Iowa

rurallib

(63,324 posts) Thu May 11, 2017, 09:19 AM May 2017

Well written commentary on a Rod Blum town hall [View all]

http://iowastartingline.com/2017/05/10/after-rod-blums-forum-my-mixed-feelings-on-the-anger-and-lies/

"Like many of us, I’m new to this level of political engagement. But at the events I’ve attended since January–mostly legislative forums with state-level lawmakers–the mood among participants could fairly be described as skeptical but optimistic. There’s been a lot of hope at these events, a hope that motivates tough questions and criticisms of legislators who would otherwise serve as mouthpieces for far-right policy mills. There is belief here, faith that with tireless participation, we can influence the laws that impact our lives and work and future. I’ve left them feeling invigorated, engaged, grateful, connected to my community. That’s no small thing. In fact, it’s a necessary condition for functioning democracy.

Blum’s town hall was not that. From the moment it began, the crowd wouldn’t let him speak. As he attempted to make some opening remarks, their boos, insults, and other shouted comments of contempt swelled to drown him out before he could get halfway through a sentence. It was 7:22 before the first participant could ask a question, and the pattern continued through the full 90 minutes, everyone competing to be the loudest and cleverest voice in the room. This is not going to work, I thought. We have to talk to him. We have to let him talk to us.

My first instinct was to call the mood hostile, but that doesn’t feel exactly right. It implies that attendees are hecklers, unjustifiably disrupting the political process for selfish ends. That’s not what was happening. What was really striking and different, I think, from other political forums, was the heaviness of the affect in the room. I’m not sure I’ve been in a place so palpably saturated with fear, anger, resentment as that gymnasium was. I understand it. I understand the depth of that feeling. I, too, fear for my quality of life and my financial future when the facts of my biology are coded as a “pre-existing condition,” and I fear for the health of my community when I see the reintroduction of policies that encourage selfish decision making over an ethic of care for others."

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