U.S. Rep. Tom Barrett’s first town hall in the 7th District — a safe and closely controlled telephone event that felt like it was happening in the covid-shutdown era — got off to a frustrating start for some, including me: Despite registering well in advance, the phone number to participate didn’t arrive in time, and when it did, the event was nearly half over.
Comments on social media have been pretty much blistering. A spokesperson for Barrett acknowledged the technical difficulties. “We are working on figuring out what happened so it doesn’t happen again for future events,” he said.
While I cross my fingers that the next event goes off without a hitch, please, I beg: NO MORE PHONE EVENTS. There’s something off-putting in not having any visual connection to the Congressman. I understand from news reports that the National Republican Congressional Committee has advised reps to NOT hold in-person town halls; that advice — which I argue is short-sighted and wrong-headed — sends the signal that while they know the electorate is not in a good mood these days, Republicans can’t be bothered to acknowledge or educate themselves about it.
But Barrett seems like the kind of guy who can easily handle a little heat from his constituents. He proved himself a good speaker on the call, and a large part of his election campaign stressed his toughness and his military experience of over two decades, during which time he flew helicopters, served in the Iraq War, and was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Kuwait and the Korean DMZ.
After all that, I am sure he’s got the skills to handle some cranky constituents.
We learned during one of the two polls conducted during the event that a whopping 70% of those on the call do NOT approve of DOGE, despite caller Leeann from Grand Ledge being “excited” about the massive cuts Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are attempting across the government. (And, no, George from Lansing, DOGE was not the creation of Barack Obama; it was created by Trump on Jan. 20, 2025, by executive order.)
We were presented with four choices of our “most-important” issue; for 34% of those on the call it was Social Security and Medicare, while 29% chose the cost of living, followed closely by foreign policy at 28%. Just 10% of those on the call ranked tax cuts as their most important issue.
While I was present only for the last half of the call, I feel pretty safe to say that if you weren’t there, you really didn’t miss much. Barrett hit all the current Republican talking points, and the questions came from people who mostly agreed with them.
But one woman posted this on social media: “A guy came on the phone to ask me what my question was, and he said the Congressman would take it, but he did not,” she wrote. “So here it is: I agree that $36 trillion of debt is outrageous for a nation and should be reduced. Remember that Trump added $8.4 trillion to this total during his first term. $8.4 TRILLION.
“My questions: What are you going to do to stop Musk from firing critical federal employees — VA, Social Security, HHS, IRS, etc. — that are important to our lives? And what are you doing to stop Musk from accessing our personal financial information at the Social Security Administration?”
Those are questions lots of other constituents likely have, too, and they’re ones that didn’t get asked or answered Monday.
The 7th District wants and needs an in-person event. And if that proves too difficult for Barrett, a Zoom would be highly preferable to the phone-in.
I have heard rumors of a couple grassroots efforts to bring a nationally prominent Democrat to the district for an in-person town hall. Currently making themselves available to these events in the last week were Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren; their in-person events drew huge, energetic, engaged crowds numbering in the thousands. It’s easy to put a finger on the pulse of attendees, and it’s why in-person events are so much better for all, including democracy.
It’s not whether you agree or disagree; it’s whether you’ve been truly seen and heard.
