I'm going to ask this up front, please keep this Non Partisan Forget the town halls now. I'm thinking ahead another year where the nut-balls from both sides of the isle will attempt to crash town halls where candidates are coming to speak. Forget the president or his opponent speaking, I'm talking about local elections. My neighborhood always hosts a "meet the candidates" forum designed for our neighbors in our area to go and hear what the candidates have to say. And candidates flood our town halls each time there is an election because of our area. What I'm trying to get the neighborhood board to consider is to start looking for ways to keep the looney tunes out and keep the audience local. Both political parties have snake in the grass operatives that always come in either with their candidates or early on to stand up screaming or cheering at their chosen target. Of course there are neighborhood morons as well. In fact the biggest (*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*)(*) in my neighborhood is a conservative and I've asked him to step outside more than once because of his attitude toward fellow neighbors who don't agree with him. I actually once told him if he didn't shut up I'd make him eat the floor but thats besides the point I see 2012 as a explosive election for both parties and civility should reign in town halls. So here are a few ideas myself and my fellow neighbors have starting brainstorming to keep the peace and stop the nonsense. #1 Control the location. Pick a location funded by neighborhood money away from public buildings so we can restrict the people coming in to only include the local neighborhoods and the candidates #2 No video from the crowd. This might encourage people to show up who might not right now out of fear of showing up on youtube. We might even ask people to check their cellphones just to be safe. #3 Check IDs at the door. Not for immigration status but for neighborhood status. Can they prove they are from this area. This should keep the bussed in operatives at bay. And pay an off duty police officer to check IDs to avoid problems that could arise from simply asking volunteers to watch the door. #4 Zero tolerance for disruptions. Applause at a suitable level is allowed but standing up and cheering or trying to drown out others will not be tolerated. Interruptions of the candidate would be allowed as long as they are limited to clarification. Constant interruptions will not be allowed. #5 Candidates entourage will be limited to 4 people only. No more will be allowed in. Of course all of this would be included in any announcement of the town hall so no one is surprised. Please add your own or discuss any legal issues with taking these kinds of stances. Some may see it as excessive but I've seen first hand what both sides and their idiots can do to disrupt a town hall.
Good post..but you assume people are .. 1. Not emotional. 2. Not politically driven. 3. Not mad. 4. Not Needing a job. 5. Not upset over Government functionality. 6. Not upset over energy cost. 7. Taxes 8. Education . 9. Security 10. Honesty 11. Transparency 12.Debt I pick #11 as a standout.. If you run a Civil town hall with strict rules..you may get a SAFE town hall where politicians feel comfortable about lying..are not exposed to and by confrontation. WE NEED TO SEE how they react under PRESSURE since they are going after one of the most pressurized jobs in the world. I need to see ROMNEY..PAUL..Perry and others with PRESSURE. We didn't see Obama with much during his campaign..and the town halls exposed his Health care lie and its stupid .. supporters in congress. You need to remember that POLITICS is civilized war. Not civil..high school debate class...where teachers control the students. In politics .. politicians try and control the crowds...and I dont think we need more..maybe..less ? Or we keep getting political surprises.
You are right of course. People are always going to be mad, throw fits etc. We just want to be able to police that town hall without people claiming they have a legal right to be there or act how they want.
There is nothing civil about the cozyness these puppets get on an isolated media that reaches and brainwashes hundreds of millions of homes while being controled by a few elites at the top. So when people get a chance to confront these animals who have absolutely no plan for the people, they rightfully express their opinions. end of subject.
yep..Like a spring training football practice where the QB wears a different color jersey and NO contact. The town halls SHOULD BE confrontational.. Get the candidate out of a comfort zone of answering plain vanilla questions the press like to ask. The local people would know who is bused in..and who is a plant. It's like the stupid debates.. Would you support the troops..end world hunger..and keep taxes low..and only on everybody else. We need to challenge them now..before they are elected and ... OBAMAWAMASIZED..
From the last GOP debate: Question is for Bachmann: what would you, YOU do specifically to create jobs right now if elected? Bachman's answer: (which by the way was almost identical to Romney, Pawlenty and some couple other guys) "What Obama is doing is terrible, we need to stop him right now, he has taken this country in such a wrong direction the country is at the crossroads right now"
You think things are bad now??? just wait a few more years once Obamacare kicks in, the debt approaches $20 trillion, and "Hope and Change" morphes into "Cope with Pain". American society has been in steady decline for decades, but is picking up speed rapidly now. America's collapse has never been in doubt, it has never been a matter of if, but when. Given that collapse is inevitable - how do you think Americans will react when their currency is worthless and they can't feed their kids??? In the 1930's Americans lined up in orderly lines for jobs, soup, bread, clothing, etc; today's morons, however, are more likely to stab you over a CD than they are disposed to pitching in for the common good. Society is breaking down, and chaos is coming... it won't be pretty, and it won't be civil. The average American has been deconstructed from the tough, independent, rational, fairly moral and compassionate neighbor of yesteryear; into a hate spewing, ignorant, knuckle dragging moron. There's simply no way to stop it at this point - it is what it is. Sad as it is.
Spot on..now a few weeks later..ROMNEY will release his plan... ahead of Obama.. and the other Republicans ? ( crickets ) Being against something is a good start... I am against taxes..world hunger and throwing 8 interceptions per game. Now THEY must show how they would govern..lead or coach the team. BEFORE they are elected..
I think its time to reduce the election cycle to a small brochure, either mailed or digitized online. Candidates will no longer be able to campaign, do media spots, buy commercial time, or do any speeches. They can have closed circuit debates 3 times in primary season and 3 times in the election season, and other than that, they can develop a 6 sided brochure to give out to every voter in their electable region. The first page is a cover page, and the final 5 pages are their stances on their 10 highest prioritized positions. They can only talk about what THEY will do, not what someone else hasn't done, and they can pick any issue, moral or anything else they want. They can have a link to their own webpage, but that is the only time and place that they can advertise that site. Neither MSNBC or Fox News can talk about the election outside of the actual day of election, and not until 5:00 pm mountain time. I think this would get us the right people every time.
I've seen how civil many of these media darling hopefuls are: they can't answer a simple question just spin, there is nothing civil about it, it is DISRESPECTFUL to people. as far as morons in the audience, if there was a respected candidate other people would shut out the idiots in the audience for him out of respect. I see no one to respect on television, and all same and the same left to right. nothing civil about any of them at all like I said. Ron Paul is the only one, but he won't be able to do anything even if he would win alone because all the senators congressmen would keep him tied.
Revolutionary idea. I completely agree because their bull(*)(*)(*)(*) does not mean (*)(*)(*)(*) anyway
The problem is that both sides think they have the solutions. No one really knows how to balance the budget, create jobs, or pay back Social Security. So when folks go to these town hall meetings, some will agree with every word of their favorite candidate and others will go to disrupt the ones they oppose. For years we've been hearing the same promises. The OP has a good idea but realistically, there is no stopping the angry voters and opposers. The best we can hope for is that nobody gets hurt.
We need to be careful who we elect in the first place. We should not elect any politicians that make pledges that tie their hands and stop them from doing what is right. It is tough for any politician to get anything done the way things are in Washington. There are too many people yelling and not enough people listening. When the politicians go home they meet with their base and sit in an echo chamber that only reinforces what they have been doing. We will never get the politicians to work together unless we force them to
I've said this over and over again, we need to restructure and reform the House of Reprenstatives in order to reduce the number of career "politicians" (otherwise known as dunce puppets in the pockets of special interests). Break the 435 member house into about 7-8 "houses", each with local representation based on population cross-sections (for instance, 1 rep per 6 million population members nationwide, irregardless of state boundaries, 330 million/54 reps). Each "house" is elected to legislate very specific branches of legislation. One for the budget, one for defense, one for pork, one for entitlements, one for education, etc. In this type of environment, you won't see politicians get elected, you'll see experts in their specific field. A hack draft dodger like George Bush or Rick Perry could never run for House of the Defense, but you might have to choose between a 4 star general, a defense contractor and a peaceneck college professor that attended woodstock. Choose your lobby, and you get exactly what you vote for. In education, you'll have school administrators, teachers, concerned parents, or union reps, etc running for that House, and you won't have guys that have NOTHING to do with the school system that are ready to simply sell their education votes to party affiliation or in order to get a tit-for-tat on their entitlements bill proposal. Keep the politicians interests and voting power focused on specific legislation they were elected to interact with, and these guys and gals might actually have time to read the bills they vote on, and talk to the people about their needs in those specific things. Grandstanding won't be needed anymore. The Senate still ratifies and ensures budgetary means, but the House could be turned into a non-partisan place of policy improvement. Our nation has gotten too big to let a few short minutes of House debate decide the fate of entire programs and millions of people. Focused federal politics will improve our country, especially if the voters send these guys to Washington with 1 or 2 specific purposes in mind.
It is time for the centrist to start their own grass roots movement. As long ad the leaders are selected from the extreme base of each party compromise will always be difficult. We should all sign a pledge not to support politicians that sign pledges that prevent them from compromising. Sign the pledge at http://truefiscalconservative.blogspot.com/p/pledges.html
