This is awesome …

[96GradAlum]

“To the politicians who have abandoned their civic obligations, I say this: Have some courage,” Giffords said in a statement. “Face your constituents. Hold town halls.”

 

Republican lawmaker who won’t hold a town hall invokes Gabby Giffords shooting. She responds: ‘Have some courage.’

[mokus]

The same assholes that declare wars for kids to die in. Pussies.

 

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/Blogs/archives/2017/02/22/rubio-says-he-isnt-showing-up-to-town-halls-because-of-their-hostile-atmosphere

[Utahute72]

How about we wait about six months and see how the inital efforts shake out.  I think these are entirely too early in the cycle.

 

How can we ensure they are hearing from constituents and not some travelling show put on by the liberals.

[Uterider]

The only person paid to attend Chaffetz’ town hall was Chaffetz.

[Utahute72]

Proof?

And paid or not, I’m still doubtful that everyone there was from his district.

[mokus]

Prove they were paid.  Maybe people are really p**sed off.  Even in Utah there are enough p**sed off democrats to fill a high school auditorium.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/donald-trump-election-facebook-fake-news-creator-paul-horner-claims-responsibility/

[ladyinred]

Even in Utah there are enough p**sed off democrats to fill Rice Eccles stadium.

There, I fixed it for you.

[SkinyUte]

Proof?

You first.

And paid or not, I’m still doubtful that everyone there was from his district.

You’re probably right about that. Considering Chaffetz has been proving himself to be an embarrassment on a national level for months now, I’m guessing there were probably people there to protest against his larger role, and not just from his district. That’s what tends to happen when you consistently act like a buffoon.

[Puget Ute]

His district includes much of Sandy, Draper, and parts of Riverton and Murray/Midvale/Ft Union/Holladay. The population just in those areas is well over 200k, and probably includes 5x as many people than the entire rest of his district (Carbon, Emery, Wasatch, San Juan, and Grand Counties).

Why is it so hard to believe that 3k people are p**sed off at him? There are probably 3k people within 1/4 mile of Brighton High School who would have shown up to protest him.

I don’t know why the pic didn’t show up. Here is the link:
http://www.sltrib.com/csp/mediapool/sites/sltrib/Pages/gallery.csp?cid=4942986&pid=4082203

[Uterider]

I’m hooked into every left wing org, DNC, OFA, you name it and believe me, we are not organizing these things. For one thing, we don’t need to. Unless you call announcing the times and locations of these on FB organizing.

[Guba]

I had a number of friends and coworkers who attended Chaffetz town hall. It was just p**sed off constituents. They didn’t even provide a mic for the audience to ask questions. It was a bit chaotic because Chaffetz staff didn’t prepare properly. He is completely out of touch!

[96GradAlum]

Town halls have been a tradition on session breaks.  What has changed that we should break from that?

Also, what evidence do you have to suggest those who show up are not constituents?  I mean real evidence, and not just the politician saying that? Chaffetz word isn’t worth crap in my humble opinion.  I read the story, the cops told Chaffetz that there were 2 out of towners at his town hall who were outside trying stir up the crowd to rush the cops.  That’s it.  Furthermore, the DNC is in dissarray.  So they can’t even get their own s**t together let alone organize protests in every GOP town hall.  

NPR(KUER) did an interview with the woman who started the Utah chapter of Indivisible and they posed that very question to her.  She said, this election has spured her to get involved w/ no prior political experience.  A friend pointed her to the documents at IndivisbleGuide.com and she started the chapter from there.  She hasn’t been contacted by anyone for anything.

I appreciate your continued engagement on this board ’72 and these are my honest questions to you.  

[Puget Ute]

I watched the interview of the woman who set up the Utah Indivisible website in her spare time. I am sure she would be flattered to have her grassroots effort of setting up an email list and sending facebook announcements to be compared to some huge international conspiracy.

[ladyinred]

People who are tempted to shrug off these protests as paid or otherwise in bad faith should be mindful of very, very recent history. The Tea Party protesters, also disregarded as paid or planted agitators, made their wrath known at the ballot box in 2010.

[Utahute72]

There is a major difference in the Tea Party and the current round of protests. The Tea Party grew out of frustration with the ACA. These happened AFTER the bill was passed. These are all taking place BEFORE any real legislation has been passed.

[ladyinred]

That’s just untrue. I’ll even use a Fox news article: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/15/thousands-anti-tax-tea-party-protesters-turn-cities.html

There were protests well before the passing of ACA, and about more of Obama’s agenda than just ACA. I remember it well.

And I’m sure these anti-Trump protesters will protest his legislation as well, once he, you know, gets around to doing that and not just issuing EO’s.

[ladyinred]

How about we wait about six months and see how the inital efforts shake out

What ”initial efforts” are you referring to?

[PorterRockwell]

C’mon 72 you’re better than that. Claims of “liberals” flooding these town hall meetings are just that, until somebody has some definitive proof otherwise. These claims are GOP cowardice. They know that they are going to have to govern, they know that the ACA wasn’t nearly as much of a failure as they’d like to claim and that people want it fixed not repealed.
The GOP has nobody but themselves to blame for the blow back they are getting.

Waiting six months doesn’t make sense. That sounds more like a ploy to silence people and will only make it worse.

[Puget Ute]

The thing is, the notion that these huge protests are NOT being paid has to be terrifying to people. 

[leftyjace]

For those that have a subscription to the Wall Street Journal, this is a very interesting piece that is pertinent:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-rowdy-town-halls-more-organic-than-organized-1487881129