Friendly Unctuous Gasbags
by David Atkins
My fellow Ventura County resident, sometime blogger at Grist and DailyKos and all around awesome person RL Miller and a group of people associated with Occupy Congress just tried to meet with our mutual Congressman Elton Gallegly (CA-24). Her account of the meeting spent most of the day yesterday on DailyKos' recommended list, and deservedly so:
We arrive at Rep. Gallegly's office at 12:30 PM. The office is closed for lunch, although other representatives' doors are wide open. At 1 PM a staffer shows up with a styrofoam container, presumably leftovers, and a set of keys. He tells us that Gallegly can't meet with us because he's on an airplane flying in to DC for a vote this afternoon, and won't meet with us because we're not constituents. I tell him I'm a constituent. The staffer agrees to let me and my friends into the office to wait. But instead of opening the door, he walks away, whips out his Blackberry, and ducks into a side office.
Things get weirder.
The staffer refuses to open the door. I fume that I'm locked out of my own Congresscritter's office. Another staffer enters through the secret side door.
The Congressional police are called.
At one point, five staffers are inside, presumably cowering in fear behind the locked door. They answer phones, but hang up as soon as they hear that I'm in the hallway.
We stand outside and hold a general assembly with two police officers listening. Whenever we sit, we are warned that we will be arrested if we sit.
The mail is not delivered because the office refuses to unlock the door.
At 3 PM, the Representative himself exits the side door to head to an elevator. Two dozen tired, footsore members of the 99 percent chase after him. He tells several people that they are not constituents so he doesn't have to meet with them.
I push forward and tell him that I am a constituent.
He makes me recite my home address, in front of two dozen folk including security, to verify that I am, in fact, a constituent.
He gives me a practiced, polished politician's smile and says, "Merry Christmas."
We try to talk with him about jobs.
He tells us that he just donated 750 toys to children this weekend.
We ask to meet with him.
He tells everyone else that he doesn't have to meet with any of them because they're not his constituents.
As for me...he repeats that oozing smile and tells me, "I met with you just now - I wished you a Merry Christmas."
To you and me, this shows Mr. Gallegly in the worst possible light: contempt for the unemployed and contempt for his constituents.
But in Ventura County, as with so many other places in America, politicians like Gallegly are all too common. Gallegly is a decades-long backbencher in Congress with little important legislation to his name. He has skated by for decades due to comfortable districting that hasn't seriously threatened his re-election campaigns, as well as a general "nice guy" appeal honed by sending out personal letters and sending kids Christmas gifts.
The fact that politicians like Gallegly write nice letters, act courteously in public and support local charities is supposed to make up for the fact that they vote for endless wars, tax cuts for rich people, destruction of the safety net, privatizing Medicare, and opposing reduction of greenhouse gases.
But to many people, including even people active in local Democratic politics, the former often really does make up for the latter. There really are a lot of people out there, especially on the nominal "left," who put personal civility ahead of good public policy, who don't believe in endorsing one Democrat over another on the basis of public policy, and who would rather elect moderate-conservative Declined-to-States who seem "nice" over a totally electable Democrat progressive enough to be labeled as "polarizing" by the local conservative press.
So when Mr. Gallegly delivers his subtle sneer of gentility wishing his constituent a Merry Christmas and reminding her about the charity Christmas gifts he sent, he knows what he's doing. He's counting on superficial charm with gullible people to override decent policy, even as he actually insults his constituents.
Fortunately for the residents of Ventura County, the redistricting process in California is likely to cost him his seat next year, and not a moment too soon. But for far too many Americans, unctuous politicians like Gallegly can count on a few parade appearances and charity events to fool voters into thinking they're "nice people."
When it comes to politicians, the only proper judgment of values and character comes from their votes on issues and their respect for petitioning constituents. Conservatives already understand this. It's time "moderates" and many so-called liberals did as well.
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