Virginia Foxx has a lame excuse for not doing town halls with voters | Opinion
Republican members of Congress have been advised to avoid holding in-person town halls as public backlash against the Trump administration and its agenda steadily rises.
That’s not a problem for U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, who apparently has never been much of a fan of town halls. In a recent appearance on Fox News, Foxx was asked how she would handle confronting the pain and anger of her constituents at town halls. She responded that she “doesn’t do town halls” because “it’s just an opportunity for people to yell at their member of Congress.”
That says a lot more about Foxx than it does about her constituents. Disgruntled voters are a feature of democracy, not a bug. As a public servant, it’s her responsibility to listen to voters, including and especially those who disagree with her. The people who didn’t vote for her are as much her constituents as the ones who did.
Foxx has no problem with appearing before people who are inclined to agree with her. She regularly speaks at events hosted by Republican groups at the local and state level. It’s much tougher, of course, to sit in the hot seat at a town hall and field questions from voters who are upset or worried, but it’s part of the job, too.
Foxx did say that if constituents have questions or concerns, they should come to her office and sit down with her personally. (As if it were really that simple.) But that ignores the very point of a town hall, which is for a politician to come speak to their constituents, not the other way around. It’s to solicit feedback, and make yourself available for questions, rather than waiting around for people to provide it themselves. Hearing from your representative is not a privilege, and the burden should not be on voters to coordinate a time and place to provide it.
But the problem with Foxx’s attitude isn’t just that she isn’t willing to stand before voters and explain her actions. It’s how quickly she dismisses the anger of her constituents, as if they are merely random naysayers and not the very people she was elected to serve. Has she forgotten that representative government is supposed to be representative? It doesn’t seem to occur to Foxx that their anger could be more righteous than vindictive, or driven by fear for their livelihoods and their families. In fact, she doesn’t seem to acknowledge that they might have a right to be angry at all.
But perhaps this is all to be expected from a representative who has served 11 terms in a heavily gerrymandered district. Accountability probably sounds like a foreign concept to someone who has been shielded from it for so long. You don’t need to appear before voters, let alone listen to them, when you know you don’t need their votes to get elected.
Ironically enough, Foxx went on to say that if she were to hold a town hall, she would tell voters that the cuts to government programs and spending are about accountability.
“I used to say that my middle initial stood for Ann, my middle name,” she said. “But ever since I’ve been in Congress, it’s stood for accountability, because that’s what I’ve focused on since I’ve been there.”
Maybe she should start holding herself accountable, too.
