Commentary

The Left was on grand display in the auditorium of Meridian Middle School last night in a town hall meeting sponsored by Idaho’s Congressman, Raul Labrador. IEA teachers, environmentalists, Planned Parenthood activists, Medicaid recipients and miscellaneous other dependents of government largesse descended to confront the conservative lawmaker and set him straight about why socialism was the cure for what ails us.

For over three hours, Labrador took questions. Well, not really questions.  The event was more like a speech-a-thon in which everyone from college students to old hippies offered soliloquies about the state of the world, hoping to make an appearance on television and embarrass Labrador.

They did not succeed – at least in diminishing Raul Labrador.

Despite the fact that socialists outnumbered conservatives in the auditorium by at least 4-to-1, Labrador patiently waited for some kind of question. He easily handled over a hundred people at the microphone.  Liberal blogger Betsy Russell characterized the meeting as “feisty” – but the crowd was more often rude, arrogant and belligerent.  They supported one another with cat calls, boos and construction paper, likely the inspiration of IEA teachers:  Green ones for agreement, red ones for strong disagreement.  Like some kind of gathering in Pyongyang, hundreds of green squares went up.  At another comment, hundreds of red papers went up.  Red signs.  Green signs.  Red signs.  Very Creepy.

Over and again, Labrador masterfully waited them out, holding breath for the next bombastic speech – something like being held prisoner at a Democrat National Platform Committee meeting.

But the most remarkable thing about Wednesday night was the scientifically-verifiable evidence that “Trump Deranged Syndrome” is very real – even way out here in the West.

Many of those taking microphones hostage demanded that Labrador “do something” about Donald Trump. They clamored for an investigation of Russia, his weekends at Mar-a-Lago, his marriage to Melania, his daughter working in the White House for free.  The crowd clamored for an investigation into the President’s tax returns, his megalomania, his actions in Syria, his budget proposals and his racist plans to overthrow the Constitutional right to immigrate into the United States.

It was clear that this crowd drinks daily from Rachel Maddow’s punch bowl.

There were times when one wished Congressman Labrador offered a more vigorous defense of President Trump or free market principles. But that is probably too much to ask in such a forum.  Reason and facts were not generally well received.

Congressman Labrador acquitted himself well with humor, patience and just plain guts.

But we left the room with real anxiety over the future of our Republic. Those crazy conservative prophets of an earlier generation who warned about the long-term consequences of allowing the NEA free reign in our classrooms are, sadly, vindicated by the display we witnessed last night.