All around the country at town halls where Republicans have tried to persuade constituents that their new Ryan plan to kill Medicare and replace it with virtually worthless vouchers for older Americans no company would insure anyway is a good thing. Not surprisingly, that isn't fooling anyone. Go figure.
Recently questions were either not permitted, some were arrested just for asking, or questions were screened by that candidate's staff, as in a recent town hall for Allen West.
Unfortunately for those Republicans, darn it, people just insist on asking questions as if this is a Democracy or something. (What's up with that, huh?) Worse still, people are actually filming those Congressmen speaking their own words! Can't have that, can we?
Now apparently they've done something about that too. First no questions, now no recording devices.
However, some congressmen are concerned about what could happen if citizen journalists repost their town halls on the Internet. At least two members of Congress have taken extraordinary measures to shut down the spread of information.
ThinkProgress readers passed along the following photos, taken outside town halls held by Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) and Rep. Joe Heck (R-NV). Barletta specifically barred citizen journalists and other non-credentialed media from recording the event, while Heck took a more encompassing approach of “no recording devices” at all
They'll still try and tell voters that killing Medicare is the best thing since sliced bread, it's just the people who know better and point it out that they'll remove from the equation. Problem solved.
Because you can't have videos like this one out there, taken earlier in the week at yet another Allen West town hall by Daniel Tilson, where armed policemen and others were stationed throughout the audience ready to escort anyone who dared to ask a question out the door.
No wonder they want to ban cameras and recording devices. Showing a voter to the door while armed just for asking a question doesn't look good. What's next? Will they ban cameras within so many feet near a building where a town hall is taking place?
Or in my case, will your Congressman just take the coward's way out and not bother with town halls at all in favor of emails and Tweets that are obvious nonsense, meaningless talking points, and designed for no interaction with the voter altogether?
Without the back and forth from actual people who vote, you're down to merely a lecture or a campaign commercial. We already have that.
The problem for Republicans?
People just aren't buying it anymore.
