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My Senators and Reps are choosing them for invited guests.
Can you imagine what ire this would have drawn from the Tea Party a few years back?
What cowards.
My Senators and Reps are choosing them for invited guests.
Can you imagine what ire this would have drawn from the Tea Party a few years back?
What cowards.
My representative has done this for years and as far as I have seen, it was never by special invite only. It makes it easier to get to more people at once (in several tele-conferences) without having to travel all over the State. It also allows people to more easily choose which tele-conference one wants to attend based upon their individual scheduling needs. The rep or senator can also do very fast polls over the phone where each attendee can choose a pre-selected number to voice an opinion as well as giving people the opportunity to voice their opinion in a short time frame.
My only wish is that they would video conference but I am aware many people don't have the needed computer equipment, isp bandwidth and some may not have internet at all.
Personally, I view this as a good thing especially since it appears more people attend these tele-conferences.
My Senators and Reps are choosing them for invited guests.
Can you imagine what ire this would have drawn from the Tea Party a few years back?
What cowards.
My sentiments exactly. Cowards indeed.
These are not Town Halls, they are conference calls. Clearly these are not to listen to the constituents, they are just commercials for a pre-determined point of view.
The politicians who resort to this tactic are no longer exposing themselves to their own constituents, and will not be responsive to them. This will strengthen the influence of lobbyists and PACs and alienate the general public.
It's a great way for the reps to distance themselves from their constituents while still making it seem like they are listening to them. Unless the callers are allowed to ask questions without being screened or silenced, these are worthless. Like one poster said up thread, they become infomercials for the rep. Useless to a constituent who has a real issue they want to address if it's an issue the rep doesn't want to talk about.
There should be a law that states an elected official has to hold a certain number of face-to-face meetings with their constituents. Too many of these reps go to Washington and forget who they work for. They need to be reminded in an up close and personal forum on a regular basis.
My Senators and Reps are choosing them for invited guests.
Can you imagine what ire this would have drawn from the Tea Party a few years back?
What cowards.
You know, a lot of people, especially old people, hear "conference call" and it scares them. They never worked in an office setting. Some of them may have never worked before. Some of the older ones retired before computers became common in the workforce (some I think retired because of computers introduced into the work environment) and anything to do with technology, they steer clear of. Just saying, that a "conference call" will leave many constituents out.
I just had the opportunity to participate in another tele-conference town hall styled meeting (it is still going on as I am typing), and as usual, was allowed to voice my opinions. I chose two topics and took less than 1/4 of the time I was allowed to speak. Everyone was able to hear my comments and everyone was also allowed to comment, as long as they had polite enough comments or questions to get past the basic call screener. Basically that means if someone started cussing or acting inappropriately, they wouldn't make it through the call screener.
Again, to me, these tele-conference town hall meetings work.
My best guess is the people opposing these intentionally want to disrupt the town hall process. I believe any opposition to this is based on people believing their "free speech" is denied if they cannot disrupt a town hall meeting.
It's a great way for the reps to distance themselves from their constituents while still making it seem like they are listening to them. Unless the callers are allowed to ask questions without being screened or silenced, these are worthless. Like one poster said up thread, they become infomercials for the rep. Useless to a constituent who has a real issue they want to address if it's an issue the rep doesn't want to talk about.
There should be a law that states an elected official has to hold a certain number of face-to-face meetings with their constituents. Too many of these reps go to Washington and forget who they work for. They need to be reminded in an up close and personal forum on a regular basis.
Agreed. Reps should have face-to-face meetings with their constituents. Look them in the eye and tell them exactly how they will vote.
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