This Is What Democracy Looks Like

I feel it's fitting to end this blog with some fireworks, but before I get to the town hall. . .

I'd like to broadly summarize my research findings. 

Citizens of rural Athens were less likely to participate in their democracy because of the distance they had to travel to get to the Assembly and the time (often days) they had to stop working in order to attend. 

I've spent the past week examining voting barriers for people in rural areas, especially Native Americans living on reservations, and I've found that geography (distance and isolation) play the same role in limiting political participation that they did in ancient Athens. Difficulty accessing polling places and difficulty with the postal system (which affects mail-in ballots) were all factors that played into participation in elections. 

So although you would assume that the transition between direct democracy (as seen in Athens) to a republic (as seen in the US), would require less direct participation from citizens and therefore perhaps downplay the importance of geography and geographic barriers, we can see that geography remains just as important as ever, a point that I saw underscored last night.

Opening at the town hall, the Senator asked if anyone had traveled over 200 miles to be there. Not many people raised their hand. I'm sure there were some who had traveled from the greater Phoenix area, but they were few and far between. I certainly think holding a town hall was important, but for those who argue teletown halls are cop-outs, I would like to point out two things:

1. Arizonans can tune in regardless of their location. The only requirement is that they have a phone.

2. Teletown halls can accommodate a lot more participants (over 10,000)

Anyways, for the town hall I showed up early and helped place the Constituent Action Forms on seats and then mainly got in the way for the next hour before they opened the doors at 6 PM. I was placed on "temporary" camera duty where I remained for the rest of the night. 

For the town hall itself, most of the questions were those constituents had asked over the phone regarding healthcare, the internet bill, the Gorsuch nomination, and Planned Parenthood. There were some questions about scientific research funding that I thought were interesting. 

The basic structure of the night went like this: a constituent would (often) thank the Senator for being there and give their question. People would hold up green cards and cheer. Senator Flake would begin to respond. People would hold up red cards and drown his response out with boos. 

So. . .

Regardless of whether people changed their minds or had productive conversations, I think the town hall occupies an important place symbolically. It is a point where constituents can speak face to face with their representative and where (at least in this town hall) that representative is his own mediator. The United States is a republic that has--for better or worse--fewer contact points between citizens and the laws that govern them. The town hall was a point of direct contact, and therefore I found the last line of the evening especially fitting: 

"This is what democracy looks like."