If you live in Aurora and are deeply afraid the Trump administration is going to nuke Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security as well as bankrupt farmers, destroy our democracy and the economy, you’re not alone.
The vast majority of those who answered instant polls during Congressperson Jason Crow’s telephone town hall meeting last week agreed the nation is moving, rapidly, in the wrong direction.
The telephone polling during the hour-long event was anything but scientific, but the questions and opinions elicited among the town hall’s approximately 14,000 participants offered a spot-on reflection of what Americans across the country are saying.
Crow, a fourth-term Democrat representing Aurora’s 6th Congressional District, told participants some of what most of them wanted to hear. Crow said that he’s focusing primarily on fending off Trump administration attempts to jack up tariffs and, subsequently, prices on just about everything Americans will have to pay.
He’s also spending much of his time ensuring that Trump’s Homeland Security team isn’t upending due process for immigrants, or abusing them inside Aurora’s GEO ICE detention center.
A great deal of his energy is focused on trying to prevent Trump and Republicans in Congress from tearing into the Medicaid budget, which would upend medical care, and even assisted living care, for a wide swath of people, many of them elderly or living in rural Colorado.
“Over 100,000 people in our community rely on Medicaid for life-saving medication and health care,” Crow said. “I mean, this is literally a life-and-death issue for so many of the people that I represent. So this keeps me awake at night.”
Wait. What?
While everyone certainly appreciates Crow’s frankness, I’m with most of his constituents who probably are not put at ease by hearing that someone like Crow is losing sleep over how to thwart a Medicaid catastrophe.
If you don’t know Crow, I can pretty confidently assure you that he’s not the hand-wringer type. With the Sentinel, he’s always been frank, confident, knowledgeable and eagerly optimistic.
My generation called it a “can do” attitude.
Crow losing sleep over things like saving the U.S. democracy or whether thousands of elderly, disabled or dementia-plagued Aurora residents are going to become homeless after their Medicaid evaporates is a double whammy.
Since Trump was sworn in, everyone from Aurora to Anchorage has been hammered with trade wars, illegal deportations, Canadian annexations, Arabian graft and something else almost every 15 minutes. Over the past few months, I’ve heard dozens of people at town hall meetings like this one and others asking pretty much the same questions Crow heard last week.
“What can we do?”
“Do you see anything coming down the line in pushback from the Democrats?”
“What are your plans?”
“What’s going to happen?”
“What can you do?”
Many of the people sound scared, weary or wary.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is a regular target for political cartoonists, threatening to send the White House yet another “strongly worded letter” critical of things like usurping the Supreme Court or kidnapping immigrants.
Crow said what almost every other Congressional Democrat has been saying since Jan. 20. The Democrats don’t control the House, the Senate or the White House. As long as Republicans can muster a one-vote majority in Congress or on the Supreme Court, they can do pretty much what they want.
Crow said the key here, with virtually no other realistic levers to pull, is to supply as much “citizen oversight” as possible.
The Trump administration “is not responding to our letters. They’re not allowing us to come to facilities. They’re not showing up to testify — or at all in some cases,” Crow said. “I’m increasingly relying on all of you to be my eyes and ears. You know, take videos of things you think are wrong. Take notes of issues that you think are abusive. Because together the eyes and ears that we have collected information that you all can gather for me, and is sent to my office and my team helps me be a better advocate and better fighter for you.”
Since Trump and his GOP acolytes are in a position to do what they want, the key is to change what they want. Above all, Trump seeks approval and control, which is a large part of his mental illness. If a majority of those he seeks approval from don’t want to see Medicaid gutted or due process thrown out the window, Trump won’t either.
It’s pretty easy to see how this works in the case of Elon Musk. Remember him? Essentially vanquished from the White House scene these days, Trump loved his chainsaw antics until the MAGA base started recoiling as well.
Besides making public the reality of what Trump imposes, and persuading people across the political spectrum to resist, Crow said this is no time to just sit back and wait for others to make things happen.
“A lot of people say, you know, we need change to come from Washington. And that’s true, and I’m fighting for that.” Crow said. “But I am somebody that has always believed throughout my life that the biggest change comes from the community. It comes from all of you. We are facing a cultural moment in America of hyper-partisanship, and what we need people to do is re-engage in civic and community organizations. Show up to community meetings and speak and let people know who we are as a community, what our values are, and get involved. “
When it comes time to talk, however, don’t do it with anger.
“We have to approach each other with empathy and compassion and learn where we can re-establish some common ground,” he said.
And if you’re especially upset about how vulnerable communities are being mistreated or outright abused, step up.
“I am very proud that I represent one of the most diverse districts in the country,” Crow said. “Nearly 20 percent of my constituents were born outside of the United States. There are over 130 languages spoken in our public school system. Get involved with an immigrant organization that’s protecting children, that’s protecting families, you know, volunteer. They need our support. They need your support.”
I’ve listened to a lot of congressional town hall meetings over the last several decades. This one sounded like we are a country at war.
Participants overwhelmingly said during the instant polls that they seriously fear the loss of constitutional rights under Trump. They fear the loss of American freedoms, and especially the loss of benefits expected and paid into during entire lifetimes.
I never imagined living through a time when a prudent politician like Crow would be so unequivocal in describing the political climate, and the U.S. president.
“President Trump doesn’t tell the truth,” Crow said. “He lies and distorts a lot of times. And he uses fear a lot. You know, he uses fear to divide us against each other, but also as a motivator. You know, fear of losing jobs, fear, of ‘the other.’”
He said this is a time to show solidarity for farmers facing bankruptcy over Trump’s economic plans. Solidarity with seniors who cannot survive on fewer Social Security dollars. Solidarity with teachers who don’t want to teach children lies about the 2020 presidential election.
Sounds like a solid plan to me.
Follow @EditorDavePerry on BlueSky, Threads, Mastodon, Twitter and Facebook or reach him at 303-750-7555 or dperry@SentinelColorado.com
Democrats seem so distraught over the fact that Americans voted overwhelmingly for a man the left-wing media presented as a Fascist and Nazi, worse than Hitler, rather than the Hollywood candidate they put up, that they now live in this imaginary world where all Trump voters regret their decision.
Happy fantasy.
Elon Musk is a true immigrant American hero who applied his genius and acumen for business to save American taxpayers money by helping root out waste, fraud and inefficiency in government. He did this without pay, simply for love of his country. Most true Americans recognize this.
Elon Musk is emblematic of the new aristocracy. And he didn’t do it for love of country: He did it for love of money and power. And last I heard, he has become far less influential with Trump than everyone feared. Because the pushback against him has grown.
Trump has never read the Constitution, and wouldn’t understand it if he did. This is why the federal courts have been reversing many, if not most, of Trump’s moves. Neither Trump nor Musk have a clue about due process. But worse, they are stomping around, breaking things, and behaving like two-year-olds.
Trump’s handling of the immigrant crisis is a perfect example: He has prejudged every undocumented immigrant as a “terrorist” and “rapist”, and loathes the right they have to challenge removal and deportation. That is why due process is vital for all persons in the country.
Not just the white ones.
“We can let in 10 million people unvetted through WhatsApp, but we can’t remove them without multiple court cases that take 20 years to accomplish.”
Nah, just remove them and let your side seethe as your revolutionary vanguard is sent back home.
The rest of the article is just Dave’s typical hyper-partisan hyper-ventilating that your side isn’t getting to cram its ideology down everyone’s throat anymore.
Well, I guess it depends on how much you value the Constitution.
I’ll put you down as “not at all”.
That comment might have had some teeth if your side hadn’t slagged it as a “racist” “undemocratic” document over the years every time it stood in the way of the further acquisition of power. But I do recognize the Alinskyite tactic being employed here.
“I’ve listened to a lot of congressional town hall meetings over the last several decades. This one sounded like we are a country at war.”
It’s only a culture war when the right pushes back against your side’s Cultural Revolution, Dave.
Rearrange the word hatred and get RED HAT. That sums them up. As long as they see and feel OTHERS suffering MAGA folks are very, very, very euphoric. All of these trump sycophants are still kissing the ring because his non-policies have not affected them or they cannot bring themselves to admit their intellectual failure in choosing a malignant narcissist with dementia … yet.
Boomerangs are real and US American Christians are anything but.