Feingolders out in force, a meager one

by Ken Van Doren

Just for giggles, this reporter approached the 100 or so Feingold counter-protesters on the other side of the street from the Capital Square during the April 15 Tea Party event. He asked several for comments, no one wanted to go on record personally, but was able to extract some interesting comments from the Feingold crowd. The first man responded, “What the f…. is that (Reality News?) Besides, I saw you over there with those Republicans.” I asked, ”how did he know they were all Republicans?” Then I asked, how he felt about the bank bailouts. He opposed them. “I am against ALL bailouts, banks businesses of all sorts.” I told him that he would find most of those on the other side of the street would agree with him on that, and that many Democrats, including President Obama SUPPORTED bailouts. When I asked him further questions, he declined comment, so I moved on.

I approached another cluster of “Feingolders,” and asked if I could get some comments for the record, and no one volunteered, but one lady did make a comment so I pressed her. “Why do you support Mr. Feingold?” She said she was self-employed and replied, “Well I favor health care reform. I paid $9000 in income tax last year, and was glad I was able to.” She expressed some doubt about the future, but was glad the health care bill “would help balance the budget while helping keep costs down.” Upon questioning, it came out that she did not know that the health care bill contained a provision for a personal army for Obama of some 6,000 troops outside the normal military chain of command, did not know about the “best practices” panels and other bureaucracies, nor did she know of the new taxes on medical devices included in the bill, did not know that the bill mandated that young adults up to 26 years old be covered by their parents insurance policies, and contained other provisions that would INCREASE the cost of insurance and health care, and only “balanced” the budget by collecting 10 years worth of taxes against 6 years worth of expenses, and other accounting tricks, but even with all that, she still supported the bill and actually wanted a complete takeover by way of a “single payer” approach that would virtually eliminate personal choice in health care.

I then approached several Young people nearby for comments, and their response was “you will have to ask the campaign.” I asked why they were not allowed to think for themselves, and it turns out that they were all Feingold campaign workers. It later occurred to me that a good share of the others, most of whom also carried official Feingold signs were very likely there because of the orchestrated effort of the Feingold campaign. Tired of non-answers, evasions, and illogic, I returned to the festivities.