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I AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
Right before his comparatively sedate coffee shop question session, U.S. Representative Emanuel Cleaver (Kansas City liberal Democrat), made use of a new emerging Democrat tactic: the “telephone town hall meeting.” Seen by some as a method to distance themselves from the public and more easily elude questions, the method is now being used by other representatives across the nation. In fact, the good Reverend’s tela-medicine show even called my house.
After a series of heated and rowdy town hall meetings all over America, it seems more and more of our alleged representatives are choosing the telephone over face-to-face venues when it comes to the question of health care and other hot topics. They say it is much more civil (and controlled). Instead of fly-over country, we now seem to have talk-over (the phone) country, too.
Surprisingly, Cleaver did press the flesh to some extent and show some courage this weekend. However, when pressured, he refused to talk directly about health care with the crowd – using the excuse that there wasn’t a finished bill in congress, just a list of committee proposals. (Ward, I’m worried about the Cleaver.)
The small coffee shop setting (why not a large town hall?), did leave out a blocks-long gathering of people wanting their voices heard as they crowed sidewalks and streets. And yes, like in many of the town hall meetings, they argued, talked, harangued, chanted and brandished competing protest signs (can you guess which side was the organized one?)
As fewer of our representatives are willing to appear in public and more and more hold smaller or no meetings at all while resorting to the telephone town hall meeting façade in order to distance them from and ultimately numb protests, it appears that congress and the senate will only become less responsive to the average citizen.
The government that was once for and by the people appears to only be for itself anymore. Its response to the questions and concerns of average Americans continue to be that of distain, finger-pointing, treats and name-calling. If they continue to dismiss us as angry mobs, Nazis, tea-baggers, “birthers” and other names, can the pitch forks be far behind?
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