Guest Post: An Interesting Hour Spent in Portland
My husband and I had quite the experience yesterday at Monument Square in Portland. We attended the final stop of the Obama’s Failing Agenda Tour bus, presented by the conservative organization American’s for Prosperity.
The tour of yesterday’s three Maine stops and rallies began in Freedom, Maine (aptly chosen!), followed by a stop in Augusta, and the final in what I’m guessing was the least welcoming….Portland. We both were able to leave work early to get there at 5pm and were greeted warmly by Carol Weston of Americans for Prosperity – then immediately “greeted” by two men who adamantly claimed that this was a group of liars. My husband and I pretty much went toe-to-toe with these guys – very calmly and good-naturedly – and were not in the least intimidated by them. It’s amazing what being armed with just a little information, rationally delivered, can do in the face of aggressive liberals.
Well, after about ten minutes of discussion, my final generalization of conservative values to “my guy” was that we will always need government assistance for the truly helpless and needy, but it’s all just gone too far – as totally exemplified by the Obama administration – and needs to be reigned in. The reply was the typical something like “well you want to end government and people will be hurt, maybe die.” I stared him in the eye and explained that he knew very well that’s nothing like what I said. No reply. Once again, logic greeted by an extreme over-reaction, then silence.
Meanwhile my husband was speaking with the second guy and asked him simply how Obamacare would add over 10 million people to the healthcare rolls without adding a single doctor to care for them – but of course, adding 16000 new IRS agents to enforce it. Again, crickets!!! A government out of touch with reality is pretty hard to defend. It hides behind the guise of “helping the masses” while it enslaves them into lives as meaningless as the silence my husband and I encountered.
So, it was time for the two speakers to talk about the failures of the current administration and Obamacare in particular. We supporters listened politely to Carol, followed by Joel Allumbaugh of Maine Heritage who knows every weird detail of Obamacare forward and backward. The “caring and tolerant” liberals interrupted with comments and one shirtless idiot waved flags, walked around and behind the speakers, demanding attention like a two-year-old. There weren’t many of us, maybe thirty, but we and the speakers outclassed the perhaps five protesters by a mile.
We weren’t there for much more than an hour. I thought about the whole scene as we drove home. We ordinary people aren’t used to standing up to the lib’s, we aren’t used to organizing, attending rallies, we dislike confrontations, it’s just not in our genes. We want to work hard, raise our families and be left alone. However, here’s what I learned yesterday: Our numbers were small, but this rally felt pretty good. I’m glad we were there. It’s not hard to confront extremists with logic – or just stand quietly to support a cause even if you don’t feel like discussing anything. It’s not hard to learn about conservative values from wonderful books, the Maine Wire online, the tea party, the Maine chapter of Americans for Prosperity, etc. We MUST learn to organize, as distasteful as it might seem, and make our presence known, over and over again. These progressives learned this a long time ago – on campuses, on the streets – and our president as a past community organizer, learned it first-hand. We are just beginners at it. I guess we could all roll over and make believe the country isn’t in trouble, but I’m willing to guess you know in your gut that it is.
Yes, it was an interesting hour spent in Portland. By the way, I’ll take Nobleboro any day !!!
Carolyn Baltes
Nobleboro, Maine
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