Protestors confront politicians at town halls megathread

[Ronnie]

I think there have been enough of these events at this point to warrant a megathread containing them all.  If a mod objects for whatever reason, then feel free to delete this thread.

[Ronnie]

Liberal Tea Party movement anyone?

How about a Latte (Liberals Against Trump's Tyranny and Egomania) Party?

I love it!  I feel it could trend on Twitter with some kind of push.

[Ronnie]

People packed the auditorium of a Pat Toomey town hall...without him in it!  Instead, they put up a literal empty suit in the front of the room:

https://twitter.com/INDIVISIBLENEP1/status/834233247307558912

https://twitter.com/StephanieRit/status/834429303978938368

[Ronnie]

Interesting.  Democrats hosted another "empty chair" town hall this morning, this time protesting Dianne Feinstein:

https://twitter.com/Indivisible510/status/835915157637218304

It's the first time so far I've seen protestors attempting to pressure a centrist Democrat to heed their concerns.  This movement may be adopting the contours of the tea party, in the sense of trying to compel representatives to tow more closely to protestors' ideological agenda, by threatening to support primary challengers if they do not comply.

[Ronnie]

Technically doesn't belong in this thread, since it's about a lack of town halls, but:

Flawless Marco: I won't do town halls because people might yell at me

And people call liberals snowflakes?  Give me a break!

[Ronnie]

Technically doesn't belong in this thread, since it's about a lack of town halls, but:

Flawless Marco: I won't do town halls because people might yell at me

And people call liberals snowflakes?  Give me a break!

He's not wrong about the "townhalls" though.  They've been totally hijacked and are no longer productive.  Sad.

I have not seen much evidence to suggest that the people who attend the town halls are not real constituents of their representatives, and do not have real grievances about the direction Republicans want to take the country.  Just because those congressmen won their elections does not mean they should just ignore the minority that does not support them.  Rubio can afford to do so because his next election is in the distant future, 2022.  But that doesn't mean he is doing the right thing.

[Ronnie]

Lindsey Graham gets mercilessly booed at his town hall.  He's too nice to deserve such a thing, right?

http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/322354-graham-booed-at-town-hall-after-saying-he-mostly-agrees-with-trump

[Ronnie]

I wasn't aware that not supporting non-stop funding increases for a military whose budget is already 600+ billion dollars was un-American and qualified as not supporting our troops.

I think their political tactic here resembles Sarah Palin's playbook: trying to drive a wedge between people who perceive themselves to be hard-working, patriotic, genteel, Christian, "real" Americans; and tawdry, military-hating, Hollywood liberal, anti-Americans.  By heightening polarization in this way, they hope they can compel just enough of the country (or their respective districts, states, etc.) to be on their side.

We are reaching (or have already reached) a point in which there is longer even a veneer of civility in our politics.  Politicians and their strategists are keenly aware of the fact that entire swaths of the country hate each other now, and are trying squeeze as much political capital as they can out of it.  It's what Donald Trump did, and I imagine it's going to continue to characterize our politics.

[Ronnie]

I do think that unabashed, undiluted leftism might be the antidote to Trumpism, but progressives and so-called "corporate" types will just need to learn to coexist for the time being, since neither is going anywhere.  Incessant infighting on fairly trivial things like the DNC chair (who is pretty damn progressive in his own right) only empowers the opposition when we really can't afford to do such a thing.  Primary challenges are good, but the left needs to rally around whoever the Dems nominate in races up and down the ballot.

[Ronnie]

Raul Labrador: "Nobody dies because they don't have access to health care".  Gets an earful in response:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2017/05/06/nobody-dies-because-they-dont-have-access-to-health-care-gop-lawmaker-says-he-got-booed/?tid=sm_tw&utm_term=.ca56f084f3ee

[Ronnie]

Epic rant by constituent against Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ). Yes, the same Tom who created the infamous MacArthur Amendment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TDkgIEn5Ac

Wow.  That video is easily the best thing I've seen in a while.  It really needs to go viral.

[Ronnie]

I'm sorry to say, but this thread seems pretty obsolete now that Republicans have almost uniformly decided to forego hosting town halls.  Perhaps we should unpin it unless and until they have a change of heart.