Pitney on Virtual Townhalls and Screening Questions

Professor Pitney has written a fantastic piece on National Review Online about how Congressmen are trying to create "virtual townhall" meetings. (Silly me, I though the "town" had to be in a "hall" for it qualify.)

Pitney's spot on about how a representative democracy isn't a virtual representative democracy and that tweeting or gchatting does not equate to having a little face time with one's congressman, especially if the congressman's staffers screen the questions.

Intuitively politicians themselves understand this need to have a personal relationship with one's congressman. Why else would they kiss a baby, eat local food, shake hands or get into affairs? Surely all those other services can be done online too?

Now where have I heard about people screening questions before?

Could it be when Campus Democrats screened questions before David Plouffe came to speak at Pomona College? Or how about how Pamela Gann racially selected questions for Bill Clinton? Or Bono?

Health Care Protest Against Gabrielle Giffords SCRIPPS '93

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords SCRIPPS '93 is in trouble and the latest health care protests certainly aren't helping.

She's being challenged in front of her offices by everyday American grassroots efforts who worry about the socialization of 16 percent of the U.S. economy.

Giffords, supposedly a Blue Dog Democrat, supports a public option for health care and has compared it to the landing on the moon. She wrote in a local newspaper that "A nation that can leave footprints on another celestial body is up to the challenge [of providing health care to all student. Providing Americans with health care that gives them lifetime security and peace of mind must be America's next great accomplishment." She believes, incredibly, that a "public option" won't lead to new "burdens" or "taxes."

(This moon comment led to a rather funny (and true) rebuke Dr. Jane M. Orient of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.) She wrote,

Do we want American medicine to suffer the same fate as manned space flight? Shall we ground the Saturn V until everybody has a horse and buggy of equal quality? Shall we put our best imaging technology in a museum, and celebrate the 40th anniversary of our former ability to see inside the body without cutting?

Tough words for the Congresswoman, especially seing as she's married to an astronaut.

I suspect that part of the reason that Giffords supports a health care public option can be seen in her view of government which was revealed in the commencement speech she gave before the Class of 2009.

You are blessed to be living in a country that gives its citizens the freedom to bump around the scenery a bit, to try new things and make mistakes and stretch your talents and make adjustments and to find every rich and satisfying thing, and it will still be okay in the end.

Remember what the authors of the Declaration of Independence said about the inalienable rights of each person, which are "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Think of that! Those words are one of the deepest expressions of who we are as Americans. This is the mission statement of the United States.

This statement is a total misreading of America. The government doesn't "give[] its citizens" "freedom." The people give its government enumerated powers, which are clear and limited. Or at least, they used to be before politicians like Giffords subvert the very principles of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" with this unconstitutional health care plan and its provisions of rationing and higher taxes. When politicians undermine that "mission statement" at the same time they extol it, it's time for them to go.

Giffords is vulnerable in her conservative district and so far, she's ignored her Republican challenger's proposal for a debate. I guess she doesn't really want a debate about one of the biggest pieces of legislation ever. All the more reason we ought to consider donating some funds to veteran, Mr. Jesse Kelly, her challenger.