Well…this year not so much.
Here in Minnesota, as around the rest of this great, democratic country, Congresspeople—or should I say Republican Congresspeople—are taking their lead from the trump administration, doing anything they can to avoid hearing how people really feel about the disastrous state of our political leadership.
I suppose some credit’s due our U.S. Rep. Tom Emmer for actually showing up at his town hall meeting—though he did feel he had to warn citizens that if they got out of hand he would simply leave. Still, he needn’t have worried that much since they chose a hall seating just 75 people. And no worries about the other 1,000 attendees acting up either; they all had to stand outside.
Newly-elected GOP Rep. Jason Lewis was too scared to appear in person at his gathering with constituents. He conducted his “town hall” by telephone, if you can believe it.
And then there’s GOP Rep. Erik Paulsen. He didn’t even attempt to listen on the telephone to the folks who elected him. Even his spokesperson kept his distance, issuing a prepared statement excusing his boss because of his “long history of meeting with people in his district.” How about this time, Erik?Funny, I thought it was the elected
public servant who’s supposed to
listen.
LIKE THE PLAGUE
Elsewhere, those Congresspeople with the stomach for it faced pointed criticism about everything from the aimless threats to the Affordable Care Act, to gutless, mostly-ineffective immigration policy, to sweeping Trump administration conflicts of interest and collusion with Russia.
But, again, there were plenty who simply turned and ran, in one way or another, from their fundamental obligation to listen to the folks back home.
In Utah, GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz went on the offensive, accusing people at his town hall of “bullying and an attempt at intimidation,” and claiming those who questioned him “included people brought in from other states to disrupt the meeting.”
After his raucous town hall, Louisiana Republican Senator Bill Cassidy lamented that “unfortunately, people came in with their prejudices, and with their prejudice, they would not listen.” Funny, I thought it was the elected public servant who’s supposed to listen.
Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) may just have taken the cake, though. Defending his decision not to meet his constituents in person, he cited “the threat of violence,” referring specifically to the 2011 shooting that severely injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six others.A true conservative vision of American
Values…has been hijacked by a very
few men who have very little worth
beyond that they place on themselves.
LIFE OF THE PARTY
And so it went across the country. Little wonder, I suppose, for a party whose crass new leader, predictably, went into knee-jerk tweets of denial. “They fill up our rallies with people that you wonder how they get there, but they’re not the Republican people that our representatives are representing.”
This is what the party that, not so many years ago, could have proudly been called the party of Lincoln, has come to. The party built on generations of thoughtful policy-making, respectful communication, civic engagement, and frequent cooperation across the aisle has, in just a few short years, been squandered by a handful of self-serving, desperately insecure, soulless authoritarians who believe the time-honored values of the United States of America no longer serve their interests. I hope they—and we—will keep it up. 
And, instead of standing up to the outrage, weak-kneed politicians across the country have chosen this perverted version of party over principle. That’s what all these angry Americans are expressing at the town hall forums across the country. Now, whether the representatives they elected—and who are supposed to be working for them—ever come out of hiding or not, I hope they—and we—will keep it up.
