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A constituent of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as she responded to the congressman during a town hall meeting with him in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

A constituent of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as she responded to the congressman during a town hall meeting with him in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., back to camera, answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., back to camera, answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., gestures as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., answers a question during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Constituents of Congressman Dave Brat, R-Va., hold signs as he answers questions during a town hall meeting with the congressman in Blackstone, Va., Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017.

Brat, who rode Tea Party rage to office, faces angry constituents

BLACKSTONE, Va. -- Rep. Dave Brat, R-Va., who drew national notice after complaining that women were "in my grill" because he was reluctant to hold a town hall meeting, finally relented and came face to face with those women - and plenty others - at a raucous public event Tuesday night.

Brat held the meeting in a tiny town in Nottoway County, a rural community carried by Trump in November. It's about an hour south of the most populous part of Brat's district, but that didn't stop a stream of people from driving into town and filling up the town hall, with scores shut out on the sidewalk.

For a little more than an hour, Brat was heckled nonstop as he fielded questions on health care, President Donald Trump's policies and the border wall.

His answers seemed to antagonize most in the crowd of 150, who yelled back at him, at points drowning him out and prompting a few of his supporters to leave early in disgust.

At one point, Brat launched into a goofy impression of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., apparently intended to illustrate they agree that voters are frustrated with what they see as a corrupt Washington.

Toward the end of the town hall, Mary Mullins, a 61-year-old constituent and professor at Virginia Commonwealth University who lives in Chesterfield, stood up and briefly held the floor, demanding that Brat give direct answers.

She prodded him to add some detail to one of his usual lines about his value system: "Some actual principles please, not this Judeo-Christian generality," she said.

Before the event got underway, she pondered how she could teach her students critical thinking when the Trump administration seems "based on superstition and who's the biggest bully."

"He certainly seems to be riding the wave," she said of Brat.

On four separate occasions, Brat awkwardly plugged his book, saying it's an effective sleep aid. The joke fell flat each time.

Some of the loudest jeers came over Republicans' promise to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act as people held up red cards signaling their discontent.

"The problem is Obamacare has just collapsed," said Brat, who stood at a podium in the Blackstone Herb Cottage. The crowd began shouting: "No, it has not!"

The town hall came after constituents, many of them organizing online, made daily calls and sent repeated emails to Brat's office to ask for a public meeting.

Participants began to line up along Main Street hours before the doors opened at 6:30 p.m. Many held signs referring to Brat's recent gaffe, including one that read "VA 7th district, it's grilling time!"

Another sign said, "This grandmother drove 165 miles to be in your grill, Mr. Brat and no one paid me to be here!" - a reference to an interview Brat had with a Richmond paper in which he dismissed protesters as "paid activists."

As he ticked off the names of the counties he has visited in the district, a few in the crowd yelled "Arizona," a jab at his plans to attend a town hall meeting with Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., in Gold Canyon, Arizona, on Thursday. Brat had accepted that invitation before agreeing to hold a town hall in Virginia, a move that enraged some of his critics.

Blackstone Mayor Billy Coleburn acted as an emcee, reading written questions collected from the crowd. Asked "Do you deny climate change?" Brat said "No, the climate changes all the time." His apparent attempt at a joke angered the crowd, some of whom yelled, "Answer the question!"

Asked how as a fiscal conservative Brat could justify the cost of the wall along the southern border promised by Trump and estimated to cost between $15 billion and $25 billion.

"The answer is 'easily,' " Brat said. "Then you pay for it!" a woman in the audience shot back.

He also gave an unpopular answer when asked if he agreed with Trump that the administration was running smoothly so far.

"The answer to that is, given the obstruction in D.C., it's remarkable what he has gotten done," he said. The crowd drowned out his answer forcing him to struggle for a moment - "The stock market is going like 'zing!' for the first time" - before moving on to a question about the Second Amendment.

Nicole Subryan, 44, a registered nurse from Petersburg, which is not in Brat's district, kept up a loud running commentary through the town hall and held up a sheet of paper with the word, "LIE."

She and others seemed unimpressed with Brat's recitation of his grass-roots credentials, which helped him topple House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in 2014. Cantor was criticized for being aloof and out of touch with his constituents - many of the same accusations now plaguing Brat.

"I was one of the first to run as an outsider against the establishment and the crony deals on Wall Street. I think we're going to drain the swamp," he said, invoking one of Trump's favorite lines. The comment sent the crowd into an uproar once again.

"I want to get the power out of D.C. and Wall Street and back to Main Street," Brat said. To which a man yelled, "Wall Street's in the Cabinet now."

"Are the words yes and no in your vocabulary?" Subryan yelled. Then she added, "You're full of [it]!"

Another constant heckler was Alyssa Mitchell, 21, a college student from Richmond, which is not in Brat's district. At one point she yelled: "How about Trump! Why doesn't he pay his taxes?"

Again and again she shouted: "You're misinformed!"

Brat, who seemed a little startled at the beginning of the evening, said afterward that he didn't mind the constant jeering and that he understood the country's divisions have deepened since the election.

"I thought it was going to be worse," he said.

Jenna Portnoy covers Virginia, Maryland and D.C. politics for The Washington Post. @jennaportnoy

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Brat, who rode Tea Party rage to office, faces angry constituents - seattlepi.com

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Three county officials this week will speak at the county Tea Party meeting and take questions from the audience.

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Three county officials will speak at the Calhoun County Tea Party meeting this week.

Treasurer Brian Wensauer, Clerk and Register of Deeds Anne Norlander and county board Chairman Derek King will present monthly reports at the meeting, held from 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kool Family Community Center, 200 W. Michigan Ave. The meeting is open to the public.

The officials are expected to take questions from the audience after their reports.

Contact government reporter Jennifer Bowman at 269-966-0589 or jbowman@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow her on Twitter: @jenn_bowman. Listen to the podcast she co-hosts, The Jump Page, at soundcloud.com/enquirerpodcasting.

Read or Share this story: http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/story/news/local/2017/02/21/county-officials-speak-tea-party-meeting/98190770/

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County officials to speak at Tea Party meeting - Battle Creek Enquirer

From Tony Marrero:

The married couple stood on the sidewalk in front of the gleaming high rise, clutching pink posters as traffic zoomed by on West Kennedy Boulevard.

It was Valentine's Day, and Andrea Beley and Gaston Naranjo of Tampa had joined about 150 other demonstrators to send a message to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. This day, the group was largely focused on getting Rubio to hold a town hall meeting.

"I don't feel like I have a senator," said Beley, a 64-year-old retired university professor, as she held a holiday-inspired sign that read, "Rubio, Wherefore Art Thou?" "He seems like he's disappeared."

The weekly demonstrations at Rubio's Tampa office are among the most visible signs of a national grassroots movement taking hold in Tampa Bay. The goal: Block President Donald Trump's agenda by pressuring members of Congress at home.

The activists are coalescing around the Indivisible Guide, a how-to manual written by ex-Democratic aides and modeled after the tactics that helped the tea party block President Barack Obama's agenda. It calls for putting a laser focus on representatives and senators in their districts by flooding town hall meetings, showing up at their offices and calling them out if they refuse to meet.

More here

See more here:
Tampa Bay Democrats follow tea party playbook to take on Trump ... - Tampabay.com (blog)

In the wake of the 2008 election, Democrats had won the presidency. They held 59 Senate seats and a 76-person majority in congress. There was talk of a permanent Democratic majority, and the GOP appeared to be in complete, powerless disarray. In response, a grassroots protest movement emerged. Considered more or less a joke at first, the Tea Party would change the face of American politics. And just eight years later, it would help restore Republican political power.

Now, as Democrats face the dark political wilderness, they too have launched a protest movement, loosely referred to as The Resistance. It is tempting to compare these historical moments. Many on the Left have begun to not only compare the Resistance to the Tea Party, but to use it as a model. This means more than protesting and attending town hallsit also means organizing and promoting candidates who will challenge Trump.

But for all the similarities of situation and tactics, there are several specific reasons why the Resistance is unlikely to succeed as the Tea Party did. Becoming the new party of no may be the best option progressives have to fight the presidentbut progressivism has baked into it aspects that make it very different from the Tea Party they seek to emulate.

For those unfamiliar with the term, intersectionality refers to the ways in which marginalized people overlap in the hierarchy of oppression. So being gay and black makes you oppressed, but if you are cis (not transgender), your gender privilege intersects with your oppression. If that idea gives you a headache, it should. It also helps to explain why progressives so often wind up at each others throats.

This phenomenon was on display at the Womens March on Washington. Originally organized by two white people, calls came almost instantly to diversify its leadership. The problem with this is that it leads to ever more radical positionswhen the lesbian, Eskimo, midget, left-handed, ninja albinos demand inclusion of their cause in the platform. This was one of the things that led to the failure of Occupy Wall Street, as more moderate voices were pushed to the side.

The Resistance believes that diversity is its strength. But diversity can also be a profound weakness, one that has haunted many progressive movements. The Tea Party faced almost no similar divisions, and more or less avoided such internecine struggles.

Related to the problem of intersectionality is the Resistances lack of a unifying issue. The Tea Party was laser-focused on government spending, both regarding the bailouts and eventually the Affordable Care Act. Protests in general are more successful when they oppose something concretelike a war or a specific law. We saw evidence of this in the airport protests over the presidents immigration executive order. Politicians, the courts, and the media followed their lead. In some measure, they were able to claim victory.

But the Resistance is about much more than immigration: it is opposed to Trump, not any one or two of his policies. This will make the movement a mile wide and an inch deep. The public will not be able to process all their complaints at once, and politicians will not be able to concentrate their fire.

The Resistance likes to point out that Hillary Clinton received more votes than Trump. And it is an important point: Clinton came much closer to winning the 2016 election than John McCain did in 2008. But the disparity between the popular vote and the Electoral College reveals a telling weakness for Democrats in national elections. Progressive voters are densely packed into small geographic areas where they dominate.

It may well be that the Resistance has greater overall participation than the Tea Party did. But it will be focused in progressive cities and on college campuses. This will not give the Resistance the kind of reach that the Tea Party had. Even if it succeeds in motivating voters, it will only enhance already overwhelming advantages in places where Democrats already win.

As we saw during the recent Berkeley riots and the assault on Richard Spencer caught on video, there is an element of the Resistance that is willing to use violence to achieve its political ends. Progressives will argue that this is a small percentage, just as the Tea Party did when confronted with allegations of racism. But thus far, too many progressives have been apologists for such violence. Somehow they are engaged in a debate as to whether punching political opponents is okay.

This is an old story on the Left. Its how William Ayers, a convicted political terrorist and member of the Weather Underground, can be friends with former President Obama. Rather than say there is no place for this here, as the Tea Party did with racism, progressives see their violent elements as having similar aims and different methods.

Any protest organizer will tell you that seeing grandmothers and toddlers is much better messaging than seeing masked thugs setting things on fire. But if the Resistance cannot firmly and totally reject such methods, they deserve the stain that comes with them. And the American people will associate them with that kind of madness.

For the reasons listed above, it is unlikely that the Resistance can duplicate the Tea Partys success. After all, the political turnaround it achieved in eight years may be unprecedented in modern American history. But the good news for the Resistance is that they dont have to. Democrats are not in nearly as deep of a hole as the GOP was in 2009. Democrats trail Republicans by only 47 votes in the House and two in the Senate.

This is why some Democratsincluding moderate congressman Tim Ryan, whose attempt to be minority leader fizzledwant a very different approach from the Resistance. Rather than protest and yell, the few moderates left see a calmer path: one that requires not a political sea change, but winning back a few frustrated voters who were swayed by Trump.

At the moment, it does not appear that the moderates are winning the day. Just as the Tea Party stuck it to the GOP establishment, the Resistance seems eager for a similar fight, even with vaguely moderate Democrats. Most Republicans say such a choice will turn Trump into a two-term President. But there are reasons to temper such optimism.

The first reason is Trump himself. Just as Obama launched unpopular policies that fueled the Tea Party, Trump could do or say things that keep the Resistance energized and relevant. He hasnt been president long, but thus far the size and sustained nature of protests have been impressive. The progressive protest networks, which certainly do have their professional elements, are succeeding in bringing many regular people into the street.

A second reason is that in politics, offense is better than defense. As Obama found out, popular change is easier to promise than it is to deliver. The party out of power can focus on pie-in-the-sky schemes that havent been tested. The party in power has to slog through reality and build a case that they are better than a hypothetical alternative.

Short of some unforeseeable dtente between the president and his progressive detractors, the Resistance is likely to have legs. It may even succeed in becoming an effective political organization, as the Tea Party did.

But the Resistance faces structural disadvantages that the Tea Party did not. If it can be a broad based movement, tolerant of differing philosophies of progressivism, it has a chance to sway opinions and move votes. But if moderate, or as progressives would say, privileged voices are pushed to the side; it will double down on recent failures. The Resistance is not the Tea Party and it cant win the way Tea Party did. But for now anyway, it looks like that is exactly what is it going to try to do.

David Marcus is a senior contributor to the Federalist and the Artistic Director of Blue Box World, a Brooklyn based theater project. Follow him on Twitter, @BlueBoxDave.

Read more here:
4 Reasons The Anti-Trump Resistance Won't Win Like The Tea ... - The Federalist

Indivisible 605(Photo: Submitted)

South Dakotans looking to block President Donald Trump's policies are set to hold a town hall forum Thursday in Sioux Falls.

Leaders of agrassroots group calledIndivisible 605 said they wanted to hold an event at which members could learn how to start constructive conversationswith congressional delegates using"polite, non-violent techniques." The local group stemmed froma national campaignto resist the Trump administration using Tea Party tactics like targeting elected officials at a local level to prevent policy changes.

Sens. Mike Rounds and John Thune and Rep. Kristi Noem will return to South Dakota during a congressional recess period, but don't plan to hold formal town hall forums. Spokespeople for the three said they hadn't received invitations to the Thursday forum.

MORE:Guns, dark money, marijuana: #SDLeg enters home stretch

KateHayes, one of the group's organizers, said she thought it was important that constituents remain an active check and balance system, weighing in regularly about Trump's comments or policies that might worry them.

"We want to get back to wherewe're doing our job as part of our democracy," she said. "We need to be there to watch them and hold them accountable."

And the state's congressional delegates should be expected to weigh in on the comments, too, she said. The three Republicans have shared their opinions on Trump's cabinet appointments in press releases and on Trump's executive order restricting immigration from certain countries when pressed by reporters.

Hayes said Rounds, Thune and Noem should listen to their constituents and represent their views when addressing Trump's comments or voting on his proposals.

SEE ALSO:Shell game? Legislators question vehicle bill practice

"There's obviously been a lot of verbiage and vitriol coming out of the Trump administration and it's deeply troubling," Hayes said. "You can't ignore that this is a different tone and a dangerous one."

Spokespeople for Thune and Noem said the two have remained open to constituent questions and comments. They said they would welcome constituent input and would visit with South Dakotans who come to visit their offices in the state and in Washington, D.C.

Follow Dana Ferguson on Twitter @bydanaferguson, call (605) 370-2493 or email dferguson@argusleader.com

Town hall details:

When: Thursday, February 23 from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Where: Icon Lounge + Events, 402 N. Main Ave. Sioux Falls

Read or Share this story: http://argusne.ws/2loFauv

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Group aims to use Tea Party tactics to block Trump policies - Sioux Falls Argus Leader