and it will do what it is supposed to do \ Stimulate The Economy \. The car industry won’t be going out of business or bankrupt, the housing industry won’t be in trouble,, they might not be as rich, but the people won’t be loosing their homes, and we wouldn’t have such a medical issue for the people if they had money to pay for it. This makes logical sense, which apparently there is not a lot of that going around. Particulary in the white house gang.
I’m sorry to hear that readers are angry and afraid. It’s strange for Oklahomans–a hardy, happy people generally. Nothing comes into experience uninvited. So our country has problems; let’s treat them as lessons and learn from them. When we do, anger and fear will fade and we’ll cope again.
I’m a senior citizen, born in Oklahoma but spent many years in other places. I’ve never visited a place where God failed to help those who let Him. Maybe we think too much about what “should be” or what “should not be.” If we first seek to know what the great religions have always taught, then we’ll live more happily, as befits Oklahomans.
“Fearful and a LITTLE angry?”!!!!!!!! How about pissed off to the highest order and NOT at our guys. how can morons in those other states elect such anti-American, job stealing, tax crazy people!!??
We have guys & gals coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan who can’t find work due to illegal immigration and jobs going overseas.
A LITTLE angry! I’m angry we have to be part of the “United States”.