Emotional town halls become centerpiece of Bernie Sanders' campaign

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

For his supporters, Sanders' policies promise a balm to overwhelming pain.

One attendee at Sunday's town hall told Sanders debt collectors entered her son's room while he was being cared for in the ICU.

"They had to call security on me because I lost my mind," she said. "There's no way out for us other than you, Bernie."

As others shared their stress and agony, audience members wiped tears from their eyes. Sanders at times paced back and forth, shaking his head as he stared at the ground. The senator consoled those who shared.

"You're among friends," he told them.

(snip)

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/emotional-town-halls-become-centerpiece-of-bernie-sanders-campaign/

[theaocp]

1. Murica. Where "anything" is possible.

k&r

[George II]

2. "...debt collectors entered her son's room while he was being cared for in the ICU..."?

[BlueMississippi]

3. I know!! Clairvoyant and prescient debt collectors

They could foresee debt before it was even incurred.

[George II]

4. From my experience working for a short time at a hospital, my brother's 20-year career...

...as an administrator and wife's 45-year career as a nurse, "debt collectors" wouldn't make it past the lobby. And if somehow they did, they surely wouldn't have made it past the ICU nurses' station.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Really, such a thing could never happen?

(snip)

Abusive Hospital Debt Collection Tactics
If you are uninsured or owe prior medical debts, you may be exposed to aggressive debt collection tactics by the same hospital that is supposed to be treating you. Rising complaints from hospital patients reveal a pattern of abusive practices by medical debt collectors who:

disguise or hold themselves out as hospital employees

demand that patients pay outstanding medical bills before they can receive medical treatment

discourage patients from going to the emergency room, and

gain unauthorized access to patients' medical information and use that information to extract payments on medical bills.

These types of practices are troublesome because they potentially violate not only federal and state debt collection laws, but also patient privacy rules under the federal Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). For more information on HIPAA's privacy rules, go to the HIPAA website established by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

(snip)

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/watch-out-undercover-hospital-debt-collectors.html

[George II]

6. Not in an Intensive Care Unit. Even as an employee, a messenger while in college....

....who all the nurses recognized, I never got past the nurses' station. The unit itself was behind a locked door, visitors were limited to immediate relatives, and then for only 10 minutes an hour.

[BlueMississippi]

7. I've experiene working in ICUs

Only immediate family is allowed inside, maximum 2 at a time and only during visiting hours.

[treestar]

28. +1 I experienced that

Getting into ICU is very policed.

[sheshe2]

8. Not ICU.

They are behind a locked door.

I have two family members that work in one. It is not an easy in.

[Docreed2003]

27. No way this could happen

As you and others have pointed out...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

9. "There's no way out for us other than you, Bernie."

There's no greater setup for despair than thinking only one person can save you.

[Uncle Joe]

10. Yes there is.

There's no greater setup for despair than thinking only one person can save you.

In the highly promoted belief that no one could or should.

“The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.”

― Johann von Goethe

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

- Frederick Douglass

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them.

- Frederick Douglass

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. Point taken, putting it on a range ("no greater") wasn't helpful. I'll rephrase.

I think it's a bad idea to put all your hopes for something in one person. It's a great way to be disappointed.

[George II]

12. Your first quote of Frederick Douglass is prophetic. Explains a lot about today's proposals...

...and plans.

Lots of "crops without plowing" and very little "plowing up the ground" being done.

Think about it.

[Uncle Joe]

13. You omitted the best part

Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.

- Frederick Douglass

and it goes hand in glove with Goethe's quote.

“The best slave is the one who thinks he is free.”

― Johann von Goethe

I suggest you do the same.

[sheshe2]

15. The fact that you are quoting Frederick Douglass...

And equating the need/right, to healthcare to hundreds of years of slavery boggles my mind. Hundreds of years of slavery. Stolen from their country. Brought. Bought. Sold. Beaten. Raped. Used. Abused. Enslaved.

I am speechless.

[Uncle Joe]

16. That's not an equation of the two, not even close but

the psychological principle behind the quotes are the same as letting tens of thousands of Americans die every year, hundreds of thousands go bankrupt or be enslaved to debt for the sin of needing health care; which is a human right because the wealthiest entities are the most predominant considerations in modern day America.

The same greed and power considerations were used for several hundred years in America to the detriment of the republic to bring about and sustain slavery.

I hope you get your voice back.

[sheshe2]

33. Thank you for your concern about my voice.

No worries. I will never lose it.

[Uncle Joe]

34. Cool.

Peace to you sheshe.

[Garrett78]

19. Sanders has developed a cult following. As a result...

...he'll impact the primary results without having any shot at the nomination. His following is substantial, which means he'll have an impact on the results in IA, NH and elsewhere, yet the race will essentially be over for him after New Hampshire. There's no reason to think he'll do much, much better among Black voters than he did in 2016, which means he has no chance (it really is that simple, yet many of his supporters are blind to that reality). But his followers will be convinced that he was robbed, and many of them will either abstain or vote 3rd party in the general election.

[George II]

23. Anyone here familiar with the 1940s radio show and then television show in the 1950s....

...."Queen for a Day"?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. Didn't Trump say "I alone can fix it"?

We must never take the position that there is only one person who can possibly "fix" things. That kind of thinking leads to irrational hero worship and personality cults.

[sheshe2]

14. A balm?

For his supporters, Sanders' policies promise a balm to overwhelming pain.

balm
[bä(l)m]

NOUN
a fragrant ointment or preparation used to heal or soothe the skin.
"a skin balm for use after shaving"
synonyms:
ointment · lotion · cream · salve · liniment · embrocation · rub · gel · [more]

something that has a comforting, soothing, or restorative effect.
"the murmur of the water can provide balm for troubled spirits"
synonyms:
relief · comfort · ease · consolation · cheer · solace · alleviation · [more]

a tree which yields a fragrant resinous substance, especially one used in medicine.
the resinous substance yielded by a balm.
a bushy herb of the mint family, with leaves smelling and tasting of lemon.

Incredibly poor choice of words by whoever authored this article.

[Uncle Joe]

17. I suppose that depends on whether ones truly believes that health care should be a human right and

one's own painful experience with our greatly dysfunctional health care system designed more to make profit for the insurance and drug corporations than actually administering health care for the American People.

If one truly doesn't believe that health care should be a human right and hasn't suffered from our greatly dysfunctional health care system; designed more to make profit than taking care of the general welfare our nation, then I suppose Bernie would be viewed more as an irritant.

I believe the choice of words describing the feelings of Bernie's supporters at his town halls are spot on, just because you don't feel the same doesn't negate them.

[betsuni]

18. "If one truly doesn't believe that health care should be a human right ...

then I suppose Bernie would be viewed more as an irritant."

Are you accusing sheshe of not believing health care should be a human right? If one doesn't think Medicare for All will get enough votes, or doesn't like Bernie, it means they don't think health care is a human right? Why? Democrats have always thought universal health care is a human right.

[ehrnst]

22. Ad hominem fallacy

Ad hominem (Latin for "to the person" ), short for argumentum ad hominem, typically refers to a fallacious argumentative strategy whereby genuine discussion of the topic at hand is avoided by instead attacking the character, motive, or other attribute of the person making the argument, or persons associated with the argument, rather than attacking the substance of the argument itself.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

[sheshe2]

24. Thank you!

[George II]

29. Except for anecdotal evidence (and scattered personal testimony, some of which....

...as in this case is questionable, has anyone documented that our health care system is "greatly dysfunctional" or that it's "designed more to make a profit than taking care of the general welfare"?

We see lots of blanket statements thrown out, but little or no evidence.

[revmclaren]

31. Exactly.

"Is there no balm in Gilead?" Quote the Raven, "Never more!".

In Poe's context, he was asking if there was a medicine to heal a broken heart.

There will be no medicine to cure the broken hearts when Sanders doesn't get the nomination.

Hopefully, all will vote blue no matter who.


ONLY!!! 2019 and beyond.

[Uncle Joe]

32. I hear you revmclaren,

In the Bee Gees context, "how do you mend a broken heart?"

I suppose we should all just..gulp.. give up on love.

[sheshe2]

35. You funny.

[Uncle Joe]

36. Well it was a toss up between that and this,

Last edited Sat Sep 28, 2019, 08:33 PM - Edit history (1)

but I thought the former was more optimistic.

[ehrnst]

20. Town halls are usually about candidate fielding questions on the issues and their policies

and politicians answering them.

Senator Sanders town halls seem to be about people venting emotionally about a particular issue that Sanders is comfortable with, and Sanders being able to respond, "This is just terrible, and I am the only candidate who is as upset about this as you are."

They do give him a chance to return to the anger-based appeal that he's used in the past.

Not to mention, this kind of session certainly avoids the tendency he has of becoming uncomfortable and sometimes defensive during one-on-one interactions with people in forums where he was asked questions, and the attendees didn't consist of supporters who simply wanted to hear him expound on his stump speech issues. It seems to be geared for supporters not to learn about how is approach to medical debt differs from the other candidates, but to experience a catharsis, and meet, support and beseech the personality who clearly believe is the only one with any concern for them to PLEASE win this, because he is their only hope.

These are more like the "listening sessions" that Hillary Clinton held, where she gathered information from people.

However, I don't think that these gather any new information for the candidate (other than to give some anecdotes of emotional personal stories told him, for when he's stumping for his version of M4A - which he now promises in just TWO years, unlike the OTHERS!), as much as they are a smaller scale rally for him, where he personally reassures and validates the anger and frustration of some individual supporters, in a controlled environment, instead declaiming it from a podium several yards away.

And it does attempt to address the image he has of being prickly - even to his staff, and not really "warm," like the recently agreeing to selfies with people, and going to ice cream socials.


https://time.com/longform/bernie-sanders-2020/

[betsuni]

21. +1

[sheshe2]

25. +++

[BlueMississippi]

30. It is a new political innovation

BS is the first Yelp candidate!

[corbettkroehler]

37. Little Wonder Activists In All Of Iowa's 99 Candidates Have Endorsed Him Publicly

Listening tours matter.