If so, demand a TownHall!
The sea change that was the 2010 midterm elections which wrested control of the United States House of Representatives from Nancy Pelosi’s grip had very little to do with election day in November 2010. Election Day was a mere formality. The wave that crashed ashore in November began as a ground swell in August as tens of thousands of concerned citizens confronted, questioned, and conversed with their Representatives in TownHall meetings across the country. What they found was a deeply dissatisfying lack of actual representation. As a result scores of incumbents were defeated.
Four years later many of the replacement representatives who benefited from the August 2010 energy and dissatisfaction are retreating from view, unwilling to hold the same TownHall style meetings from which they so greatly benefitted.
The best way for the electorate to hold public officials accountable is to be informed and engaged. The best way to be engaged is to meet officials in their districts and remind them how folks think outside the Beltway. If members of Congress are not quick to set up TownHall meetings during this August recess, here are a few things you can do to engage them:
Demand a TownHall: Flood their offices in the district and in DC with calls, letters, emails, and faxes demanding a series of TownHall meetings. It doesn’t take much to set one up so don’t let them give you the excuse that it’s too late to pull something together.
Visit Their District Office: Representatives usually keep hours at their district office to meet constituents. Show up in numbers. Be respectful but firm. Be calm. Don’t do anything to discredit your message. This can be very effective. In very large districts, some representatives may have more than one office. Make sure to visit all of them.
Write Letters To The Editor: Elected officials are all the same in at least one respect; they are all hyper-sensitive about bad press. Get a few letters to the editor printed in local papers expressing your views and demanding that the member hold public meetings to hear from constituents.
Hold Your Own TownHall: If all else fails, organize your own TownHall. Invite the incumbent and anyone else running for the seat. Invite the media. Make a name card for the representative and place it on a table at the front of the room with a chair and a microphone. You’ll have a great TownHall whether the representative shows up or not!
The political class in Washington may want to retreat into their insular Beltway enclave and stay there as much as possible, but it is the civic obligation of voters to not let that happen. The longer a representative stays away from the people who put him in office, the less likely it is he will do the things the people sent him there to do.