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    Congress Town Hall Meetings on Endangered Species List

    This story comes from the Yahoo! Contributor Network, where individuals publish their unique perspectives on some of the world’s most popular websites.
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    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.

     

    31 comments

    • John  •  9 mths ago
      The tea baggers have proven one thing. You can lie your way into office. But governing is a different thing. All they have done since getting into office is cry and obstruct. They have not done one thing that would create a job.
    • rob  •  9 mths ago
      THEY HELD THEIR TOWN MEETINGS IN ISRAEL!
    • Bill 1942  •  9 mths ago
      NO TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION
    • Bill 1942  •  9 mths ago
      Most of our Congressional representatives are on the Endangered Species list. That's is because they are about to be fired and voted out of office. Perhaps, their successors will take a more favorable view of meeting regularly with their constituents and telling us the truth. Novel idea, but the time has come.
    • m  •  9 mths ago
      Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
      by Harry S. Truman
    • James Bentley  •  9 mths ago
      if you were a ceo and did nothing to improve the company woul you want to meet the stockholders face to face i dont think so. congress is our leaders we we the tax payer stockholders they dont want to face us . obama has town hall meeting but just lets his supporters in. no one allowed that opposes him. letsclean house in 2012
    • Impeach Obama  •  9 mths ago
      67.9% of Democrats are NOT HOLDING TOWN HALL MEETINGS
      --he he, guess what? More Republicans are holding town halls.... if you don't believe me, go to nolabels dot org, look at the list, do the math and you will see that I'm right. Also, you might want to use that list to contact your slacker representative and let them know that they should do their jobs.
      • Sweet Ole B 9 mths ago
        Are you including ELECTRONIC town hall meetings?
        What ever became of Press the Flesh.
      • Thomas 9 mths ago
        I haven't gotten my invitation to my Republican Representative's only (by-invitation-only) town hall meeting.
    • D  •  9 mths ago
      In November, 2012, voters across the country should vote out all incumbents, regardless of party. Americans deserve better representation in Congress and the Presidency.
    • A still small voice  •  9 mths ago
      Remember all those Tea Party Thugs who turned town hall meetings into a stage for their own theatrics? All the times the gun nuts paraded outside those same meetings? Politics is an excuse for theater.
      • Sweet Ole B 9 mths ago
        OH! You mean like 'Joe the Plumber'.
    • Wyliecoyote  •  9 mths ago
      Yes, I agree with the article, this is going the way of the dodo.
    • Alkebu Barca  •  9 mths ago
      Imagine that Congressmen and women afraid to face their constituents. If ya can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.
    • Ian  •  9 mths ago
      Ahh the Republicans running scared of their constituents. Same old tales of bullying and just plain disappearing.
      • Bill 1942 9 mths ago
        Idiot - that is the Democrats with their union goon squads to cover their #$%$
      • Thomas 9 mths ago
        Guns are supposed to be for White Republicans, not those dark democats.
    • Evan B  •  9 mths ago
      The anger of these Americans is like the anger of children. Demonstrations at town hall meetings are made up of three groups, activists bent on disrupting the meeting, angry but misinformed citizens, angry but uninformed citizens.
      • Ian 9 mths ago
        Communication with one's "representative" is a right. When the Republicans don't want to listen (as usual), they try arguments like yours.
      • Howell 9 mths ago
        Let me get this right,you think if we go to a meeting and agree with what they are shoving down our throats its just fine.But if we disagree with what they are saying we are just a bunch of trouble makers and should be dismissed as nuts,or radicals.You sound just like a politician to me,and I really dont care what I sound like to you.The only way you want to serve your country ,is to serve it to Washington on a platter!
      • Howell 9 mths ago
        Let me add this too.The Republicans,and the Democrats both have sold us out.The 2 party system simply doesnt work anymore,other than to insure that nobody of any real value to the working public has a snowballs chance in well of getting into office.The only real thing that counts in our election process is how much money do you have,and have you been bought and paid for!
    • eddie j  •  9 mths ago
      Most of these congress people are republicans and tea terrorists who are too cowardly to face the people they are stabbing in the back. Republicans are traitors and liars.
      • T.J. Whoopee 9 mths ago
        What flavor is the Kool-Aid Eddie J?
      • Bill 1942 9 mths ago
        Looks like to me that the traitors, liars, and thieves are in the Democrat regime we had for two years - still too largely in place.
      • Sweet Ole B 9 mths ago
        The Dumocrats new definition of terrorism is believing in the US Constitution.
        Count me in this group.
    • Impeach Obama  •  9 mths ago
      67.9% of Democrats are NOT HOLDING TOWN HALL MEETINGS
      --he he, guess what? More Republicans are holding town halls....
    • Opus  •  9 mths ago
      we hired em now they are afraid to face us - when you do nothing by lie and line your own pockets with corporate bribery money AKA campaign contributions how could they have the courage to face us -

      its not the left or the right - this needs to become a battle of poor vs. rich - the peasants need to say enough is enough
    • JohnnieW  •  9 mths ago
      Our elected political figures now shrinking from meeting the people who elected them???? tell us another joke. Been going on for years why do you think they keep pushing for longer and longer terms when we should be doing the exact opposite.
    • Sheryl  •  9 mths ago
      So much for freedom of speech and getting true representation from your congress people.
    • ROBERT  •  9 mths ago
      I can remember so clearly the tea party / Republicans shouting from the roof tops at the top of there combined lungs." WE WILL LISTEN TO WHAT THE AMERICAN PEOPLE WANT!!!!!"
      ......AAAAAAHHHHHHHH guess not.
    • 4nonduopoly  •  9 mths ago
      Congress is mostly made up of Talleyrand's. What Horace Walpole and Napolean said about him applies to many who spin the pretense of serving what used to be "our" republic.
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