I guess here is my problem with the stances of “angry people at government meetings undermine their position” or “angry people at open forums ruin the forums for everyone else.”

Folks here may recall the wildfires a couple years back in San Diego County.

Many governments and citizens here got high praise in the media for handling things well and offering a natural disaster counterpoint to Katrina.

Well I happened to live (and still do) in this area of a city named Poway called “High Valley”. In contrast to what was portrayed broadly in the media (and was probably accurate in terms of the response in all of Southern California) Poway make some pretty stupid decisions regarding High Valley. Without filling pages of detail, the City Manager decided to evacuate and cordon off all of High Valley and simply let it all burn. For 4 days. Even when the state resources arrived to take things over from the City, those resources were directed to not go to High Valley and were even told (falsely) that High Valley was not part of Poway.

We later learned that the City Manager made the decision for the safety of the fire fighters. It is a position he has stuck with even though there are firefighters who went on the record to say they wanted to fight in High Valley and felt safe doing so.

So what does that have to do with Obamacare townhalls?

Well the situation after the fire got bad between residents and the City. Threats of lawsuits and all of that. Insurance carriers started talking about dropping coverage if the area would not get fire protection and the city even blocked efforts by residents to form a volunteer fire fighting force to defend the area next time around.

The City Manager then decided to hold an open air townhall up in High Valley. I attended as did most every other adult in the area. Things started very politely and many smiles were seen and goodwill expressed as we all had barbecue before the formal meeting started with probably 250 or so folks milling about. Then the City Manager made a speech, parts of which provoked moans and groans from the audience. Then questions came. Right off the bat someone asked if, knowing what he knew now (that 40+ homes burned over the course of 4 days with low wind and manageable humidity conditions, and that the CDF had said there was no real danger in fighting fires there) would he make the same call, and the city manager said “yes”.

At that point, people started getting angry and started asking more and more pointed questions. These are not “bibles and guns” types - these were your typical upper middle class / upper class educated yuppies. Standing next to me was a sitting judge and his wife who is a sitting judge (lawyers in SD County will know who I am speaking of) who got up and started yelling at the city manager.

Point is that incompetence in governance can motivate a “mob”. It does not require astroturfing or agitators. If you have something at stake and the government doesn’t want to listen and simply holds a forum as a formality / PR gesture, you will yell. Even if your day job is to run a courtroom.

As for the “code pink” comparisons - most members of code pink don’t have a dog in the fight. Most aren’t in uniform or have a loved one fighting the war, yet their moral stance is so absolute that they must shout it out.

But when you have a dog in the fight - and anyone with a medical problem does - then there is a different basis for your complaint about an obstinate government that is going through the motions of “listening”.

I am healthy and self insured. So my passions don’t run too high on Obamacare. But I was arrested trying to defend my home from a wildfire and then got to see pictures of my house on fire plastered on the front page of Yahoo news for 2 days while sitting in an evacuation center. Fortunately, my house was saved by some guys from the Lawrence Livermore Labs Fire Department who happened to be in the “wrong area”. My neighbors are still rebuilding - only one house has been completed.