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Town Halls: Every Month in Every District [1]

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Date: 2025-03-12

I have been hearing a lot of people complaining about the Democrats lack of response and the right wing control of the media. Perhaps those critiques are true, but they are not all that actionable.

This idea:

So here’s an idea that originated, as far as I can tell, in this tweet from conservative-operative-turned-Never-Trump-stalwart Bill Kristol. So far, Democrats don’t seem to have taken Kristol up on his idea of the party hosting town halls this month in all 435 congressional districts. They should. In fact, they should go further and hold town hall meetings in every district, every month, every year. That’s because the best way to channel our anger, fear, and patriotism is to speak out not just on cable news and in elite institutions but in the schoolhouses, libraries, municipal buildings, and churches where American democracy was born.

is not only actionable, but it is something we as the base of the party can take action on. We can do the ground work to create these town halls, by helping our Dem office holders, working with our state parties, and holding them in districts held by Rs, preparing content for local news, etc.

Another huge advantage of it is that by holding town halls in every district, we have a better shot at reaching and converting disaffected voters (whether Trump voters or non-voters) than any media platform out there. Even without the right-wing bias, the media landscape is crowded and messy — there’s too much content and too many entities competing for ordinary people’s attentions. Town halls are far more likely to get local news coverage than anything online. They are also the clearest possible to show commitment to representative democracy and draw contrast with Rs.

Even more critically, town halls also offer a Democrats a clear chance to listen — showing up and listening is the most persuasive action anyone can take.

There is a lot of evidence out there that many Trump voters and non-voters out there are “disappointed Democrats” — they once believed in a country that where all people could have a fair shot by working hard but now they think Republicans look out for the rich and Democrats look out for “other people”. I know most Kossacks like to think that this isn’t true or that it’s some kind of MAGA mind trick, but to me the data keeps tell us this same story and we have to take it seriously, understand why people are feeling this, and show some empathy rather than telling them they’re wrong.

We need to show by actions that we can hold space for ordinary people by virtue of them being ordinary working people without specific . This will be hard, some of them may have mixed feels about LGBTQ issues, or say things that maybe sound a little racist, or express anger at the federal government, or disagree on environmental issues. In my opinion our ability to make this space will determine whether we as a movement and a party can re-emerge strong or whether we stay limited to our “blue bubble”.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/3/12/2309673/-Town-Halls-Every-Month-in-Every-District?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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