Opened up the paper this morning to find a front-page article about how hard it is for Pennsylvania constituents to get in touch with their Congressional representatives, especially Republican US Senator Pat Toomey:
Dana Kellerman just wanted to tell her senator to vote against confirming education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos.
So on Monday she made more than 30 phone calls to U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey’s Pennsylvania and D.C. offices, but each time she either got a busy signal or was directed to a voicemail box that was full. She sent e-mails, but received only formulaic responses. Undeterred, she went to his Station Square office with a group of activists who have been appearing there every Tuesday. She had no luck there, either.
“I feel completely ignored,” said Dr. Kellerman, a veterinarian who lives in Fox Chapel.
She isn’t the only one.
Activists across the country, and many in Pennsylvania, say they have been unable to get through to lawmakers’ offices, many of which have been inundated with phone calls and constituent visits since Donald Trump was elected president.
Mr. Toomey, R-Pa., is among the hardest to reach, say some constituents.
What is happening here is being repeated across the country...angry constituents by the dozens, hundreds and thousands are bombarding the offices of their representatives trying to let them know how they feel about the new President and his agenda, and they can’t get through. Voicemail boxes are full, phones aren’t answered and give busy signals and emails pile up by the thousands, essentially ignored.
Increasingly, they are demanding that the representatives hold public and open town hall forums and do so on nights or weekends so working constituents can attend. For many GOP representatives, this seems to be freaking them out:
Brat (R-Henrico) promised to hold a town hall with constituents of the 7th district after Congress finishes work on President Trump's first 100 day agenda. Brat made the comments in a phone interview with CBS 6 after a group of his constituents created a Facebook page calling on Brat to hold a meeting open to the public.
"I know they want to have a town hall, and I'm more than happy to do that, but right now we're doing the first 100 days," Brat said. "Everybody is busy, busy, busy right. If people want me to hold a town hall, you can bet I'm going to do it."
So what Brat has actually told his constituents is: “ I will hold a public forum AFTER I have helped ram through the Trump cabinet, appointees, and agenda in the first 100 days, but I am too busy to meet with them now. They can come see me then and I will let them whine and complain and pretend like I actually care.”
Worse yet, it was learned that Brat, 34 days into those 100 days he will be too busy to meet with his home district constituents WILL somehow find time to fly to AZ for a town hall forum there with another right wing member of Congress. Good luck with THAT David
Virginia Congresswoman Virginia Comstock had two town halls scheduled this past weekend but failed to show up for either, instead sending a staffer who wrote down questions. She claimed it was a scheduling error.
So, with all of that as a forward, just how will the Republicans manage to escape the pressures to hold public forums to face their constituents?
Sean Spicer just showed you how with his press briefing today:
In Spicer’s case, he arranged ahead of time to pipe in Skype feeds from a carefully selected group of fawning “journalists” from the depths of the right wing media cess pool who then proceeded to ask Sean questions for which he had already prepared answers….answers which he then read as responses. Actual journalists actually at the briefing? Sorry, no time left for real questions and real follow ups. Of course FOX news got seats and thought the whole thing was GREAT.
And this is exactly what is going to be prepared over the next several weeks by GOP Congresspeople and Senators under siege from their constituents:
1- Plan public forum
2- Secretly invite known supporters to attend and/or indicate that because of demand seats will be available by reservation.
3- Announce on short notice
4- Somehow manage to provide seats only to supporters.
5- Tell others “Sorry...we just didn’t have the space, but we do have monitors in a meat locker down the street where you can watch if you want, but unfortunately we have no way for you to ask questions.”
Watch…..the Tea Party has great at this stuff including the creation of astro-turf “interest groups” of supposedly concerned voters and so have previous GOP Congress critters. It allows them to say they were open to meeting with constituents while avoiding meeting with those who want to tell them what they don’t want to hear and makes it look like everybody is one big happy family.
And when you come from heavily Republican gerrymandered districts, it really doesn’t matter anyway...UNLESS enough of those voters get really angry at watching their democratic rights stepped on by an increasingly despotic President and his political party.
Keep up the pressure folks and be prepared to deal with it. You are going to have to use social media and contacts to find out when and where these sessions are going to be held. You are going to need to encourage the press, in advance to try acting as private citizens and see how hard it is to get in if there is any indication they seem to be an opponent.
And when the event happens and you can’t get in, you need to be there by the hundreds and thousands standing OUTSIDE and letting the public know the game is rigged.