Wednesday's print column
Emcee: Are you going to be on your best behavior?
Crowd: No!
This moment, from an NPR report on last weekend's Fancy Farm picnic, the traditional kickoff for political campaigns in Kentucky, was yet another illustration of an increasingly obvious truth.
How to put it nicely? Americans have outgrown the town hall meeting.
Technology and the tenor of the times have combined to render obsolete the quaint idea that people of often sharply differing opinions can gather in the presence of their elected leaders for a productive, even enlightening exchange of views.
When Republican incumbent Sen. Mitch McConnell spoke to the Fancy Farm masses, supporters of other candidates tried to drown him out with loud chants. When his presumptive main rival, Democratic Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, spoke, she got the same treatment.
It wasn't quite a replay of the heated, confrontational town halls of August 2009, when angry partisan mobs shouted down their congressmen in scores of made-for-YouTube moments. But the summer recess in Washington started just last Friday, and Gallup and NBC News/Wall Street Journal polls show congressional approval ratings are now roughly half what they were four years ago.
The American town hall tradition dates back centuries, as do critiques of its fundamental flaw: "In all very numerous assemblies," observed James Madison in Federalist 55 (1788), "passion never fails to wrest the scepter from reason."
Especially when passion is organized. In spring of 2009, Connecticut tea party activist Bob MacGuffie authored a widely distributed memo, "Rocking the Town Hall, Best Practices," that served as a blueprint for those who sought to turn congressional meet-and-greets into taunt-and-shrieks about then-pending health care reform legislation.
"Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half," the memo advised. "The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington.
"Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early. . . . The goal is to rattle him."
The goal is to be heard, in other words, not to listen. To heckle, not to converse. To make a point by making a scene, preferably one that goes viral and fuels your movement.
Which sounds like a protest rally, not a meeting in which an elected official takes the pulse of the constituency and responds to requests and suggestions.Nothing wrong with protest rallies, so long as they don't turn violent. But they don't belong at town hall meetings, which ideally look like the moment captured in the 1943 Norman Rockwell painting "Freedom of Speech," in which a Vermont man stands to speak his mind among plainly skeptical yet respectfully silent townsfolk.
Presumably, then, he was not jeered and ridiculed by sign-carrying rabble-rousers (bused in by fake grass-roots organizations) who first hung their foes in effigy outside the meeting hall.
Just a guess.
Activists on the political right took the lead in undermining the town hall. But those on the left have learned well from their techniques, and this summer both sides are reportedly planning to — how to put it nicely again? — orchestrate their contributions to these events; to turn "Congress on Your Corner" into "Your Congressperson Cornered," as Stanford University's James Fishkin put it.
Fishkin heads Stanford's Center for Deliberative Democracy and advocates replacing the shrill town hall meeting with a gathering of a "scientifically selected microcosm of a lawmaker's constituents" to provide "informed feedback" representing the district.
Sounds a bit fussy to me, but closer to the ideals of democracy than ceding the platform to the loudest, angriest factions. And a sight better than Twitter town halls, admission fee barriers and other options some representatives adopted after the harum-scarum of 2009.
In fact, prior to the 2011 August recess, the No Labels nonpartisan group surveyed all members of Congress and found 68 percent of the Democrats and 51 percent of the Republicans were not planning town halls. The Washington Post reported then that the number of such meetings had fallen 24 percent since 2009.
I found no comparable figures for 2013, but my suggestion is to cut the number to zero. The Internet, 24/7 cable news and relentless operatives in these polarized, high-volume times have turned meeting rooms into stages.
And congressional representatives who want to get a handle on what their constituents really think instead of simply getting an earful need to get off their — how to put it nicely? — chairs, walk around and ask.
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Editorial board intern Andrea Garcia-Vargas contacted each member of the Illinois congressional delegation Tuesday about town-hall meeting plans and generated this report based on or quoting responses from spokesmen or other officials:
Representative Bobby L. Rush (D - 01)
Not aware of any upcoming townhall meetings
Representative Robin Kelly (D - 02)
It’s possible but we’re still finalizing the schedule, which will probably come out later this week.
Representative Dan Lipinski (D - 03)
None scheduled
Representative Luis V. Gutierrez (D - 04)
One, Aug. 24 in Chicago with Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Representative Mike Quigley (D - 05)
8/6 from 6:30-7:30 PM: Sheffield Neighborhood Association Meeting at DePaul's John Richardson Library Room 400’
8/7 from 12-2 PM: Congress on your Corner at Austin-Irving Park Library
8/10 from 9:30-10:30 AM: Coffee and Conversation at Beans & Bagels (2601 W Leland Ave)
Representative Peter Roskam (R - 06)
At present, he isn’t scheduled for any events in a town hall format, but... Congressman Roskam has an efficient, technologically advanced
teletown hall operation that he uses whether he’s at home or in DC.
Through these teletown halls, the congressman can regularly interact
with thousands of constituents at one time, taking their
questions and listening to their ideas. So far this year, over 144,000
constituents have shared their thoughts through these forums
Representative Danny K. Davis (D - 07)
Six planned for August
Representative Tammy Duckworth (D - 08)
Has “Congress on your corner,” which she said is much like townhall (informal, open to public, set up tents). 2 tomorrow—one in Elmhurst and the other in Streamwood—one on Saturday at Lombard
Representative Janice Schakowsky (D - 09)
Representative Brad Schneider (D - 10)
Congressman Schneider will spend the district work period meeting with constituents at both private and public events across the district, in addition to continuing employee townhalls as part of his Brad at Your Business initiativeRepresentative
Bill Foster (D - 11)
Congressman Foster has community meetings in
the district scheduled throughout the month...to hear from constituents and discuss important
issues like jobs, education, economic development
and immigration reform
Representative William Enyart (D - 12)
Representative Rodney Davis (R - 13)
Representative Randy Hultgren (R - 14)
Sent a list of a dozen "open office" events in McHenry Country.
Representative John Shimkus (R - 15)
The Congressman does not hold town halls, instead he holds open office hours, which are one-on-one meetings.
Representative Adam Kinzinger (R - 16)
Five public forums in the first 2 weeks of August, then he’s taking military duty on Air National Guard for the 2nd half of the month.
Representative Cheri Bustos (D – 17)
“None that we are releasing at this time”
Representative Aaron Schock (R - 18)
10 in month of August. 3 on August 5 in Eureka, Hayworth, and Manito. 2 on August 7, in Hanna City and Mt. Sterling. 1 on August 9, in Jacksonville. 1 on August 10, in Chatham and Petersburg. 1 on August 13, in Macomb. 1 on August 15, in Lincoln.
Senator Dick Durbin (D)
We prefer smaller scale events focused on specific topics. We don't have any town halls planned for this recess. He does participate in a "town hall" style meetings with Sen. Kirk twice a month in DC. Those are open to questions on all topics and to any Illinois constituent who is visiting the Capitol.
Senator Mark Kirk (R)
LIST WILL BE UPDATED
LINKS:
James Fishkin Stanford’s Center for Deliberative Democracy
Congressional job approval polls
Federalist 55
Article: Virtual town halls gaining popularity (Politico 2009)
Article:
The Chutzpah of the Town Hall Libel (American Thinker, 2009)
Memo: Rocking the Town Hall, Best Practices (2009)
Article: Anti-health care protesters hang freshman Democrat in effigy.(2009)