Town Hall Meetings

I have been following a number of the Town Hall meetings taking place during the congressional recess and I have a couple of thoughts:

1. These outbursts are the direct result of a lack of principled leadership.


2. People resort to this type of discourse when they feel they have no other recourse.
   

If our representatives were supporting sweeping legislation based on some solidly held belief - they could defend it. They would not be afraid to enter a public arena in which opposing views would be put forth, because they would have confidence that what they were doing was the best thing for the people.

Real leaders are not afraid to explain why they believe in something.

Outside of George W. Bush and his prosecution of the War on Terror, we have seen nothing that looks like principled leadership coming out of Washington in a long time.

I get the feeling that we are back to the era of "machine politics" in which party-bosses run the show and tell folks how to vote. I think that deep down these Senators and Representatives know that they are being dangled over the fire and forced to try and defend the indefensible.

Secondly, real leadership flourishes in an atmosphere of open debate, where people are allowed to voice opposition. When the White House is asking folks to "rat out" their friends who speak negatively against the Health Care Reform bill - that is not promoting open debate.

I would venture to say that most of these folks who were truly interested in this Health Care Reform have contacted their representatives. And they probably all got similar sounding letters back thanking them for taking the time to write and then explaining their position in a manner that reveals that the representative didn't think that what they had to say was all that important.

All these folks are making noise and sounding off - yet there is no indication that anyone is listening! So this results in frustration - and that's what we are seeing at these town hall meetings.

When I was a kid, I had a friend in LaFayette, Georgia named Eric. When Eric and I would get into some kind of verbal discussion and he began to feel that he was losing the debate, he would invariably pick up something and throw it at me. He had exhausted his reasoning and had no other recourse but to give vent to his frustration.

I think that may be why a bunch of hooligans dressed up like Indians and dumped a bunch of British tea into the Boston Harbor. They were frustrated because they were being taxed yet not represented.

For some time now, (and frankly it started before this last bunch took office) there has been a sense that folks in Washington don't really care what the folks back home think.

Maybe they should remember that thing about those who govern, deriving their power from the governed. it would pay us to remember that as well.