Thoughts on the Town Hall Meeting Protests
The protests at the August congressional town hall meetings are a failing of civic education and civic efficacy inspiration. These people (not the corporations/RNC that are organizing them…the protestors themselves) feel like they have no power and so they yell and scream. I personally find it crazy to feel like “The government is controlling us” because we are the government. We get to elect the people we’re yelling at. If they organized, instead of yelled, they would feel more in control and could start a very powerful citizen lobbying push. The beautiful thing about America is that, no matter what special-interests layers are on top of our government (powerful monied interests, a weak and distracted media, corruption, manipulating politicians and political systems, etc.)…in the end, if you try hard enough, if you organize well enough, if you go straight to the people and learn what you need to about issues and systems— the structures of our democratic government are still on your side.
But instead, they choose to look crazy.
Conclusion: amp up civic education, build structures that help people effectively participate in their government, etc.
