Massive Town Hall for Sen. Wyden

Eyewitness Report:   Big Win for Senator Ron Wyden

Large crowds are showing up at Town Meetings.   Who are these people?   Democrats who are engaged in a way they were not prior to the election.   

Trump Tweet

Republican lawmakers are being besieged by angry crowds at public events.   Trump and lawmakers are doing what they can to delegitimize the large crowds, saying the anger is fake, the crowds paid, and they are organized by "liberal activists."   They have a "playbook" and it involves focusing the attention of lawmakers on the grievances and desires of their constituents.

The visuals at the events make interesting television, whether the reception is pro or con:  Republican office-holders face angry questions about the problems caused when health insurance benefits are lost.  Confrontation is interesting.     Democratic office-holders see large crowds of supporters, cheering.  That, too, is interesting TV.

Wyden Town Hall: Wes Brain, Kevin Stine

The Wyden Town Hall in Ashland was huge--about 2,500 people in attendance, which I judged by counting off numbers of people in the gymnasium's sections, then counting sections. About 600 were high school students, the rest were people from the community. I personally received notices of Senator Wyden's Town meeting by email from several sources including the local Democratic Party, from Wyden's office, from several Facebook sources, and from a couple of groups that are hold-overs from prior campaigns, plus directly from a local Indivisible group for my congressional district.  

Wyden Town Hall: Jessica Sage and Susan Saladoff

Trump and Republicans imply that there is something artificial or sinister about the organizing and communication.  In fact, it is simply the viral effects of Facebook posts and forwarded emails.  In a show of hands at the Wyden event about half the people said they were involved in some way with Indivisible, a new group inspired by election disappointment and following the Indivisible Practical Guide to influencing the course of government.

The Indivisible Practical Guide is public, simple, and realistic from my experience as a Congressional Aide.  In a matter of fact way it reports the obvious: that Congressmen and Senators want to be liked, that they enjoy the approval of crowds, that they want to be re-elected, and they want good media reports.  The guide advises people to show up at meetings and let congressmen and senators know how you feel, don't accept vague assurances, and keep at it.  If your representatives don't do what you want, embarrass them into doing what you want by being in their faces.  There is nothing sinister or revolutionary or undemocratic about the Practical Guide.  Quite the opposite.  It urges people to exercise their rights the smart way, by encouraging ones representatives to represent you.  It is democracy.   It is the right of the people peaceably to assemble and petition their government for redress of grievance, just like it says right there in the First Amendment.  Read the Practical Guide yourself:   Click Here

Local Newspaper Coverage

Fair chance to ask a question.

The Wyden event was what a legislator loves:  giant and supportive crowd of people who look like motivated voters.  People who wanted to speak or ask a question were given tickets which numbers were drawn at random.   People asked questions that Senator Wyden was delighted to answer, to the approval of the crowd.  Wyden told the delighted crowd that he had seen 2,500 people the prior day in Eugene and had seen 800 people in Sisters, Oregon, a town of only 2,000 people.  This was participatory democracy at work.

The secondary payoff for the office holder is a great media report on the event.  This Mail Tribune story and headline is as good as it gets.

Meanwhile, Republicans.

Republicans congressmen are getting a different reception.  They got elected on a platform of repealing Obamacare and replacing it with something terrific.     Voters are skeptical and angry and those people are encouraged by the Indivisible and its Guide , plus local Democratic groups to show up.   They are experiencing what legislators hate:  angry crowds of people who look like motivated voters, with the media there to see it.

TV news depicts angry crowds holding signs and asking tough questions, especially about the repeal of the ACA.   Congressman Jason Chaffetz's Town Hall  was typical.   His response was also typical: the crowds were manufactured, the protesters paid, their behavior obstructed democracy.   Chaffetz looked besieged.  His answers on replacing Obamacare are unsatisfactory.  Republicans don't have a plan.

Chaffetz crowd chants "Do your job."

Some congressmen have cancelled Town Meetings and have gone to telephone call-ins.  Calls can be controlled and there is no televised image of the legislator being shouted at.  A disembodied voice is not as immediate and compelling as a live person with a problem.

Congressman Greg Walden, Chair of the committee tasked with finding a replacement for a repealed Obamacare,  is taking that approach.  He has no answers yet on replacement of Obamacare, and he resorted to telling worried people to wait and have faith.  So, too, Congressman Louie Gohmert, who received national attention when he cited the example of Gabby Giffords, a congressman who was shot after an event in Arizona. 

No live Town Hall events

Gohmert wrote in a newsletter that "agitators from other states" were involved in getting people to attend these Town Hall meetings.  He called their efforts "underhanded" because they are trying to distract us from the job of repealing Obamacare, he said.

 "Unfortunately, at this time there are groups from the more violent strains of the leftist ideology, some even being paid, who are preying on public town halls to wreck havoc and threaten public safety."  He would hold telephone town meetings.  They would be more convenient for everyone.

The meta message is that Republicans are in retreat.  They are unable to face their constituents because they are disliked and untrusted by the people.  They are responding by attacking the crowds, saying the crowds are the result of "outside agitators."   This is a delicate situation for Democrats.  As long as the crowds are reasonably orderly the attack is counterproductive.   The optics would switch if the crowds seem disorderly.   

Ideal for Democrats:    The people versus the Republican Congressmen.
Ideal for Republicans: The police versus disorderly rioting Democrats.

So far, Democratic crowds are mostly behaving.  But Republicans are already calling it dangerous and large crowds are hard to control.