As we approached the Mendon Community Center, the lines of cars up and down Route 65 were our first indication things were going to be interesting last night.  I made a point to check out many of the license plates and rear ends of the cars parked and was “surprised” to discover among those purchased and driven locally were a whole mess of license plates and dealer stickers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Florida, Georgia, and a whole bunch of automobiles purchased from Buffalo, Syracuse, and other dealers further east.

Discounting the snowbirds who return to western New York every summer, there was still apparently quite a contingent of “out of the district” visitors to last evening’s town hall meeting on health care.

The astroturf crowds had arrived.

I also made a point to scan through some of the sign-in sheets that were scattered across the table, and just from looking at a few pages visible, it was quickly evident a whole bunch of the estimated 500 attendees did not identify themselves, or perhaps more importantly, from where they came.  Clearly, a large segment were from our area, with the signature Raaachester accent evident, but several voices were coming from downstaters and midwesterners that wouldn’t know what you were talking about if you offered them a “red” or “white” hot dog.

Despite being 15 minutes late, after finally finding a parking spot, the discourse was as anticipated.  Perhaps 20-25 members of the crowd were obviously the cheering section for the disenchanted and disenfranchised Republican base who were there to cheer on the far fewer half dozen regularly rude instigators that were standing in the back of the canopied seating section.  They occasionally purposefully scattered to different sections to try and boost their apparent sound and numbers.

The Glenn Beck contingency, who showed up in yellow t-shirts, were also there and were the source of much of the heated rhetoric and shouting that they learned from the grand master, the self-described “rodeo clown,” Beck himself.  I think anyone who knows who Glenn Beck is automatically will discount the position of someone who calls themselves one of his rabble.  Beck illustrates just how insane some Republicans get when they are shocked to discover the country does not love them anymore.

As the evening progressed, I realized just how absurd most of this really was.  The protesters were effectively outmaneuvered repeatedly by Rep. Massa, who is not a reflexive supporter of any party position, but makes his own way based on what he feels is the best way forward for his district, which leans Republican but is also increasingly disaffected by the southern base of the GOP.  The recitation of the talking points and slogans, often repeated even after Massa had effectively countered their earlier use, only made the transparency of the stagecraft before us even more apparent.  The countering crowd of progressives and those who found the behavior of these people boorish underlined it.

Protesters brought up all of the usual stuff that, to me, made it clear that of all the people they’ve repeatedly demanded “read the bill,” they had smugly exempted themselves.

The bizarroworld theory that health care reform will kill old people was there, along with ludicrous fears that losing private insurance just once would force people into a lifelong public plan with no way out, the wacko Socialism charge was there as well.  In two particularly terrible performances, one anti-abortion guy overplayed his emotions in the worst acting performance since Sofia Coppola appeared in The Godfather: Part III.  Why is it always men that end up screaming about the abortion issue?  I would have liked to know whether he would have supported contraception in health care reform, and a commenter on the Fighting 29 blog pondered whether he’d demand coverage for male impotence medication, an even better question.

The second instance was a bizarre outcry from an old guy a few feet from me who put forth completely overwrought indignation about swastikas and Nazi references that nobody was really making, except other protesters who were bashing Nancy Pelosi.

A woman who made a point of wearing a generic white jacket who used it as some sort of credibility enhancer (which anyone could have picked up at a uniform store), and claimed she was in the profession then delivered the same talking points anyone in the profession would have rejected out of hand, which was happening among at least one doctor and his wife standing adjacent to me.

The rudeness factor was obviously kept in check by an equal number of people who repeatedly hushed and shot back remarks at those who felt their individual rights were more important than anyone else’s.  Anyone who had the microphone in hand who began delivering talking points or reading from a paper was likely to be taunted within 30-60 seconds, more often from protesters than from those challenging them.

I felt, in the end, this was much more about heat than light, and I doubt very much any opinions were changed at all.  It did show off Rep. Massa’s skills at crowd control, and his ability to rapidly deflate the rhetoric without ever losing his cool.  He came away better than anyone.

In all of these kinds of meetings, there is one point where everything is crystallized about the sentiments of each respective side. For me, it was the rare moments of hearing honest questions from ordinary people about whether the bill would have mental health parity and co-pays — real questions from real people.

The progressives demanded single payer health care, a concept which is dead in Congress, at least for now.

The protesters “moment of clarity” crystallized when one young guy stood up and boiled down the rhetoric of the opposition to his point that nowhere in the Constitution does it claim he (or any of us) should have to be responsible for taking care of each other in this society, it is up to each of us individually to take care of ourselves, and that anything different is anti-American and socialism.

This Ayn Rand moment really spoke a lot about those who fundamentally believe that as long as they have theirs, all is well. That the sense of people helping people is fundamentally wrong and represents socialism, and that the individual right is more important than collective will (except when election results or social policy doesn’t go their way of course). These are the same people, when you drill down, who will inevitably tell you that because nobody helped them with issue “x” in their lives, why should anyone, least of all them, help you or anyone else.

Thankfully, these kind of people represent a small minority in this country, and if there was a way we could give them an official minority opt-out, they could live out their Ayn Rand theory of living on a compound somewhere in Texas. That would be a Survivor-like TV show I’d watch as they destroyed one another trying to climb on top.

Eric Massa had the perfect response, once again noting in the military, you are only as strong as your weakest link. Massa’s idea is to strengthen that link. The audience member’s idea would be to throw him in the sea.

Bottom line, the circus of the absurd will be in town for the rest of the month, but if you want real health care reform, you don’t have to pet the elephant.  Just pick up the phone or write a letter to your Congressman and two Senators and tell them what YOU want.  By all means do attend and watch the spectacle, but it’s obvious Congressman Massa is not rattled by any of this, realizes who and what it really represents, and none of this will be the determining factor in his vote on this matter.