{"id":16655,"date":"2017-02-18T08:34:40","date_gmt":"2017-02-18T13:34:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=16655"},"modified":"2017-02-18T08:34:41","modified_gmt":"2017-02-18T13:34:41","slug":"a-brave-new-world-for-local-congress-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/?p=16655","title":{"rendered":"A brave new world for local Congress members"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann<\/strong>, Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/a>It is a brave (cough-cough) new world for some of our elected officials \u2014 specifically the three gentlemen who hold congressional seats in Chester County and find themselves coming home to districts this week they may not recognize.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes \u2014 we\u2019ll grant everything is new for U.S. Rep. Lloyd Smucker, who is little more than a month in from joining the world\u2019s most dysfunctional legislative body (after serving as a state Senator in arguably the world\u2019s second most dysfunctional body, the Pennsylvania General Assembly) \u2014 but even for old hands U.S. Rep. Pat Meehan (R-7) and Ryan Costello (R-6), these are strange times.<\/span><\/p>\n

All three have been pilloried on social media and seen their district offices regularly targeted for protests. First it, was health care and now, it appears growing demand for a full investigation of Russia and its involvement with the Trump Administration\/Campaign appear to be driving grass roots anger, in the wake of Monday night\u2019s resignation of National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.<\/span><\/p>\n

And to be clear, we\u2019ve checked, and no one \u2013 repeat no one \u2014 is getting paid to protest or send letters to the editor, at least locally. Which is, to be sure, a departure from some of the GOP corporate supported Astroturfing that went on a few years back (often the exact same letter \u2014 word for word \u2014 would come in to our email box, purportedly from various members of the community who didn\u2019t seem to exist).<\/span><\/p>\n

As yet \u2014 and if we missed them, we apologize \u2014 none has been brave enough to hold an local, in-person, face to face town hall with the voters (Costello is planning one way out in Lebanon \u2014 insert your baloney joke here \u2014 plus an event in Pottstown). Meehan did reach out to my home on a random basis inviting me to a phone town hall \u2014 during dinner \u2014 and I had to decline.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ironically, after having to speak a certain language to their base in recent years, they seem almost frozen in fear in figuring out how to speak to those in the center and left of center (and the extreme partisan nature of hiring staff and consultants leaves them with little in the way of resources than can literally speak the language of these angry folks and offer counsel on how to communicate with them). Too many of the millennial GOP staffers seem to come from the \u201clet\u2019s kill all the liberals and let God sort them out\u201d school of politics.<\/span><\/p>\n

As a larger group, most of our GOP Congress members \u2014 and frankly, starting with Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) who is otherwise a smart guy \u2014 really need a crash course in \u201cspeaking to Democrats in a way that doesn\u2019t make them want to punch you in the face.\u201d As a caucus, truthfully, I\u2019m not sure they even understand that or much care, but they\u2019d be well advised to consider it. So far, they\u2019ve really failed at that sort of communication and as a result, are tightly tying their fates to that of President Donald Trump.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the folks who have been pressing them \u201cto get rid of Obamacare\u201d are now home, rearranging their Donald Trump commemorative coins and hats (made in China, natch) \u2014 \u00a0the other half of the population, which likes the ACA (and really, really dislikes Trump, hates the wall and think the Russians fixed the election) have turned into a vocal, angry (did I mention angry?) group.<\/span><\/p>\n

The dynamic is suddenly somewhat different for these representatives \u2014 obviously way different for Smucker, whose media shop has been kind of hit and miss so far on what those folks are looking for \u2014 who have have had to fear opposition from the right much more from the left in their heavily gerrymandered districts. Now, though, they face a similar scenario to what Democratic incumbents saw (many of whom are now former members) in 2010: an angry opposition bringing along just enough independents and moderate GOP voters to put their seats at risk in 2018 (you\u2019ll remember it was a similar coalition that flipped a lot of Republican seats, including the old Seventh District in 2006).<\/span><\/p>\n

In essence, these three are caught between a right flank that insists upon the wall, the travel ban, the end of the ACA and yet, suddenly thinks the Russian threat is no big deal, and the other vocal half of Democrats, independents and moderate Republicans who think all of those things are somewhere between concerning and terrifying.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, if a GOP congress keeps its word to its base, a furious majority will run them out of office in the 2018 general. If they don\u2019t, a furious base will primary them. Neither bodes well for the party in the 2018 elections, mind you.<\/span><\/p>\n

At best \u2014 especially if the Trump Administration is unable to steady what has been the worst start of an administration arguably since John Tyler \u2013 it will be a high-wire act. At worst, we could see the kind of blood letting in 2018 we saw in 1994, 2006 and 2010, putting at least the 6th and 7th in play and maybe even the 16th.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

Smucker spoke on the U.S. House floor the other day, offering a Commitment to Civility, as he put it \u2014 promising not to assume that his Democratic colleagues are motivated by poor motives and to show them respect.<\/span><\/p>\n

In concept, Smucker is on to something. In reality: it\u2019s probably not going to be adopted widely.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem being this: it\u2019s Republicans who have been more aggressive in promoting the politics of anger \u2014 it\u2019s been a key piece of their playbook since at least 1994. Until fairly recently, Democrats would get strong pushback internally on aggressive, negative campaigning \u2014 leaving the tactic pretty much to the GOP (I\u2019ll note that Democrats for a long time just thought the logic of their positions was so<\/em> superior, that there was no need to appeal to emotion \u2014 only the current situation has finally disabused them of this, allowing them to finally get past no small amount of arrogance). Ironically, the once cumbaya embracing Democratic base is demanding its candidates haul out the verbal napalm and go to town.<\/span><\/p>\n

Civility is nice, but in the current environment, when extremism is rewarded \u2014 thanks to gerrymandering \u2014 it doesn\u2019t reflect the reality. Fix gerrymandering and reduce the influence of money in politics and civility will return pretty quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

Chester County\u2019s loss is Pennsylvania\u2019s gain: New Pennsylvania GOP state chair Val DiGiorgio put together a team with a strong Chester County flavor to lead the state party.<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Chesco GOP Executive Director Rob Brooks now takes that role up with the state party. Greg Manz, who was Donald Trump\u2019s PA spokesperson, takes over as Communications Director. Manz also has Chesco ties, having worked for the House Republican Campaign Committee in 2012 and 2014 in Delaware and Chester counties. Laura Wagoner \u2014 who has been Chesco GOP Executive Director \u2014 is the new finance director.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to complain about the group of new hires, although there will likely be grumbling about the lack of geographic diversity.<\/span><\/p>\n

Coincidence? Since DiGiorgio\u2019s election, The Times\u2019<\/em> email box has gone dark with missives from the PA GOP, which used to come almost daily. We only got this news, and belatedly, when someone kindly forwarded it to us. Not shockingly, we probably got put on the naughty list.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyhow, these appointments at the state level does present something of a problem for the local Chester County GOP \u2014 stripping it of a lot of leadership and fundraising experience. It will be interesting to see who steps up to lead the local Republican Committee.<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

One last note: local politicians would be well advised to watch closely the Trump Administration\u2019s dealings with the mainstream press. Thursday\u2019s press conference by the president was, well, unusual. He spent a lot of time attacking the media, in a rambling, at times incoherent, performance.<\/span><\/p>\n

Friday, he referred to us \u2014 understand that this means those of us who cover local Republicans, too \u2014 as \u201cenemies of the people.\u201d I won\u2019t speak for my colleagues, but I\u2019m taking it personally, so buckle up, buttercup. <\/span><\/p>\n

That strategy isn\u2019t going to get the media to back down \u2014 quite the opposite.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re seeing some of the most aggressive enterprise reporting in a generation now \u2014 with new reporting daily unraveling the Trump Administration \u2014 by a group now that feels like it must fight for its life. Despite Trump\u2019s dismissal of it as \u201cfake news,\u201d the vast majority of it is well-sourced, carefully reported journalism. You know, facts.<\/span><\/p>\n

Understand that there will be collateral damage for other elected officials, stories and potential scandals thought long dead and buried will start to surface. A national media that had become cliquish and celebrity-driven is getting back to its roots and finding itself, while inspiring local journalists to go the extra mile in their reporting.<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s good news for democracy (small d) \u2014 but may be bad news, so to speak, for those who have skated by while media got fat and lazy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Mike McGann, Editor, The Times It is a brave (cough-cough) new world for some of our elected officials \u2014 specifically the three gentlemen who hold congressional seats in Chester County and find themselves coming home to districts this week they may not recognize. Yes \u2014 we\u2019ll grant everything is new for U.S. Rep. Lloyd […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1078,4515,6191,3912,6193,5402,2537,6192,264],"class_list":["post-16655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-enemies-of-the-people","tag-featured","tag-liberals","tag-lloyd-smucker","tag-pat-meehan","tag-press","tag-ryan-costello"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16656,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16655\/revisions\/16656"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coatesvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}