It’s time to demand your California Congress member hold a town hall meeting | Opinion
Republican House members, thy name is coward.
How else to understand why GOP members of Congress have run away from having town hall meetings with the people they represent?
President Donald Trump will mark his third month in office in mere weeks (April 20). In the short time he has been back in the Oval Office, Trump has upended very nearly all the norms of American democracy that had been established over the last century or more.
Helping him in the task of pushing more power into the executive branch has been Elon Musk and his Office of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short. With the finesse of a chainsaw-wielding crazy man, Musk has been slashing federal departments willy-nilly. Workers get fired, until it becomes obvious that they are really needed, so they get rehired. Whole offices, like the foreign outreach program USAID, have been shut down.
It has left an already politics-weary nation more frustrated, and that anxiety and anger boiled over in some town halls that representatives held early in the Trump 2.0 administration.
It got to the point that national Republican leaders told the congressional representatives to simply stopping conducting town halls. The GOP did not want to give angry citizens, many of whom are likely Democrats, the chances to take videos that would go viral in social media.
What a sorry statement on our democracy.
Democratic frustration
Rep. David Valadao, the Republican from Hanford whose 22nd congressional district is always hotly contested, has yet to hold a town hall with constituents.
But the congressman for Silicon Valley, Democrat Ro Khanna of Santa Clara, met with 22nd District citizens in Bakersfield. They gave him an earful., and much of it was aimed at the lack of Democratic response to Trump.
As reported by Bee Opinion Editor Juan Esparza Loera: “Johnny Olaguez, 36, said that after ‘watching Trump dismantle our economy, ignore judges on deportations, it makes me wonder: Are the Democrats here to represent us or to make excuses?’”
Much of what Khanna heard at the Bakersfield gathering was frustration at Democrats. To his credit, he stood there and took it.
Rep. Jim Costa, the Democrat representing Fresno County, will conduct a town hall on April 8. Arrangements are still being made.
Frankly, Costa and fellow Democrats are overdue for such meetings. Consider three issues Trump has taken on that impact the San Joaquin Valley in major ways:
▪ Trump campaigned on deporting a million people living in America without legal status. Raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have put fear into Valley immigrants, many of whom are here to work on local farms.
▪ Two-thirds of the people living in Valadao’s district rely on Medi-Cal (California’s version of Medicaid) for health coverage. House Republicans want to renew tax cuts from Trump’s first term. To pay for that, House GOP leaders will likely have to drastically scale back Medicaid funding.
▪ Starting April 1, Trump will expand tariffs he already started with China, Mexico and Canada to include any trading partners who put up cost barriers on American goods. Valley farmers who ship their goods overseas will see the prices of those commodities go up, making them less competitive on the world market.
One brave Republican
Victoria Spartz, a Republican congresswoman from suburban Indianapolis, went against the national GOP guidance and held several town halls over the last week. Spartz faced tough questions and angry comments, some from Republicans, but stood her ground and conducted the meetings. Good for her. It takes courage to be an elected official in democracy. With Trump stress-testing the nation, that is even more true.
Trump’s disregard for Congress, abolishing programs he dislikes and not spending allocated funding as intended, makes clear his drive for greater executive power. At question now is whether he will abide by judicial decisions he doesn’t like.
Americans themselves may be the last bulwark against Trump. Communicating their views at town halls is critical. Voters need to keep in mind who among their elected officials refuse to hold them.
I reached out to Valadao’s office and that of Rep. Vince Fong, the Bakersfield Republican who also represents Clovis. I asked about their plans for town halls. No response came from either representative.
