The Town Hall Conundrum
There is an old rhetorical trap frequently used by gotcha journalists designed to back an interviewee into a corner. For example: “Have you stopped beating your dog yet?” If the answer is “yes,” the respondent has admitted to beating his/her dog. If the answer is “no,” well then the respondent apparently continues to abuse the poor animal.
This is the situation in which Members of Congress find themselves on the holding or not holding of town hall meetings.
Smithsonian magazine traced the very first town hall meeting in the United States to Dorchester, Massachusetts in 1633:
Per the town’s court records, every Monday at the sound of an 8 A.M. bell, townspeople held a meeting to settle and establish “such orders as may tend to the generall good as aforesaid.” The decisions made at these meetings were honored as law and “every man to be bound thereby” . . .
The practice then spread throughout New England as an effective means for citizens to decide on important issues of the day.
Over the centuries as the nation morphed into a constitutional republic town hall meetings gave way to elected representation. Still, the practice of open governmental meetings, many incorporating some type of citizen input, has persisted to this day.
Members of Congress have long used the town hall format to engage with their constituents in policy discussions. Town halls occasionally became contentious, but generally speaking were a relatively good forum for civil discourse.
But times have changed.
The Left has adopted protest and disruption as its go-to tactic. With the advent of the second Trump Administration the Left has lost control of the presidency, both Houses of Congress, and the U.S. Supreme Court. Worse, its last bastion of control – the deep state bureaucracy – is being decimated by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency or DOGE.
Lacking in political power and shackled by extremist policies that have been rejected by voters the Left has been unable to reincarnate itself in any meaningful way. Thus, much like a toddler whose toys have been taken away, they are throwing a collective tantrum.
Town hall meetings have become a favorite venue for those tantrums. And here is where they have backed members of congress into the political equivalent of that rhetorical trap. Hold the town hall meeting and you give Left-wing disruptors a platform that turns into coverage by a compliant news media, or don’t hold town hall meetings and come under attack for being inaccessible.
The way to break out of a rhetorical trap is to restate and change the premise of the question. Therefore, the question should not be to hold or not to hold a town hall meeting. The question should be: is a town hall meeting necessary? The answer then becomes: when they degenerate into platforms for protest they simply no longer serve the intended purpose which is a civil discussion of constituent concerns.
Many other vehicles, including tele-town halls and virtual town halls actually reach more people than in person town hall meetings. House members, who must run for re-election every two years, are constantly attending public events giving citizens many one-on-one meeting opportunities. The number of social media and messaging vehicles available for constituent interaction are numerous. Most, if not all, elected officials engage in a meaningful way on those platforms.
The town hall conundrum is symptomatic of where the Left and its prime vehicle the Democratic Party finds itself today. With no discernable responsible or effective leadership the loudest voices are getting all of the attention. The main competitive event is not who can come up with the best policy solutions; the competition is who can shout the loudest.
Thus, an aging socialist screaming about oligarchs, and a whiney former bar tender-turned-congresswoman, are getting most of the attention. Even the party’s elected legislative leaders have been reduced to sitting on the Capitol steps listening to off-tune singing.
The Left has even turned on its own. The Pennsylvania Governor’s Residence was fire bombed in an anti-Semitic attack aimed at Governor Josh Shapiro. U.S. Senator John Fetterman was recently the subject of a hit piece in the Left-wing mouthpiece New York Magazine after failing to toe the line on several key issues including Israel and immigration.
The bottom line: Members of Congress should not fall into the town hall trap. There is no need to give the Left more platforms for protest. And there is no need to fret over their attacks for not holding such forums. Simply ignore them and go about doing the job We the People elected you to do.
(Lowman S. Henry is Chairman & CEO of the Lincoln Institute and host of the weekly Lincoln Radio Journal and American Radio Journal. His e-mail address is [email protected].)
Permission to reprint is granted provided author and affiliation are cited.
