After our meeting: happy liberal patriots! And look at me, all wrapped in the flag! Which I am holding backwards! Derp!
I never thought we’d get in. I assumed our only interaction with our Republican Senator would be sixty seconds of us yelling our request for a town hall from a distance as he walked past us, surrounded by staffers and security.
We were acting on a tip we had received that Senator Rob Portman would be speaking at a conference on opioid addiction at Columbus State Community College on Friday, February 24. About twenty of us showed up hoping to intercept the Senator just long enough to ask him to hold a town hall so we could have a proper dialogue, and to get his reaction on video.
We had several groups stationed at different locations around the building. One group had succeeded in taking the elevator up to the floor where the conference room was, and they waited in the hallway near the registration desk getting eyeballed by staff and security. Other groups staked out each entrance to the building. I was one of four women monitoring the loading dock, being careful to stay on the public sidewalk. We did a pretty poor job of looking inconspicuous, our glances darting between the campus police officers by the dock and our phones, where the group messages were flying by.
We were pretty sure the Senator would be dropped off where we were stationed. I was even more certain we would be kicked out any minute.
The group that had made it upstairs messaged us that staff were asking them to leave. They had overheard someone say, “They’re protesters, they’re here to raise hell.” But some kind of dialogue with the Senator’s staffers transpired to change things. I didn’t witness it, but I think the staffers realized the choice was between facilitating a cordial exchange, or having the Senator caught on video running away from us.
A staffer came out to my little group on the sidewalk and invited us in, and a campus police officer escorted us up in the freight elevator (which smelled like maple syrup, perhaps the result of a breakfast catering mishap). It was the last thing I expected!
“I see liberals!”
We gathered in a classroom adjacent to the conference room, and after a few minutes, Senator Portman arrived. We appealed to him for a town hall meeting, letting him know we had called, emailed, filled out his web form, and sent carrier pigeons and smoke signals with the same request, but had received no response. His position was that he meets with constituents frequently, through “tele-town halls” and appearances at specific places like factories, and other events he didn’t specify. We pointed out that these are invitation-only events, not true town halls. We asked for an event that would be open to the public, not restricted to registered Republicans, and with enough advance notice that people could arrange to attend. This request was repeated many times, and he evaded it consistently.
But he did agree to come back and meet with us again after his scheduled appearance at this conference. Some people had to leave for work or other commitments, but about a dozen of us were able to stay. There were varying degrees of skepticism about whether he would really come back, or duck out right after he spoke. He said we were welcome to come into the conference to listen, but the conference organizers at the registration desk had a slightly different opinion about that. I would have liked to hear the talk, actually. But we stayed in the classroom to strategize about how to use our time with him if he really did come back.
Of course, there was a long list of issues we would have liked to address, but we agreed it would be best to choose one to focus on, in addition to continuing to press for a real town hall-type event. We settled on the Russia issue as our top priority. In addition to being of the utmost urgency, it’s the issue where we believed we had the most common ground.
He did come back, and sat down with us for about 30 minutes.
Another member of our group took video of the whole meeting, which I’ll embed below. He has also written up a very good rundown of the conversation. I’ll quote his short summary here, and then I encourage you to go here and read his full account.
We opened with a statement of our appreciation that he would at least agree to meet with us in person and that we wanted to use the time to talk first about substantive issues and later come back to the topic of having a broader meeting in public. We covered the following topics: 1) Russian interference in the election and connections to the Trump administration in general 2) Whether the Senator supported Trump releasing his tax returns 3) The senator’s views on whether he agreed that the press was ‘the enemy of the American people’ 4) The urgent need for the Senator to meet with his constituents at in person, opt-in events that are open to the public.
— Judd Dunham
Here’s the full video:
I want to highlight two points in the conversation, and I’m going to re-embed the video and have it begin at the corresponding time stamps.
First, the member of our group who was acting as point person for the day led off with a very eloquent appeal to the senator regarding the historical importance of this moment. (starts at 0:49 on the video)
We need the moderate Republicans to take the lead in restoring common sense and calm and responsible government. It’s not even a question of where on the political spectrum right to left we’re talking about. It’s getting the ship of state steadied again on its voyage that the whole world is on with us. Whoever takes the lead on that is going to be the hero of a generation. We want it to be you, Senator.
— Susan Gellman
Boy, did that prick his ears up!
Second, I piped up to communicate exactly why the Russia issue is important to me. Just before I did, it seemed like the meeting was wrapping up (it actually went on for over 10 minutes more), and I wasn’t satisfied that the urgency of the issue had been communicated. I’m not a loud person, but I was insistent here, and I’m glad I got the chance to hold the floor for a minute to drive the point home. (starts at 16:38)
The Russia issue is very important to me. It’s a non-partisan issue. I am flabbergasted that there are people who are saying that they don’t care about the suspicion that Russia is somehow involved in our government in a hostile and improper way. I have three relatives -- and more -- who are veterans: my father served in Korea; he got the Silver Star. My husband was active duty in the 1980s. My brother was on a nuclear submarine. They fought in the Cold War. Why did we fight the Cold War? I feel like their service is now being mocked in this situation. How can people say that they are not concerned about Russia being involved in our government? I don’t want to be hostile with Russia, but they are being hostile with us. What is going on?
— Linda Kernohan (your intrepid diarist)
Portman replied: “You sound like me.” I’ll take that as a compliment in this instance.
Then he discussed legislation he wrote with Chris Murphy (D-CT) last year: the Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act. It passed as part of the National Defense Authorization Act in December 2016. It sounded good... at first... maybe? But I have since researched it a little, and there’s a problem: it calls for the creation of a Global Engagement Center to be run jointly by the State Department, the Department of Defense, and other Federal agencies. So regarding Russian interference in our presidential election and administration, it’s a bit of a fox-guarding-the-henhouse proposition. As a general concept, what this legislation creates may or may not be a good thing -- some commentators have expressed concerns that it could turn into a Ministry of Truth-like operation, actually doing the very thing it purports to fight against. Making the call on that is above my pay grade, but I can say for sure that this is not the way to get the kind of independent investigation we need on the issue of Trump’s Russian connections.
Senator Portman also mentioned that the Senate Intelligence Committee is supposedly investigating the issue. He namechecked Richard Burr, the committee chair, and Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat. Well, there’s a fly in that ointment too, L-O-L. The next day, I heard the news that Richard Burr had been put up to downplaying the issue to the press by White House staff. Independent investigation, my Aunt Fanny.
So in the end, the verdict is mixed. I’m very glad we got the chance to sit down and talk to Senator Portman in person. I am genuinely grateful that he agreed to do it. However, I’m dissatisfied that we had to ambush him to make it happen. Not everyone has open-ended time on a weekday morning to do this kind of thing. All of the senator’s constituents deserve the kind of opportunity we were fortunate to obtain. A member of our group asked me to include her words on this aspect:
Not only did we have to work hard and creep around to meet with the Senator, but we are people who are able to take time off for this, and it's a sacrifice that's worth it. However, there are plenty of his constituents without that ability, who would lose jobs or not make rent, who have no childcare, etc. Participating in democracy should not be a fight and shouldn't be for the privileged few who can sacrifice time, and being heard by our representatives should be available to all.
All the awesome people who were able to come together, and work hard to make this happen today are fighting for the voices of those other folks to be heard at all, and/or without it being such a struggle. And THAT is what being patriotic is about (because we know that is a "point" for many Republicans). We are reasonable, genuine, caring voters and members of society.
— Samara Sauls
Kumbaya. For now.
And of course, the question of Russian interference persists. The proposed solutions do not address it adequately, because they aren’t sufficiently independent from this travesty we are currently obligated to call an administration.
I’m glad we did what we could, and I hope we made a difference. At the same time, this feels a lot like cleaning my house: the more I do, the more I find there is to do. Or to mix in another metaphor, it’s like moving a mountain with a teaspoon while someone else is adding to it with a shovel.
But I’m working very hard not to get discouraged. As many people have said, this is a marathon, not a sprint. I’ll be damned if I’ll give up.
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