A few weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton and U.S. Rep. Steve Womack came home and endured raucous town hall meetings in Springdale and West Fork, respectively, that essentially gave people who probably didn't vote for them a chance to vent their dissatisfaction with GOP leadership in this country.
In case nobody mentioned it, last fall's presidential contest didn't exactly resolve anything in this country other than who occupies the Oval Office. Rather, it just flip-flopped the makeup of the people in crowds with signs calling for change.
What’s the point?
Republicans have swept a lot of offices across the country, but the question is whether they can listen to enough of the electorate to make their gains last.
As Cotton smartly said at his first town hall meeting of 2017, whether the folks in his audience voted for him didn't matter. He represented all of them as a senator, he said.
What else can a smart politician say? Sure, some of the state's hardest-core conservative lawmakers have been known to treat people who disagree with them about as well as something to be wiped off their shoes. They behave as though they're afraid of full discussion of their political positions.
The demonstrations continued across the nation, making it hard to call what was happening town hall meetings. Many of them were disruptions punctuated only by an occasional few seconds to let the congressman or senator say a few words, providing the fuel to stoke the flames of discord even more among those whose hearts and minds were focused less on conversation than on demonstration.
Some lawmakers wanted to steer clear of direct meetings with constituents, ostensibly because it's hard for them to gain much useful information out of such tumultuous events. The truth is the pitchforks and torches make them nervous. But despite what they may come to believe, politics isn't always about what the officeholder is going to get out of it. Sometimes, their constituents just need a venue in which to speak their minds, and their elected officials need to just listen.
Gov. Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor and former presidential candidate, says he's held about 160 town hall meetings during his time as governor. In the midst of those back-home meetings, he advised GOP lawmakers to toughen up.
"I understand why members of Congress don't like it," Christie said. "But you know what? You asked for the job. Go do it."
Yeah, but he's from Jersey.
John Boozman, Arkansas' senior member of the U.S. Senate, opted for a telephone town hall meeting last month. He's just starting a new six-year term, so he can get away with that.
The people we Arkansans send to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., and all those other representatives from the 50 states can sometimes get a little too isolated. They are 535 kings of the Hill who go long periods without any regular Joes having the audacity to speak forcefully to them. But as mama used to say, sometimes you've got to take your medicine no matter how bad it might taste.
Of course, these lawmakers are in reality taking Donald Trump's medicine, and it can have a bitter flavor. Arkansans aren't likely to get an audience with the president. Few, we suspect, have tee times at Mar-a-Lago. So GOP congressmen must accept the role as stand-in for the president. To do anything less is to risk a reaction we suspect none of them want.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is about as pragmatic a Republican as we can imagine in the current climate. His advice to GOP lawmakers was to pay attention to the negative reactions from constituents. Why? "Because that portends what could happen down the road with increased intensity if we don't handle health care right, if we don't handle all of the promises that we've indicated we want to work on right."
He's right. The Republicans have made sweeping gains in national politics, but also in state and local races. But if they believe they've got a lock on voters no matter how they respond, they're living in a fantasy land. Voters have given the GOP a chance. That is all.
What the Republic Party leaders do with that chance will determine the party's longevity when it comes to the power to lead.
Commentary on 03/25/2017