So, I feel for Warren Davidson, the Republican U.S. House member who marched headfirst into the lion’s den, also known as a town hall. At the end of the session, he came out looking great, while some of those in the raucous crowd came off looking like buffoons.
Fewer lawmakers hold town halls these days because they’re nothing more than cauldrons of confrontation, leading to angry exchanges with upset constituents, advocates for certain policies, and voters from the other party simply looking to make a scene.
That’s what happened at Edgewood Middle School in Butler County. The crowd cheered, booed, and interrupted as Davidson, who represents Ohio’s 8th Congressional District, did his best to answer questions over the din of the crowd.
“I hope (the town hall) was somewhat therapeutic for everybody,” he told the Journal-News. “Maybe that’s just what they needed is to come and feel like they were heard because they were … mostly here to just kind of yell things that couldn’t really be heard by everybody.”
Yelling and anger are the new forms of fashionable political communication. We see it everywhere, from a President who spews four-letter words to a Mayor of an Ohio city cursing out a councilman at a public meeting and showing no remorse afterwards.
People notice, and in some cases, emulate that unacceptable behavior, even though yelling does nothing except bolster your self-importance. (‘See me on video? I told him, didn’t I!”)
Some will say they can express themselves in a lawful manner (free speech and all), and they’re correct. But what about decorum and respect?
I mean, we try to be on our best behavior when, say, we’re invited into someone’s home. You don’t start screaming until veins pop out of your head over a different point of view. You don’t walk in looking for a fight. You exercise free speech with care, understanding when it’s appropriate to use that cherished right.
It’s one thing for people to clap, as happened after Davidson was asked about his support of the “Big Beautiful Bill,” which raises the national debt by an estimated $3.4 trillion over the next decade.
A video of the event showed the crowd murmuring after Davidson said, “The One Big Beautiful Bill,” and exploded when he added, “Is imperfect.”
I had a hard time making out other parts of his answer, as apparently did some attendees who Davidson said left because they couldn’t hear. If you take the time to attend a public session, don’t you want to listen to what your locally elected representative has to say, even if you don’t agree with it?
That’s an easy answer. Yes.
Some see the behavior as an act of protest, but it’s an ineffective one. Catcalls won’t make Davidson alter his positions or break from Trump. The behavior gives more ammunition to lawmakers like Rep. Mike Turner, who says he won’t do town halls because of unruly radical crowds (he’s right about the unruliness, but wrong about not doing Town Halls.)
Most importantly, the rowdiness doesn’t result in meaningful change.
If you want to make a change, you don’t do it with doltishness at a public event. You don’t do it by emulating politicians who use vulgarities to make a point (instead of making the point through actions that benefit the public).
You make a change at the ballot box.
If you really want to have an impact, take off your partisan jammies and vote with clearheaded purpose for the best person, not the one with an R or D in front of their name.
That’s more effective than acting a fool in public.
Ray Marcano’s column appears on these pages each Sunday.
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