Town hall turnout shows Trump good for democracy
Turnout was so light just a few years ago that Rep. Mike Thompson stopped holding town hall meetings in my town of Benicia. “I think eight people came to the last one,” recalled the Napa Valley Democrat, who has served in the House since 1999. Wednesday night, however, more than 150 people gathered in the Benicia High School gymnasium to hold their elected representative to account. Participatory democracy is blooming again.
And we have President Trump to thank for that.
Citizens young and old (but a majority female) came to hear what Thompson was doing about the issues of most concern to them. The program was segmented by topic — education, immigration, the environment, general concerns — and high school students pitched the first questions in each. The town hall organizers wisely had made the students’ participation a priority to train the next generation of engaged citizens.
A tall teenage boy wanted to know how Congress would protect U.S. service members in Yemen, Syria and Mosul, Iraq.
Student Anna Mulrooney asked: “How can you guarantee the safety of Americans without taking away freedom of religion?”
Then the adults lined up at the microphones by the dozen.
Bill Franchini of Benicia was distraught that an Iowa Republican had introduced legislation (HR610) to fund vouchers to help parents pay for private school while dropping the requirement Michelle Obama advocated that public school lunches and breakfasts include fruit, vegetables and whole grains. (Cynically, the subtitle of this bill, which takes benefits from poor kids to aid well-off families, is the “No Hungry Kids Act.”)
One woman, noting a “Dreamer” (an immigrant brought to the U.S. as a child and now dreaming of American citizenship) had been deported earlier that day, was worried about immigration enforcement agents representing themselves as local police. “How do we hold them accountable?” she demanded of Thompson.
Carol Hazenfield of Benicia couldn’t believe the Trump administration is working to kill the Energy Star program, which helps market environmental virtue along with money-saving new appliances. “What can we do to push back such cuts?” she asked.
Kim Thomas of Vallejo said the president terrifies her. “Can everyday people have confidence that Congress will delve into the Russia connection?”
Unlike many town halls across the country, where constituents about is on the chopping block,” he said bluntly.
More than one constituent rose to say that he or she was astonished at how the “other side of the aisle” votes.
Thompson is popular in the Fifth Congressional District, which stretches through portions of Solano, Napa and Sonoma counties. But this event, organized not by the congressman’s staff but by the Benicia chapter of the new activism group Indivisible and the Carquinez Patriotic Resistance, drew many grassroots supporters but few with differing views. It didn’t help constituents understand “the other side of the aisle.” For democracy to truly bloom, we must.