Republican town hall drowned out by "tax the rich" chants
House Speaker Mike Johnson has advised his Republican colleagues to stop hosting town-hall meetings.
At the beginning of March, Johnson advised his Republican colleagues not to hold town hall meetings, claiming they were giving a "forum" to "professional protesters."
These idiots are going to find out why peaceful protest exists. The alternative is not very friendly to say the least.
Its looking more and more like thats the GOP plan. Incite an uprising, then they declare martial law where they are free from any check on their power by the courts.
Whats going to be the lynchpin is the GOP will have an army willing to put down Americans en masse.
Or the military command structure fractures and now they have several warring regional or state fractions/civil war, or the military leadership enacts a coup when given illegal orders and either holds executive under military threat or hands control back to the legislature or judicial to hold a special election.
They are unable to see any of these unintended possible consequences of their actions, the same way they are unable to identify irony, or have empathy, or entertain hypotheticals.
This is one of the reasons why Lincoln was emphatic that the south had to draw first blood. That allowed him to set the war in motion.
The problem this time is that the fascists are in power and they have their hands on the levers. They are drawing first blood through their laws and executive orders.
At some point, liberals will have to fight back. I fear that more people will die before that happens
And every single person is likely armed.
If you have to advise all of your colleagues to hide from protesters instead of holding a dialogue with the people you represent... maybe you're the baddies?
Be peaceful until it's no longer an option to be peaceful.
Peace was never an option, this country has been fighting a class war on itself since it was founded.
We need to start hosting our own town halls. Invite the fuckers and the media.
I like this idea. What does it look like?
One or two skilled people identify a venue (public high school gym? Public park? Local, non-corporate movie theater? A stadium?) and schedule a date and time?
Come up with a draft agenda to discuss at the meeting, publish it somewhere accessible online, and request comments to consider additions/revisions?
Do the same thing for a meeting ruleset to ensure it remains productive and not just an excuse to suck up oxygen by venting/ranting? Use something like a 'talking stick'?
Have petitions ready for signature so attendees can formally record their views and desires upon conclusion of the meeting?
Identify 3 or so topics to rally behind and ask for volunteers to lead or serve on committees to act on them?
I want this stuff to be actionable, not just a "someone should do this!" complaint.
I'm not an organizer... I'm naive on how this kind of thing works...but I'd like to be part of an organized movement to make things trend toward better before it gets worse.
So, let's get this straight.
Protestors make noise and cause a ruckus to draw attention to any number of social issues they feel need addressed. If they're successful, laws/perceptions change to more closely reflect their ideal.
Professional protestors are those that get paid to do that.
Ergo, politicians are the "paid protestors", and the people you are avoiding are just garden-variety protestors.
No. No, they are not. America is full of a bunch of pussy, shit talkers. They won't do a damn thing. If they were going to do anything but whine, they would have done it by now.
Tell that to Thomas Crooks and Luigi Mangione.
It would seem not that pussy. Trump has already survived one assassination attempt.
Spineless cowards. There are amateur stand up comedians living in their cars and working for beer money who handle hecklers better than these professional public speakers with lifetime Healthcare.
Meanwhile we have people like AOC volunteering to do town halls in Republican districts, just so Republican voters can actually talk to a member of congress.
What a pathetic state of affairs.
Meanwhile we have people like AOC volunteering to do town halls in Republican districts, just so Republican voters can actually talk to a member of congress.
I love this as it's such a power move.
Republicans are the Nazi party in America.
This is just factual, and it never fails to blow my mind.
It doesn't help they seem to have a few Vichy-type collaborators on the "opposing" team.
Good use of air bunnies!
And what’s the only good kind of Nazi? 🤔
A dead'ne?
What a sad and absurd irony of history.
My favorite president, Abraham Lincoln, was a Republican. I think a secular federal republic is a pretty decent form of democratic governance. The "Radical Republican" wing of the antebellum Republican Party were the most ardent and vocal supporters of abolition in Congress.
Now the very word is tainted by association by these scumbags.
And Teddy Roosevelt was a progressive Republican that opposed trusts and the imbalanced influence of money in politics (but the changes began to happen during his time, which is why he left the party altogether). There was a time when “Republican” just referred to the kind of governmental structure one supported (just like “democrat”), with a range of economic and social views. That’s actually what the “grand” in Grand Old Party (GOP) referred to iirc—it was a party big enough handle a range views and ideas. AND, again iirc, the whole push for republican governmental ideas by said party was to find a way around the stranglehold of slavery in American economics. Representative government could make decisions that the populace might not support because it was the morally correct thing to do (which is also why the concept of electors was advanced by Hamilton, incidentally: as a safe-guard against tyranny—electors could look at an elected candidate and say “nah” because that person was actually likely to work against the interests of the United States).
How the mighty have fallen.
This chant brought to you by the people who voted explicitly to tax the poor in order to give money to the rich. Just two brain cells in the entire goddamn party.
How do people not realize that they are the poor people that rich people hate
GOP voters actually advocating for something that would be good for them? I feel like I woke up in a different timeline.
They advocate for all kinds of reasonable things, but they never actually vote for them.
And this is the curse of the two party system in action. In reality, we have more in common with one another than we think, save for those solely driven by bigotry and fear(and there’s a lot of those)
Oh honey... They'll just vote Republican anyway. Maybe if the Democratic party disbanded and a new party with a new name came out of it... otherwise, they will never vote D.
It seems like when given the choice to lose all Medicare and social security or to tax billionaires a little bit, they are finally understanding the right decision ....
It's just too bad like always, it doesn't seem to bother them until it directly affects them.
tax the rich! tax the rich!
Tax or trebuchet. I'm okay with either.
"Tax or trebuchet, I'm ok with either way"
It says the same thing but has good meter and rhymes. Great for chanting.
Tax everyone, balance the budget.
As a nebraskan I am finally proud of one thing in this corn packed hellhole. At least the people in this district are finally fucking realizing who to blame for their poverty
Doubt
The thing is even more ridiculous because the Republicans warned him not to have the town hall and have told their members to only have online town halls or "moderated" chats. So they can keep any dissenting voices out and project an image of everyone loving what they are doing.
Now they are just relegated to calling things like this "democratic operatives" trying to disrupt civil Republican discourse. This isn't gonna work as well as they think because people know who is hurting them since the Republicans own all the branches right now.
They owned all the branches during trump's first term too. Republican voters won't learn, they're too stupid to understand
They also had all branches during W's term when he crashed the economy and started two never ending wars.
The Republican voter is dumber than a bag of rocks. Hell, even a bag of rocks would learn faster than a Republican voter.
He was still getting his feet wet in that term and he only had them all for half his term. And they at least pretended to give a shit about the less wealthy constituents, that tax break they gave to "everybody" expired for the middle and lower class after a year or two but was there for the wealthy well into Biden's term.
This time they're not even pretending to care. They're relying completely on their propaganda to convince their idiotic fans that tariffs are going to be a tax on other countries and their bills will go lower as a result of it. Meanwhile they're going to gut Medicaid and other social services in order to give money to the wealthiest people in the country.
So in answer to your comment, they will hopefully notice this time because they're going to be hurting as a direct result of what Trump is doing as opposed to something he could deflect as being "because liberals".
It's as if the more a population is restricted, the harder it will resist. It's taking a while for the american people to be roused, but I have hope that it gathers speed and power, not unlike a boulder hurdling down a hill towards a village.
lol and watch them vote for these cowards over and over again. 🤦🏽♀️
Let's see if the Americans actually have teeth to bare. My guess is no.
Satisfied keyboard warriors everywhere agree.
Video cut out before he no doubt retorted with some facile, bullshit strawman argument. But you just know that happened.
Yes. Basically his argument was that Biden proposed a millionaire tax, but even that tax (which didn't pass) would not have solved the problem. So might as well not try or something like that. The question begins at around the 23 minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/live/GW2hRMYVhjQ
You love to see it.
attendees voted Republican? a little cognitive dissonant if so
The district as a whole voted republican, but the attendees are just whoever showed up to the town hall to air grievances, which sounds like it was not republicans.
Fuck around... find out 🤷
The next funding dinner should help them forget about all of that
James Franco in a top hat: “Boo hoo, are the people still deciding?”
Every Republican looks like they pay for sex because no one would touch them otherwise
