Was Roger Marshall the tipping point? Trump slows cuts as public protests escalate | Opinion
News flash: Your voice still matters.
A week ago, Sen. Roger Marshall walked out of a town hall in Oakley, Kansas, rather than take too much guff from his constituents. They came from near and far to tell him how Donald Trump’s still-new presidency — with its decisions to freeze farm aid, raise tariffs and fire veterans from government jobs — was hurting them and making the lives of their neighbors more precarious.
They were scared and angry and wanted their senator to step up to represent their interests.
Marshall clearly didn’t want to hear it.
“This is one of the rudest audiences I’ve ever had,” Marshall said.
Something funny happened after that, though.
Walking away from the criticism didn’t make the criticism go away. News of Marshall’s town hall escape made news — first on social media, then in state, national and international media outlets.
Was Marshall the tipping point?
The embarrassment was so complete that a few days later, the leader of the House GOP’s campaign arm told his colleagues just to stop holding town halls. Politicians meeting the public who put them in office? Why take the chance of hearing something you don’t want to hear?
Which isn’t great for the public, honestly.
But something else happened: By the end of the week, Trump held a big Cabinet meeting and signaled to the public that he would rein in Elon Musk’s government-slashing spree.
Future cost-cutting, the president said, will be done with a “’scalpel’ rather than the ‘hatchet.’”
We’ll see if that holds. For the moment, though, Trump appears to be backtracking a little bit. That may end up being good for everybody.
Was Roger Marshall’s town hall the tipping point? We don’t know. Maybe it was just a coincidence of timing. Maybe not.
Keep going to town halls
What seems clear is that his town hall, Missouri Rep. Mark Alford’s ill-fated town hall and all the other town halls where Kansans, Missourians and Americans of all stripes expressed their hurt and anger — not just “woke” resistance liberals — collectively made a difference. Trump felt the need to at least pay lip service to the growing discontent.
Which means the new administration isn’t immune to public pressure, especially in deep red states.
That’s important, because it’s clear that Trump and his allies are already working to shut down expressions of dissent and difference.
White House officials ejected the Associated Press from the Oval Office because the news agency still calls the Gulf of Mexico the Gulf of Mexico. The Federal Communications Commission is investigating broadcasters whose reports irritate Republicans, and Trump over the weekend posted an article from a conservative outlet ordering readers to “shut up about egg prices.”
Makes sense. It will be a lot easier for Trump and his GOP allies in Congress to do whatever they want if Americans just shut up and keep their complaints to themselves.
The problem, of course, is that Trump and his GOP allies in Congress work for us. Our complaints are supposed to matter.
And there is plenty to complain about, even if you’re a loyal Republican.
Economic analysts increasingly suspect Trump’s tariffs and mass layoffs are about to spark a recession. (Trump seems to agree.) Farmers are having to put their plans on hold because of the Department of Agriculture’s spending freeze. The administration’s cuts seem likely to make it more difficult for retirees to get their Social Security benefits.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg, folks.
So keep complaining. Keep going to the town halls. And if politicians don’t have the guts to stick around and hear what you have to say, hold your own gathering.
Your voice still matters. Keep using it.