Cleaver’s other healthcare town hall meeting — the civil one

You’d never know it from watching the news, but there has been some actual town-hall-style dialogue about the complicated medical, economic and policy issues surrounding healthcare reform.

When Congressman Emanuel Cleaver tried to hold one of his regular meetings with constituents last week, protesters converged on the Lee’s Summit coffeehouse with a vengeance, demanding that their voices be heard. Why do we think the loudmouth contingent might not be all that happy to know that actually, Cleaver had already held a town hall meeting in which thousands of people had engaged in an hour of civil Q&A with the congressman on this very issue? Maybe because that meeting didn’t accommodate any made-for-TV shouting.

On Thursday, August 6, Cleaver and his staff conducted a giant conference call with 5th District constituents. Cleaver estimates that 5,000 people participated.