The Tyranny of the Minority or Business as Usual?
Image by Mike Newbry.
On April 7, 2025, I went to Youngstown OH where Tim Walz hosted a town hall, along with about 2,600 people. We are all desperate for a chance to hear about the chaos we’re experiencing, and I think to speak a few words about our grievances. Congressman Michael Rulli, who represents the district—has failed to give an opportunity so far. Republican representatives rarely give constituents an opportunity to voice grievances, or field questions about serious concerns. They much prefer environments where they control the questions and narratives, like tele-town halls, where they screen questions in advance.
To Walz’s credit, he did finally say what I needed to hear with about 30 seconds left in the event. The words “Constitutional crisis” came out, and that was it.
Republican representatives describe meeting with constituents as Rulli did: “I am terribly sorry I will be unable to attend your pathetic spectacle in person on Monday.” Toeing the party line: No more in-person town halls.
There continue to be many events hosted by Democrats in Republican controlled districts (Reps. Casar, Frost, Garcia, Pocan, Raskin, Khanna, Barragán and Watson-Coleman are some who have held them). I don’t know what they all are saying, but I wonder: Are Democratic spokespeople like Walz failing to meet the moment?
There were several standing ovations: Walz speaking about a fundamental right to reproductive freedom, expressing that what people do in their bedrooms is none of his business, and a veteran from Afghanistan asking about challenges as a student (I believe in a nursing program). For me, however, the most provocative and sobering moment was an 8-year-old, “we care,” “we can’t vote, what do we do?”
I was so angry. Walz said, things are going to be ok. My hand was up, and I changed my mind about what question I would ask. But I never got to ask: how can you lie to an 8-year-old like that? … Things are far from alright, and the fact that 8-year-olds are protesting and asking what they can do is proof that we have a big problem.
I know parents that are having difficult conversations with their children. Conversations about empty chairs because ICE is rounding people up, empty chairs because parents cannot take extra risks. I know teachers in classrooms like those.
It is business as usual. Republicans have been dodging public appearances the entirety of my voting life. I once had the chance to ask Congressman Bill Thomas a question, when he visited my high school in the fall of 1995, but they’ve never been accessible since I hit voting age. Democrats are showcasing an equal incapacity to grow a spine. All the rage over a Cory Booker’s speech, and it set a record, but it wasn’t even a filibuster! Nothing was stopped.
Once upon a time a mythology was created. Republicans have put their party over the Constitution, constituents, and country ever since. Meanwhile Democrats (by and large) have decided “only moderates win” and take “progressive” positions Richard Nixon would have been comfortable with, only as conservative as he could be and only as liberal as he had to be.
I sat next to a retired woman named Cheryl from Peninsula OH, tired of watching her rights and liberties taken away, with great fear she listed concerns off while we waited for the event to start. About 7 protestors were outside the event excited about a transition away our longstanding practice of democratic governance, their signs reminding us: they won, get over it (in less friendly language), one said “God bless.”
Ohio weather is great, I arrived in a t-shirt and a breeze, it was snowing when I left. Everyone I asked really liked the townhall. “Snow doesn’t bother you because you’re fired up now?” We laughed. When they asked me, I told them it has been difficult to put my dreams back together since I really needed the “Accessibility, I am the DEIA, his 5th executive order on January 20th crushed me.”
I don’t know how one moment sits in relationship to others. I have spent a considerable amount of time thinking about the Constitutional Convention. Disagreements almost blocked the formation of a United States. Alexander Hamilton left and later returned; Luther Martin of Maryland stormed out in protest of compromises on slavery. As best as I can tell there was a great division in my family tree, a brother and sister split off from the rest of the family over the issue of slavery around this time. They changed the spelling of their last names, thought human bondage was incompatible with the teachings of the bible, and these are ancestors I descend from.
I get absorbed in stories of conflict, both the substance and the process have so much to teach us. I think about these people, and those they represent, negotiating the unthinkable. One side argued: slavery is essential to our survival; the other: it is morally wrong and antithetical to the principles of liberty. We were not always a country that believed “one person, one vote.” No 3/5ths compromise, no U.S.
Democratic backsliding happens when a government drifts toward autocracy— power more arbitrary and repressive. It’s usually not an abrupt shift but a slow process of eroding public trust, shutting down dissent, and making it harder for people to challenge those in charge, which we’re watching in real time. Meaningful political participation shrinks, and those in power face fewer real obstacles to staying on top. The increasing severity of these concerns and threats is apparent, but maybe Walz is right, maybe we have been through worse, and we can do it again.
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