The headline in a local newspaper is that newly elected Congressman Lou Barletta has canceled his August Pennsylvania town hall meetings. Barletta is only one of many Congress members who have gone home to their districts for the August recess with no plans for informal public meetings with constituents.
According to an informal poll by the No Labels organization, 60 percent of Congress members have decided against holding town hall meetings during this recess.
My first reaction to Barletta's cancellation of the town hall meeting was disappointment. Too, I suspected many lawmakers were using the tragic attack of Jared Loughner to avoid having to face tough public questions about debt, foreign policy, the economy, and other issues.
Town hall meetings used to give politicians a chance to press the flesh, to give voters a personal and familiar connection with the people who represent them in Washington. They were a place to inform constituents of pending legislation and to gauge reaction.
Now they are an occasion for fractious opposition or advocacy groups to stage targeted attacks where demonstrators hide or disguise their activism. Dissenters have a right to demonstrate, but not to hijack meetings where other people wish to be heard.
The disruption caused by opposition planned public demonstrations quickly ends up on YouTube or other audio-visual media.
There is another reason that traditional town hall meetings are likely to become extinct.
Electronic social media has made drastic changes to the way politicians find out what they're constituents are thinking. It no longer takes a crowded meeting or the dais at a county fair to gauge the sentiment of voters in a congressional district.
All you've got to do is set up a Facebook and Twitter account, put a link up on the government web site and talk to the local newspapers. You'll get the same, shrill, often insulting and anonymous remarks that one might expect in a Congress which has a 10-13 percent approval rating.
The mood of today's electorate can be summed up in one word: angry.
Some of the congress members who are holding town hall meetings have taken the current bitter sentiment in stride.
"I just held a town hall meeting and I'm still waiting for anyone from that 10 percent to show up," Senator John McCain quipped today on Fox and Friends.
Anthony Ventre is a freelance writer who has written for weekly and daily newspapers and several online publications. He is a frequent Yahoo contributor, concentrating in news and financial writing.




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