Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) Town Hall Takedown

[Johnny_L.A]

I’m sorry that I couldn’t find this video anywhere else but Facebook, but I just had to share it.

Rep. Tom MacArthur (R-NJ) Town Hall, ‘You are the single greatest threat to my family!’

GOP Representative Tom MacArthur is the man responsible for the amendment that brought Trumpcare back from the dead and secured its passage in the House. His constituents are NOT pleased.

MacArthur certainly gets an earful. With so many Republican congresspeople hiding from their constituents, I have to give the devil his due for standing there and taking it. I hope he was listening.

[NB: MacArthur is not one of my Representatives.]

[What_Exit]

His district is close to mine. My parents probably voted for him along with a most of their neighbors. His district is disproportionately heavy with seniors. They’ll probably applaud him for what he did. I’m not sure enough of his constituents will be “NOT pleased” enough to bounce him out.

[PaperBlob]

I disagree with MacArthur on just about everything, but I also have to give him credit for that meeting. I am in his district, and the meeting was in my old hometown. He knew he would get a hostile reception there, and he stood there and took it and engaged the mob for 5 hours. I believe there was at least some give and take amidst all the yelling, and if so, I would call it a good meeting.

[Czarcasm]

@PaperBlob

I disagree with MacArthur on just about everything, but I also have to give him credit for that meeting. I am in his district, and the meeting was in my old hometown. He knew he would get a hostile reception there, and he stood there and took it and engaged the mob for 5 hours. I believe there was at least some give and take amidst all the yelling, and if so, I would call it a good meeting.

Unless he changes, then the only thing he has shown the people that voted for him is that he doesn’t give a flying fuck what they say, and that he is confident that they can be manipulated into voting for him again.

[What_Exit]

@Czarcasm

Unless he changes, then the only thing he has shown the people that voted for him is that he doesn’t give a flying fuck what they say, and that he is confident that they can be manipulated into voting for him again.

I think you missed the part where I explained where a heavy part of his vote came from seniors. Doesn’t matter if we disagree with him, it matters what his district thinks of him.

[JRDelirious]

It is up to his voters to be satisfied or not. At least he goes out there and faces them, so they KNOW he’s unrepentant. If more people disagree AND show up to vote for someone else he’ll be out. If not then they’re getting the congressbeing they deserve.

[Czarcasm]

@JRDelirious

It is up to his voters to be satisfied or not. At least he goes out there and faces them, so they KNOW he’s unrepentant. If more people disagree AND show up to vote for someone else he’ll be out. If not then they’re getting the congressbeing they deserve.

And if his decisions only effected that district then I might be on board…but they most certainly do not.

[gnoitall]

@Czarcasm

And if his decisions only effected that district then I might be on board…but they most certainly do not.

But you overlook (or disagree with) the intentional design choices of the Framers. The House of Representatives is full of elected officials whose primary focus is their own constituencies. That’s why they have constituencies, in fixed Congressional districts. It’s the Senators that represent the larger points of view, but they’re supposed to represent the interests of their respective states.

With all of that said, I find it curiously appropriate that the origin of a quaint one-word name for what we now call “fake news” comes from exactly the phenomenon you’re complaining about:

@Wiktionary etymology of "bunkum"

From buncombe, from “speaking to (or for) Buncombe”, a county in North Carolina named for Edward Buncombe. In 1820, Felix Walker, who represented the county in the U.S. House of Representatives, rose to address the question of admitting Missouri as a free or slave state, his first attempt to speak on the subject after nearly a month of solid debate, right before the vote was to be called. To the exasperation of colleagues, he began a long and wearisome speech, explaining that he was speaking not to Congress but “to Buncombe.” He was ultimately shouted down by his colleagues, though his speech was published in a Washington paper and his persistence made “buncombe” (later respelled “bunkum”) a synonym for meaningless political claptrap and later for any kind of nonsense, at first only in the jargon of Washington and then in common usage.

So I guess, in a way, your observation is justifiable. Individual Representatives often wind up spouting and supporting bunkum to play up to their specific constituencies, and the Nation’s interests take a back set if necessary. :dubious: