Republican Congressmen have indeed been canceling town halls, but the reasons are more complex than just “angry Democrats.” Many are dodging public forums due to intense pushback from constituents—both Republicans and Democrats—over contentious issues like Trump’s policies, federal spending cuts, and the influence of figures like Elon Musk. House Speaker Mike Johnson even advised GOP members to avoid in-person events, citing disruptions by “professional protesters.” While some blame Democratic activists, the anger spans party lines, with voters frustrated by a lack of accountability. Fear of Trump’s base and potential primary challenges also keeps them in line, amplifying their reluctance to face the public.
Republican Congressmen Are Canceling Town Halls
Ted Rall
Ted Rall is a syndicated political cartoonist for Andrews McMeel Syndication and WhoWhatWhy.org and Counterpoint. He is a contributor to Centerclip and co-host of "The TMI Show" talk show. He is a graphic novelist and author of many books of art and prose, and an occasional war correspondent. He is, recently, the author of the graphic novel "2024: Revisited."
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There are two major types of political dupes in the US recently: those who think 1) a billionaire [or an entire executive committee thereof] can possibly be political populists or 2) progressive politics needs no more legislative output than catchy phrases painted on congressperson’s clothing.
Why is it that generally only dupes of category #1 show their anger when they are betrayed but those of category #2 merely wait in giddy anticipation to see what REALLY revolutionary saying is scribbled on the next simply outrageous evening gown?
I must be a third kind of dupe. I see that Obamacare got passed. It’s not universal health care, but it is an improvement. I see that the Green New Deal got passed (as the Inflation Reduction Act). It’s not everything I wanted, not even most of it, but it is an improvement. I’m the dupe that thinks that the Democrats are headed in the right direction on several important issues (though don’t get me started on Israel and Gaza), and I am focusing my efforts on encouraging them to go further and faster.
As is usual for their modus operandi, the accusation of “professional protesters” is accompanied with no evidence.
To Lee @ March 28, 2025 10:11 AM
One MUST “start on Israel and Gaza.” There is NO negotiation/circumstance/reason/excuse that allows genocide at any time, any place or any perp. The US uniparty is so perniciously depraved that it not only allows it but also funds, arms and politically defends it.
The First Amendment right of free speech is about to vanish completely (after decades of vigorous bipartisan attack) because of it and soon, according to Dem Sen. Schumer, so will the heretofore untouchable right of freedom of religion, as the trouble is apparently due only to non-acceptance of the teachings of the Torah.
Being duped is the ONLY explanation for first having incorporated into our beings the “Never Again” proclamation signifying recognition of and reverence for the suffering of the victims of the Holocaust of WWII but then only to ultimately agree that such recognition/reverence apparently, if totally illogically, included permission for descendants of those victims to perform their own Holocaust II … on a people that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the the first Holocaust.
The Dem Party legislative achievements mentioned are the standard corporate giveaways*** amounting to distraction from the reality of its agenda. WJ Clinton accelerated the neo-liberal horror of Reagan & Thatcher.*** Obama crushed the “Occupy” movement and engineered the 2014 coup^^^ in Ukraine that was the real beginning of the three years of the current conflict there. Of course, the Ukraine project, was really sold by the 24hr/day, 365days/year for 4 years continuous Russia-hate foisted on country by HR Clinton and her minions.
After the hiatus of Trump I, Biden wasted no time getting to the actual provocation of Russia into the situation that was supposed to destroy it, leaving its resources for the US to gobble up. Two months before Russian troops entered Ukraine Biden totally ignored two draft treaty proposals offered by Russia°°° the negotiations over which could have prevented the conflict. Highlights of this disaster including intra-administration discussions on what escalations would or not provoke Russian nuclear response.
Of course, the versatile Biden concurrently presided over the US accepting full responsibility for the genocide, as above, that included the risk of nuclear escalation in an attack on Iran and also continued threats of war on China. All this brought to you by the fellow with the shakiest human rights/neo-con foreign policy career in the senate of any contemporary Democrat – the low light of which was perhaps his co-conspiratorial role, as chair of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, in passage of the grim and grisly 1994 Clinton Crime Bill.
*** see “Surrender: How the Clinton Administration Completed the Reagan Revolution” by Michael A. Meeropol
^^^ not to forget refusing the best opportunity, at that time, to get out of Afghanistan (a decade before it actually happened), the Libya disaster, the initiation of Syria’s destruction and the commencement of what would be almost a decade of attempted destruction of Yemen (a failure that ended well before recent Biden and Trump II attacks)
°°° Treaty between The United States of America and the Russian Federation on security guarantees
https://tinyurl.com/3nj3b5ry
Agreement on measures to ensure the security of The Russian Federation and member States of
the North Atlantic Treaty Organization https://tinyurl.com/ymcnmujn
Agreed, there are many issues on which I vehemently disagree with the Democrats; you list some of them. Carrot & stick: we need to get them to change what they are doing wrong and encourage them faster and further where they are getting it right. But we’re stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to elections: much as I would prefer many a third-party candidate over a Democrat, I know that third-party candidates are far from perfect too, so I am not willing to risk that we will get a Republican. As bad as the Democrats are, the Republicans make them look like the best thing that ever happened. Needless to say, I am a strong advocate for ranked-choice voting in general elections.