Are Town Hall Meetings A Thing of The Past?

Fewer and fewer legislators are holding town hall meetings because they are no longer a place where a representative can have a frank discussion of the issues with their constituents. They have turned into spectacle where special interests go to dominate the meetings.

A representative holding the town hall meetings has to be on top of their game because cell phones,recorders and cameras are recording every word they say;so they put on YouTube minutes after the meeting. The material they record will be edited to produce the sound bite that generates the most hits.

A good example of unintended consequences came to our own Representative  Blake Farenthold in Luling recently.I’m sure the last thing he wanted to talk about was President Obama’s birth certificate or his possible impeachment. He was not prepared,so his answer made national news because as I said the media seems to be addicted to right wing crazy. 

The extreme left is also very actively  hitting their representatives about the recent NSA surveillance programs.Those meetings are far and in between,so they are not widely publicized.

I have never been to a town hall meeting because I keep up with the issues on my own and I would consider any news coming from a town hall meeting as old news. I do think they serve a good purpose for those involved directly with issues our representative will be voting on. For example,this morning I saw a clip of a John McCain town hall meeting. In that clip,John McCain heard a sad story from a woman telling her story of how sequester cuts effectively took away the last bit of help she was receiving. After telling her story; she started crying, telling the crowd that she was not a “taker” because she paid into the system for 30 years. John McCain went over to her,consoled her and repeatedly told that she was not a “taker.”

I would hate for town hall meetings to completely go away but I understand why they are now scarce. They have been taken over by special interest groups but it doesn’t have to be that way because I’ve seen instances where the agitators were shouted down and meeting proceeded as intended.

Farenthold You're No John McCain

I was delighted that Victoria Advocate reporter Melissa Crowe wrote a front page story about the Luling town hall meeting where Representative Blake Farenthold was asked about the possibility of impeaching President Obama.  You can read that article here.

Representative Farenthold’s answer to his constituent, who asked the silly question about impeachment, has been discussed by the pundits nationally and has been published by Politico and the Washington Post.  The media loves right wing crazy.  The congressman had a chance to deliver a teachable moment but instead chose to say that the video of the town-hall meeting was very misleading. The representative is obviously no John McCain nor former Governor Mike Castle or for that matter any  other prominent Republicans, who don’t lower themselves to the fringe element in their party just to win an election.

Megan Cronin, communications director for Representative Farenthold said the congressman was speaking hypothetically because he did not discuss specific charges when he said that there were enough votes in the House of Representatives to bring up charges of impeachment.  I seriously doubt that Speaker Boehner, Majority Leader Eric Cantor,  or representatives Paul Ryan and Tom Cole would join in that effort, and they hold more clout than Farenthold.  Congressman Farenthold should thank his lucky stars that he’s a Republican because if he were a Democrat, Nancy Pelosi would have torn him a new one for talking out of place.

We are in the fifth year of President Obama’s presidency and if Representative Farenthold still questions the president’s eligibility, then he should say so and not blame it on the last Congress.  Put the issue to rest with a public statement.

I’m glad that Victoria County Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Bernal called out the Farenthold’s actions by calling them insulting.

It’s not about a lesson to America. It's about the importance of impeaching a president for high crimes and misdemeanors.  He should have told his constituent that you don’t overturn an election because you don’t like the results.  You handle any grievances that you have at the ballot box.

Neither party can win a general election without the votes of the independents.  Independents have never voted with the extremist.