Protestors confront politicians at town halls megathread

[Brittain33]

Tom Cotton said this weekend that passing the current TrumpCare bill could throw the House Majority into danger, so clearly the town hall meeting he held was effective for the opposition.

[Brittain33]

Republicans broke Town Halls in 2009-2010. Democrats literally copied their playbook.

It's probably a bad thing that getting your message heard means making this Congressman and his staff's lives a living hell for several weeks, but what can be done about it?

[Brittain33]

The point is to stress that the protestors are not a representative cross section of society but consist of that section of the population that actively are attracted to and enjoy taking part in these kind of protests..... Furthermore these kind of people are very much a minority and will rarely act spontaniously.

I'm sorry, while it may be true in places that the protesters are unrepresentative of the district or a minority, that's a completely different claim from saying they are "fake" or "paid" and represent absolutely no one in the district. It's the latter the Republicans are claiming. But there are liberal Democrats in Chaffetz's and Joe Wilson's districts and at least a handful of deplorables in Jose Serrano's.... and it sure does seem in places like Arkansas there are people who aren't partisan Democrats who are angry as hell about losing their healthcare.

[Brittain33]

You admit in some places the protesters are unrepresentative of the district or a minority ?  I'm gonna say nearly everywhere this is the case.  If the average voter in a district has an extreme conservative or left wing viewpoint, the odds are extremely low that they have a congressional representative from the opposite party.  

That makes no sense—the part about the odds being extremely low that a political minority would have a representative of the opposite party. All but the strongest Republican districts have a sizable Democratic-voting population in them. The worst gerrymanders include significant Democratic populations in every Republican district in order to "crack" the population. Of course there is a significant if not dominant number of far-left *and* mainstream left voters in all of these districts.

And let's not forget, some of these town halls are hosted by Senators who represent an entire state!

Again, we're talking about "paid" or "fake" protesters. It's a strawman to refer to anything other than that claim.

[Brittain33]

Again with the strawman.  I never said there weren't any democrats in a republican's district.  I said the odds are that those with extreme left wing views are very likely in the minority if they live in a republican congressman's district.  Same goes for a "Tea Party" protester at a democrat congressman's town hall.

"in the minority": ie.  Very likely to have unrepresentative views from the average voter / majority of voters in the district.

And again, does that make them a "Fake" or "Paid" protester when they attend their congressman's or senator's town hall? No. 

[Brittain33]

The point is that that the far left are a minority even of Democratic voters and they will certainly be a small fraction of the population in Republican held districts, and indeed in most Democrat held districts.

Sorry, but it's not at all clear that the 1000s of people showing up with stories about their healthcare are "far-left." Watch the Arkansas town halls. This isn't the Maoist/Marxist tendency here any more than the old folks showing up at Tea Party events were John Birchers.

Not going to look up the polls now but pretty sure a majority of Clinton voters are mad as hell at the Republicans and Trump. He's not a likable man or a peacemaker, you may have noticed. At least W pretended to work with both sides.

[Brittain33]

It's amazing what 1%ers like George Soros can do.  Good luck getting them to the polls next time.

Welcome to the Atlas Forum!

[Brittain33]

It's amazing what 1%ers like George Soros can do.  Good luck getting them to the polls next time.

Welcome to the Atlas Forum!

hasn't he already been banned

Sorry, I didn't realize I was necroposting...

[Brittain33]

Odd reminder that West Tennessee has two Jewish members of Congress.