Grand Rapids Institute for Information Democracy

I finally had a chance to sit down and watch the Grand Rapids Town Hall meeting hosted by Rep. Hillary Scholten. I didn’t attend the meeting, because I was at a training with GR Rapid Response to ICE. You can watch the entire town hall with Scholten at this link.

Like most town hall meetings that are held by politicians, it was a managed and performative event. Rep. Scholten made everything about Trump and Musk, but didn’t really talk about what Democrats were doing or not doing. Scholten said things like, “I could be watching March Madness with my children but I am here.” It’s your job, so don’t make it sound like you are sacrificing your time to be with the public. 

Scholten also repeatedly said that there are things that she can’t discuss in public. What the hell does that mean? If the Democrats have a plan or a strategy, why wouldn’t she share that? Scholten said she has introduced bills, but these are pretty meaningless actions, since the Democrats don’t have a majority in Congress, but it makes them look progressive. Scholten also repeatedly pointed out that she is the only person in West MI holding in person town hall meetings. While this is true, for the first two years in Congress Scholten only held call in town halls, so it is a bit disingenuous to try to appear as a populist, when she hasn’t made this a priority in the past.

Questions with few real answers

After 10 minutes of fake populist rhetoric the Q & A portion began. The first questions was about students being hauled off by ICE agents. To be clear those that have been targeted so far are Pro-Palestinian people who have been picked up by ICE. Scholten made a claim about everyone having the right to free speech, but she failed to acknowledge her own role in attacked the pro-Palestine campus movement, which I have documented.

Last April, Scholten introduced legislation, co-sponsored by a Republican, that was essentially attacking the pro-Palestine campus movements. Scholten was one of 9 co-sponsors of H.R. 7478, which was introduced by Rep. Rudy Yakym from Indiana. Scholten is only one of two Democrats who cosponsored this shitty piece of legislation that includes the likes of Rep. Elise Stefanik from New York. Stefanik has been the person leading the charge to discredit universities who allow Palestine Solidarity actions or Middle East Studies that question Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestinian land. Scholten can claim that people have the right to protest, but she voted for legislation to undermine people’s right to protest.

There were several questions asked about how the public can resist what the Trump administration is doing. Scholten’s response to those questions was to engage in rhetoric critical of Trump and Musk – which people cheered – without talking about actual ways that people can resist beyond voting in the next election. People also asked questions about what the Democrats are doing. Scholten took the opportunity to highlight that she attended the 60th anniversary of what is often referred to as Bloody Sunday, where police beat Civil Rights activists during a march through Selma across the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Not only was her presence simply a photo op, there was no accountability around Scholten’s betrayal of the Civil Rights Movement, which I also wrote about.  

Someone then asked Rep. Scholten, “How do you get people to vote in their interest?” Her answer was that she would host more Town halls and people should subscribe to her newsletter. These are the same, tired answers that do little or nothing to actually benefit people who are struggling to survive. 

There was a Pastor who works with refugees and asked what is Congress doing to protect immigrants and green card holders. Scholten gave a canned response, by saying she has spent last 20 years working on immigration. Schoten pointed to the child immigrant labor abuses and her co-sponsoring the Dignity Act, but failed to acknowledge her push to further militarize the US/Mexican border and that she has voted 3 times this year with Republicans to pass anti-immigration legislation, all of which will further criminalize undocumented people.

There were also questions about the US Budget, about school shootings, about the threats against Medicare and Social Security. Scholten’s answers were always the same, where she tried to make herself look good, without really making any real changes. The only answers that Scholten could give were for people to speak out, and the best way to do that was to vote. 

What Rep. Scholten did was standard for what the Democratic Party has done for decades, which is to blame Republicans, but to not actually fight for people. When are we going to realize that throughout US history, the most effective way to fight for change is through organized, grassroots movements. We need to learn from the abolitionists, the worker-led struggles for economic justice and workplace democracy, the feminist fight for liberation from patriarchy, queer and trans movements, the anti-war/anti-imperialism movements and the movements for environmental and climate justice. Change always comes from the ground up and politicians only do the right thing when people force them to do so.