Little Rock witnessed a tale of two events last week that says a lot about the troubled state of American politics.
At the first event, voters incensed by two months of chaos in Washington gathered at the First United Methodist Church on Center Street downtown, filling every pew in the 750-seat sanctuary, as well as the balcony and the choir seats behind the pulpit. Those who couldn’t find a seat stood around the edge of the sanctuary and at the back of the church; more than 100 people were turned away.
The energy, and the anger, at this town hall meeting were palpable, as speaker after speaker talked about the impact President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk and their minions are having on Arkansans from all walks of life — veterans, children with disabilities, Medicaid patients, farmers, immigrants and scientific researchers.
Meanwhile, eight blocks away at the Capital Hotel, U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton and John Boozman, who were both invited to the town hall, were instead rubbing elbows with donors at a high-dollar fundraiser for Cotton’s reelection campaign that featured Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders and a smattering of Stephenses and Dillards, with a Rockefeller thrown in.
It cost $1,000 to mingle, $7,000 to dine, and $10,000 to be on the host committee. To thwart would-be protesters, the location of the fundraiser was only disclosed to ticket holders, although details started to leak on social media in the hours before the event.
Given that Cotton, Boozman and Hill’s own in-person town halls have become as rare as a duck-billed platypus, organizers of the Second Congressional District town hall had little expectation that any of them would accept their invitation. (Hill’s scheduler said he was “not available to participate”; Boozman and Cotton didn’t respond.) Organizers left empty chairs for all three just in case.
“You are here because they won’t do their job,” said Chris Jones, the 2022 Democratic candidate for governor, who moderated the event. “It ain’t that hard. There are only a few things you need to do. One of them is to provide a check on the madness that is coming from the executive branch.”
There is, of course, nothing that requires French, Cotton or Boozman to meet in a public setting with their constituents, except perhaps a sense of duty that should go with the elected offices that they hold. Had they attended last week’s event, they would no doubt have gotten a rough reception. People are ticked off.
But that’s part of the job. If you seek public office, you shouldn’t be able to hide away from the public you represent because they make you uncomfortable. And you should represent, and be answerable to, all of your constituents, not just the ones who voted for you or agreeably nod their heads at everything you do.
Alas, Arkansas’ congressional delegation has little political incentive to engage with voters in an uncontrolled public setting. Hill is relatively safe in a racially gerrymandered district; Cotton and Boozman have little to fear in a very red state. They seem to believe they can disregard angry voters with impunity.
Perhaps they’re right about that, although it was notable at the town hall that the crowd gave one of its most vigorous ovations to Marcus Jones, the retired Army officer who ran against Hill last year, after he pushed back against Musk’s targeting of veterans’ programs, which is increasingly becoming an albatross around Republicans’ necks.
“Our veterans swore an oath, and when we did, we wrote a check. And that check could be up to the cost of our own life,” Jones said. “And part of that bargain is the government would take care of us. And the Trump administration is causing our nation to turn its back on that promise.”
In addition to a lack of incentive to endure public scrutiny, Arkansas’ congressmen may have a more pressing reason to avoid voter engagement, rooted in their political timidity in the face of the MAGA takeover of the Republican Party.
For instance, Hill, to his credit, has been an outspoken supporter of Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Imagine, then, if someone at the town hall had asked him whether he supported Trump’s attempt to humiliate Zelenskyy, cut off support for Ukrainian freedom fighters and align U.S. policy with the Kremlin.
He could not answer that question honestly without generating headlines that would anger the MAGA base. So it’s easier just to avoid getting the question.
Likewise, Boozman is a member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee and has made supporting veterans a key part of his legislative career. But if someone asked him if he supports plans by Musk’s DOGE operation to cut 80,000 positions from the Veterans Administration, which will compromise services to veterans, he’d have to choose between honesty, sycophancy or evasion. Easier, then, to play hide-and-seek.
The list of difficult questions for our congressional representatives goes on and on. Do they support staff cuts at the National Park Service that will affect services at the Buffalo River and Hot Springs National Park? Representing a tornado-prone state, do they support firings at the National Weather Service, which helps keep us safe? Or at FEMA, which helps us recover after disaster hits?
What is their view on kneecapping life-saving research at UAMS, the University of Arkansas and Arkansas Children’s Hospital through cuts to National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation funding? On eliminating the Department of Education that insures educational access for disabled students? Or stripping the Little Rock-based aid group WinRock International (established by Republican Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller) of funding by dismembering USAID?
How do they plan to protect Arkansas farmers from the damage caused by Trump’s tariffs? Or the jobs of folks at Lockheed Martin’s plant in Camden who make missiles being sent to Ukraine?
If our congressmen expressed any doubt about Dear Leader and his unelected billionaire sidekick, there would be hell to pay. It would also raise another thorny question that they wouldn’t want to answer — if you oppose these actions that are harming Arkansans, then why aren’t you doing more to stop Trump and Musk?
On the other hand, if members of our delegation actually support chaos, mindless budget cuts and indiscriminate firings, shouldn’t they be willing to defend them in public? Where is the courage of their convictions?
The essence of representative government is that the people we elect should represent us, engage with us, and listen to us. When they refuse to do so in service of their own political survival, it has a corrosive effect on democracy, as voters who don’t feel listened to, or represented, grow increasingly frustrated and angry.
Our congressional delegation has shown no sign that they give a hoot about that frustration and anger. We should not expect them to turn up anytime soon to answer questions in an environment where they can’t control the narrative. But that doesn’t mean voters shouldn’t continue to ask their questions more urgently and forcefully — even when they’re only talking to empty chairs.
That’s what democracy looks like, to the degree that we still have democracy left.