We make the rules
By
Erin Chapman |
IDS
POSTED AT
09:44 PM ON Sep. 7, 2009
| PRINT |
Email
| SHARE
| COMMENTS (0)
Political discourse in the age of YouTube can be controlled by anyone. Last week it was a journalism student.
The YouTube video shows a Bloomington student asking Baron Hill why she couldn’t tape his town hall meeting for her school project. He responded, “This is my town hall meeting. I set the rules.”
The video was picked up by several Internet sites. It has riled the population from Bloomington and beyond, rallying the conservative blogosphere.
For those of us who witnessed the exchange, it was clear that Hill had unwittingly struck a nerve.
The all-important question: Whose town hall meeting is it, really? The resounding response: ours – not yours.
But that a congressional representative would even think that the meeting belonged to him is incredible.
Where have you been? Since when was democracy about you talking and us blindly listening?
No doubt Baron Hill and his press office regret his rash response. But perhaps there is more ambiguity about all this than we thought.
Town-hall democracy has a long tradition in the U.S. New Englanders gathered in the 17th century to vote on and discuss issues. It was this sort of grassroots, direct democracy that Congressmen all over the country were channeling with this batch of town hall meetings.
The idea was a simple one. Take the bill to the people. Rally support. Return triumphant.
But as August’s discourse has shown, they underestimated us. Congress had become too accustomed to apathetic constituents. They didn’t anticipate how strongly all of us would feel about this issue, and consequently the health care fallout that has followed has been beyond what anyone on Capitol Hill imagined.
Screaming critics, personal attacks, assault rifles: None of this is a part of the sit-back-and-blog democracy that we have all become accustomed to.
It’s because of this new political activism that part of me wants to stand up and applaud these town hall meetings.
After all, this is a kind of enthusiastic participation that I haven’t witnessed in my lifetime. It’s the spirit that our generation has been criticized for lacking, and it’s the spirit that we all heralded Obama for bringing back to Washington.
But there is a problem with all of this town-hall business: Too often it doesn’t lead us anywhere meaningful.
When I walked out of Bloomington High School North on Wednesday, I felt more confused and uneducated than I did when I had walked in, like I had unlearned something about the debate.
The hour was filled with too much booing and too many anecdotes to be educational.
Enough with the pathos. What we need are particulars.
A lot of the fault here is on the Congress. Town hall meetings should be a place where constituents voice their concerns to their representatives, not a place where congressmen assert their authority.
If we really want to further this issue we need more constructive conversation and less emotional ranting. And we, the constituents, must take it upon ourselves to change the tone of discourse.
After all, this is our town hall meeting.