When it comes to local issues, “town hall” meetings with politicians are a failure. The politician attends on the side of one moneyed interest or another to tell the citizenry he is going to sacrifice their interests. The moneyed interest makes a presentation, a low-level friendly in the audience asks a leading question, and the politician expounds on the great service the interest has done for the community. If you have a problem, by this time you’re steamed. So when you do get a chance to talk, you’re going to blow your stack.
The healthcare town halls are top-down affairs on behalf of an elite system to take over decision-making about US healthcare. Those opposed see themselves as unrepresented by the elite media, insurance industry, or elite government — so when they do get a chance to talk, they will freak out.
Town hall – style politicking failed because it didn’t have anything to do with an actual town hall. I have been to enough to know that discussion should take place without politicians first (I’m beginning to think they should never be let in, just informed of the results and told to go vote the way we want). Why politicians have become an impediment to agreement and progress is not hard to discover. I look forward to the young generation of politicians who will figure out that broad populist campaigns are there for the politicians to learn what to do, not for them to tell us what we should swallow.
Elected officials are supposed to be leaders, but I find it rather disingenuous to come to one of these, literally yell at the elected official, then complain you weren’t heard, or worse yet complain the elected official didn’t respond to you when you didn’t let him get a word in edgewise.
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p>We need the elected officials to facilitate our discussions, tell us what is going on in Congress, and let us in on their current thinking. Otherwise, the vast majority of us will have no clue what we’re talking about. We also should never presume to just expect our representatives to simply vote the majority of his constituents no questions asked. They are the ones with access to much more information than most of the rest of us have. MP Edmund Burke put it best:
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p>”…it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasures, his satisfactions, to theirs; and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own. But his unbiassed opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure; no, nor from the law and the constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays, instead of serving you, if he sacrifices it to your opinion.”
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p>I have also attended town halls with elected officials and my experience does not match yours. I have been able to ask pointed but respectful questions, and have been generally satisfied by how my questions have been handled, even if I were not completely in agreement on the substance.
I admit I am not surprised that you would adopt Burke’s attitude towards Republicanism. He didn’t feel the mob could govern. There was a time when the Democratic Party stood for the people and not for a new king.
I’ve always prefered a republic.
with town hall meetings under the Bush administration for eight years…. Oh, that’s right. There weren’t any. Where’s the loylaty pledge I signed last night…..?
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p>The town hall format is a rather recent attempt in American politics to open up a dialogue between the elected and the voters. It’s an atavistic attempt to restore some dignity and equality to American political discourse right in America’s backyard. To the extent that the model has been corrupted, hijacked, proven DOA, whatever, one may say with some confidence that this model is a failure. Given what I’d say now, that’s right.
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p>Genuine discourse is at a premium in this nation. We’re certainly not going to find it when Glenn Beck’s undead have an opportunity to scrawl their Nazi rhetoric on a piece of foam core and command the airwaves without the vetting of a loyalty pledge.
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p>You may be right that the town hall is dead, but not for the reasons you cite.
Sorry, Seascraper;I’ve been to meetings held by Congressman long before healthcare legislation was on the agenda. Town halls meetings aren’t really new…my congressman has been having them for years. I have been able to ask questions and get answers, and they’ve been held in an orderly fashion. Even though I’m a bit skeptical myself about healthcare reform, I wouldn’t use it as a license to abuse my congressman. Only a jerk thinks the loudest guy wins.