Dem
47
GOP
53
As long as we're talking about the "early returns" on the efforts of DOGE, we'll pass along that Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) had the same experience this weekend that a number of his GOP colleagues have had. He had a town hall, in Oakley (which is in the western part of the state, is kind of in the middle of nowhere, and is in an R+18 district), and it was overrun by people angry about what the Trump administration is doing. They asked about DOGE (and, in particular, its impact on veterans). They asked about Ukraine. They sometimes booed. Eventually, the Senator became fed up and stormed out 20 minutes early.
After the fiasco, an angry Donald Trump posted this to his boutique social media platform:
Paid "troublemakers" are attending Republican Town Hall Meetings. It is all part of the game for the Democrats, but just like our big LANDSLIDE ELECTION, it's not going to work for them!
Marshall reposted the message to eX-Twitter, along with the observation: "Can confirm."
It is not impossible that Trump and Marshall are right. The crowds that attend such events are not exactly a random sampling of the population, and while we seriously doubt anyone was paid to be there, the event certainly could have primarily attracted people who are not Trumpers and who wanted a chance to make some noise.
That said, if we were Marshall or some other Republican officeholder, we would not be too confident in that assessment. As we note, the Kansas event this weekend was held in a very rural, very red area. Several of the people there who spoke to reporters are themselves elected officials, holding some sort of small-town office. It seems improbable that an R+18 district is electing a bunch of Bernie Sanders clones to run their communities.
Since Trump won't be running for office again, he doesn't have to worry all that much about angering voters. Someone like Marshall has to proceed with a bit more caution, though—remember that Kansas, while red, has a Democratic governor. GOP members in states that are more purple have to be more cautious still. It's all good and well to blame Antifa or ACORN or some other group when a town hall goes south, but every member of Congress gets feedback from many different sources (calls, letters, e-mails) and so has some idea if their claims of a conspiracy really hold water.
Put another way, even if you're not a Trumper or a Republican, there is value in communicating with your representative and/or your senators, to share with them your views on the issues of the day. If ever they need to be paying close attention to what their constituents think, now is the time. (Z)