Shutting down Rep. Fulcher’s Idaho town hall is bad for free speech, democracy | Opinion
I have known U.S. Rep. Russ Fulcher going back to 2006 when he was a state senator, representing Meridian and Kuna.
I’ve always respected him and found him to be mostly reasoned and reasonable (setting aside for the moment his support for Donald Trump and his decision to not certify the 2020 presidential election results).
When Fulcher was a state senator, he met regularly with constituents. He and state Reps. Cliff Bayer and John Vander Woude often held town hall meetings in Kuna, Meridian or places in between. One of the things that impressed me the most was their ability to answer just about any question thrown at them, with depth and reasoning. I might have disagreed with the conclusions they came to, but they had their reasons and made their cases.
And regardless, it was always encouraging to see them meet with their constituents, even knowing some of those constituents didn’t vote for them and disagreed with their decisions.
So it was heartening to see Fulcher schedule a couple of town hall meetings in the Treasure Valley last week.
Unfortunately, things didn’t go well at the first one, in Meridian, when a group of about a dozen protesters showed up calling for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war, according to a story from the Idaho Statesman’s Kevin Fixler.
In responding to a question from a member of the protest group about U.S. policy toward Israel, Fulcher responded that the nation was a key intelligence partner in the Middle East, and he continued to support Israel’s right to defend itself after the militant group Hamas attacked in October.
“I know that there’s passion on not just both sides but on four or five different angles,” Fulcher said. “From a geopolitical standpoint, they are a tremendous ally for us. … So yes, I do support Israel, and I support our support of them.”
Shortly after, the group of protesters got rowdy and began to shout down Fulcher, chanting “Ceasefire now” and delaying the town hall for 20 minutes.
And then, the next morning, Fulcher announced that his second town hall, at the Shilo Inn in Nampa, was going to be rescheduled without a time or date.
It’s really unfortunate.
We in the media, along with a lot of members of the public, have criticized Idaho’s entrenched politicians, such as U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch, for not holding town halls and meeting with their voters — not only to hear constituent concerns but to answer for their decisions and votes.
It’s a criticism they deserve.
So here’s Fulcher putting himself out there, defending his positions, answering questions from the public and meeting with Idaho voters — even those who don’t agree with him and would never vote for him.
Kaylee Peterson, Fulcher’s Democratic challenger in the upcoming election, was in attendance and told Fixler that she and her supporters were hoping to ask Fulcher questions.
They didn’t get a chance to, which is very unfortunate.
We’ve seen this kind of behavior before, particularly on college campuses, where some shout down a speaker or preclude them from even speaking.
Frankly, this is an abuse of the First Amendment.
As Fulcher pointed out, “it’s a freedom of speech thing,” but when it’s used to shut down another’s speech altogether, it has the opposite effect. And it’s undemocratic.
Further, if you wonder why politicians like Risch and Crapo don’t hold more town hall meetings, there’s part of your answer. If this is going to be the outcome, why bother?
We should be encouraging our elected officials to meet with their constituents, defend their positions and debate the issues — with all sides behaving in a fair and civil yet impassioned manner.
We shouldn’t be shouting people down and shutting them up.
