You have a right to be heard. They have an obligation to listen.

Mar 11, 2025

“God has a plan and purpose for your life.” That was Congressman Mark Alford’s response to concerns by constituents who had lost their jobs due to recent reductions in the federal workforce and budgets. Alford is a Republican Congressman elected in 2023 and a former television news anchor from the Kansas City area. He was at a coffee shop, entertaining questions from people in his district, with some things on their minds that they had wanted him to hear. The coffee shop was packed with people, with many others standing outside on the sidewalk, peering in the windows and straining to watch and hear what was being said inside.

Alford was inundated with angry complaints about how President Trump had given an unelected billionaire, the wealthiest man in the world, unrestrained power to dismantle their government in any way he deemed fit. Even though they were sitting a thousand miles from Washington, DC, they could see, taste, and feel what it was all doing to them.

Some federal employees who lived in the Kansas City area worked in the Treasury Department, Internal Revenue Services, and United States Department of Agriculture, and others demanded to know why they suddenly found themselves unemployed. Many had been on the job only about a year but had undergone extensive training for their positions and believed they were doing productive work and making a valuable contribution. Indeed, many federal workers terminated due to Trump’s downsizing were sent letters indicating they were let go due to unsatisfactory performance despite receiving glowing performance reviews from their superiors.

Others were concerned about cuts to agencies overseeing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and reports that access to computer systems and beneficiaries' personal data had been given to Elon Musk’s team of young engineers. People are thinking about how they will pay their mortgage or rent when the automatic monthly Social Security deposit doesn’t show up in their bank account on the date it always does. How in the world are they going to care for grandma or Uncle Joe, who no longer can stay in the nursing home, when they have no more time in their day after working and taking care of the kids? Is Johnny going to be able to continue his cancer treatment? These are things that Elon Musk doesn’t, and has never, have to worry about.

Finally, Alford replied that they had to trust that God would take care of them. But that didn’t go so well either, as one woman exclaimed, “We don’t want your God!” and another said, “Our God is Christian.” A merciful God.

Nationwide, lawmakers are facing angry constituents at public town halls who are anxious and worried about the dramatic shift our country has taken in just a few weeks. In Georgia, residents at a town hall wanted to know how workers at the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were abruptly fired from their jobs, only to be hastily reinstated when it was realized that their work was essential to protecting the public safety of American citizens (the CDC is headquartered in Atlanta). Like Congressman Alford in Kansas City, Representative McCormick from Roswell, GA, could only reply that layoffs in the federal workforce were inevitable and that Trump was exercising his authority under Article I of the Constitution as chief executive as well as a “mandate” from the voters to reduce federal spending.

In other words, get over it.

All of this has prompted House Speaker Mike Johnson to tell his colleagues to cease holding public town halls altogether. Of course, Republicans are quick to blame Democrats or progressive organizations like Indivisible for the chaos. Heaven forbid they should encourage their supporters to attend these public town hall events and ask questions of their elected representatives.

Just this past week, Alford clashed with local State Rep. David Tyson Smith of Columbia, who had referred a Veterans Administration employee concerned about her job to Alford's office. (Alford’s Congressional district includes Smith’s state house district.) Alford dispatched several staff members to visit Smith’s legislative assistant in the Missouri state capital. They complained about being inundated with phone calls and being cornered in a coffee shop by angry citizens. While Alford asserts that the visit was simply an effort to build relationships with lawmakers in his district, Smith claimed it was an act of intimidation.

“You have a right to be heard and they have an obligation to listen.”

I’m not sure where I first heard that term. Still, it has always been a mantra I have repeated when I did advocacy work in DC during my corporate career and later when working with volunteers with nonprofit organizations in Missouri. It’s the essence of our democracy, rooted in the First Amendment, that we all have a right to be heard at the ballot box and in the public square. Our elected representatives may disagree with us, and we must accept that. But they don’t have the right to lock us out and pretend they don’t hear. Or worse, that we don’t exist.

So, where’s Bob?

In November, a former Missouri state senator, Dr. Bob Onder was elected as US Representative for Missouri’s Congressional District 3. The district boundaries were heavily gerrymandered after the 2020 Census. Much of its land mass encompasses rural counties in Mid-Missouri, including Jefferson City and Cole, and half of neighboring Boone and the City of Columbia. However, the district's electoral voting strength comes from the “reach around” of adjacent rural counties, including dense population areas in St. Louis communities, such as St. Charles County.

Onder rarely visited counties and cities in the district's western part while campaigning for his seat last Fall. Continuing a tradition from his predecessor, Blaine Luetkemeyer, he declined to attend public candidate forums sponsored by Jefferson City’s News Tribune or provide written responses to questions about important issues central to the campaigns. Not only did he refuse to face his opponent and debate the issues, but he also denied local residents the opportunity to hear how he would represent them in Congress and answer questions about their concerns.

Congressman Onder recently held a “tele-town hall” in lieu of an in-person event where he would have to physically face his constituents. Again, it’s a borrowed past practice of former Congressman Luetkemeyer, who rarely appeared in the Jefferson City area. Constituents call in on a telephone number and can press a code to be entered into a queue if they have a question. Onder’s staff reviews the questions in advance, selects who to call upon, and controls how long anyone can speak. And instead of a back-and-forth discussion, there is usually no opportunity for a follow-up or to question the veracity of the Congressman’s statements.

For Onder’s tele-town hall on February 26, he gave the public very short notice, sending a message to those who had signed up to receive his newsletter at 4:30 p.m. for a 6:00 p.m. start time. He entertained about ten questions, the first two amounting to “softball” questions on what he thought about Trump’s efforts to eliminate “waste in government” and the situation in Ukraine.

He immediately proclaimed himself “a proud member of the DOGE caucus in the House of Representatives.” He applauded an alleged $65 billion of savings by “detecting fraud and abuse and cancelling wasteful contracts”, referring to Elon Musk’s “wall of receipts.” However, those numbers have been widely disputed as being full of errors. Recent reporting indicates that only $9.6 billion of contracts could be documented and confirmed, far short of the amount Onder mentioned. And in recent days, Musk’s people have quietly removed all but the five largest “savings” that they have claimed.

Twice, Onder was asked about his vote to slash $885 billion in costs from the agencies that manage Medicare and Medicaid and estimates that it could result in health care being denied to about 250,000 Medicaid recipients in Missouri. He brushed off those numbers as simply being “raw assertions.”

Instead, he explained to the telephone audience that those spending reductions, and others were necessary to achieve three main policy results: (1) to extend the tax cuts enacted in the first Trump term that are set to expire this year (2) to increase funding to secure the borders and stop illegal immigration, and (3) to achieve the administration’s energy policy objectives (which presumably would amount to tax giveaways to large oil companies to drill for more oil).

What he conveniently failed to mention and tried hard to avoid discussing were proposals to provide additional reductions in taxes for the wealthiest Americans as Congress votes to extend the previous Trump tax cuts. One caller asked him to address the estimate that 67% of the additional tax savings would once again accrue to the richest portion of the population. He labeled that as a “misconception” and faked ignorance, claiming that it must have been something that was brought up in the Senate, not the House.

Repeatedly, he assured those listening that Trump was acting within his authority under Article II of the Constitution (as if that would make anyone feel better). Rep. Onder also asserted that all of Trump’s executive orders were lawful (which is invalid, as many are being challenged and some overturned by the courts).

In contrast to the town hall that Congressman Alford faced, Onder didn’t have to look anyone in the eye who had just lost their job because of the indiscriminate slashing of the federal workforce. Nor did he have to respond to anyone that may have contested the estimates and numbers he cited or challenged the truthfulness of his statements. And he avoided having to endure anyone genuinely concerned that they could lose their social security savings or healthcare that they rely on to live their lives.

Show up, or hide like a coward?

In the coming months, expect more pressure on members of Congress to account for the actions of the Trump administration and the legislation they vote upon. But it's doubtful that many will find the courage to face their constituents in public and opt for more controlled environments like “tele-town halls.” Some groups, like Indivisible, are encouraging “empty chair town halls” where members of Congress are invited to attend, and constituents discuss issues of concern whether the member attends or not.

As Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, puts it:

“People who choose to go into public service and have as your job that you are paid to represent other people, part of that job is talking to those people that you represent. And if you don’t like to do that, that’s okay. You can go become a lobbyist, you can go and do something else. Nobody is forcing you to represent other human beings in the United States Congress. But if you want to have that job, you’ve got two choices. You can show up and defend your positions, or you can hide and we’ll make sure people know you’re a coward.”

For those who live in Congressman Bob Onder’s district, there will be an opportunity to participate in a virtual town hall via Zoom on Friday, March 14, 2025, at 6 p.m. To sign up and receive a link, visit tinyurl.com/MO3THreg. Pre-registration is required.

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