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More Than 200 Republicans in Congress Are Skipping February Town Halls with Constituents
VICE News reports on Feb 16:
Members of Congress are set to return to their districts this weekend for their first weeklong recess since Donald Trump's inauguration. Heading home during legislative breaks is nothing new, but this year most Republicans are foregoing a hallowed recess tradition: holding in-person town halls where lawmakers take questions from constituents in a high school gym, local restaurant, or college classroom.
After outpourings of rage at some early town halls--including crowds at an event near Salt Lake City yelling "Do your job!" at Rep. Jason Chaffetz, chairman of the House Oversight Committee--many Republicans are ducking in-person events altogether. Instead they're opting for more controlled Facebook Live or "tele-town halls," where questions can be screened by press secretaries and followups are limited--as are the chances of becoming the next viral meme of the Left.
For the first two months of the new Congress, the 292 Republicans have scheduled just 88 in-person town hall events--and 35 of those sessions are for Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, according to a tabulation conducted by Legistorm. In the first two months of the previous Congress in 2015, by contrast, Republicans held 222 in-person town hall events.
[...] "What happens in politics is that over time, you can get increasingly insulated from people that have a strongly held point of view that's different [from yours]", [said Rep. Mark Sanford of South Carolina]. Sessions like tele-town halls aren't a good substitute, he said, because "oftentimes they will screen their calls and those forums can be manipulated".
Republicans who get [verbally] roughed up at their town halls have taken to dismissing the attendees as professional organizers. [...] While there is no evidence of paid protesters attending town halls, it is true that Democratic activists have been organizing to manufacture viral moments of confrontation like the tea party movement did in the summer of 2009.
[...] One strategy for activists has been to host their own town halls and invite their representatives to attend. [...] Another method has been to confront senators and representative in public places and demand they hold a town hall.
Examples throughout the week at AlterNet and The Daily Hampshire Gazette of Northampton, Massachusetts.
Original Submission #1 Original Submission #2 Original Submission #3
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday February 25 2017, @08:24PM
The comment is currently at +4.
Others have added other names to the (meta)thread.
Clearly, there is interest in seeing the names here on this page.
I dropped some of your fragment identifiers
When I expend effort to make something more useful and someone clumsily/offhandedly destroys my efforts, I become agitated.
Forgive the hell out of me for being human and taking pride in my work and not wanting it to be treated like crap.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 27 2017, @08:20AM
When I expend effort to make something more useful and someone clumsily/offhandedly destroys my efforts, I become agitated.
You still haven't said what the point of these URL fragments was supposed to be. As I noted earlier, I loaded the URL in question, with [vice.com] and without [vice.com] the fragment and saw no difference in the final webpage. It looks to have the same appearance, same browsing behavior, and roughly the same download time. Perhaps you'd get your wish, if you'd tell us what the advantages of the original URL were supposed to be? Editors can always fix links after the fact.
I will add that I find your article contributions to be interesting. I definitely don't want to see them stop coming. But I just don't see what the problem is supposed to be here.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @09:13PM
You're playing catch-up. [soylentnews.org]
These are not included specifically for -you- nor for anyone else who is fully able-bodied. [soylentnews.org]
(Try blocking CSS and see how the links work, with and without.)
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 27 2017, @11:36PM
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Tuesday February 28 2017, @04:37PM
Vision problems? Am I somehow the only person whose browser actually renders these pages differently with the URL fragments in place? Are you using some weird or ancient browser? 'Cause it works for me on Firefox 51, Chrome 50, and even IE 11 (I'm at work...). Or maybe you're using some massive resolution that fits the entire article in one screen?
I mean sure it can help with screen readers and such knowing where to start -- but I've got perfect eyesight (well, with these contacts in...) and it still helps me in the exact same way by jumping past headers and ads all the other junk.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday February 28 2017, @05:01PM
Am I somehow the only person whose browser actually renders these pages differently with the URL fragments in place?
Using Firefox here. The URL fragment I looked at didn't look any different to me, with or without.