Thousands attend Rep. Chaffetz town hall, outside crowd turns to protest when doors closes

[mobeau69]

Source: KOMO News

The crowd was vocal in support public lands and the Bears Ears National Monument and sometimes cheered or booed over Chaffetz. Mentions of President Trump also brought boos.





Read more: http://komonews.com/news/connect-to-congress/thousands-attend-chaffetz-town-hall-outside-turns-into-protest-when-auditorium-closes

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More video: http://www.sltrib.com/news/4896676-155/crowded-chaffetz-town-hall-meeting-gets-underway

[Skittles]

1. that is one thing I will give the Orange Twitler credit for

he seems to be waking up a lot of people

[2naSalit]

2. And I bet he had to sneak out

after he berated the audience as is his style.

[mobeau69]

3. He was greeted outside by the people he closed out with chants of

"Jason is a coward - Jason is a coward." Inside it was mostly "Do your job - Do your job."

A real thing of beauty!

[2naSalit]

4. Awesome! That needs to happen at every single encounter with these toads...nt

[Judi Lynn]

7. Beautiful! God bless America! Woohooo. n/t

[trc]

5. I love this,

an amazing turnout by those who have nothing but questions (contempt) for their congressional representative. Suck it repugs, dems can be strong too...and vocal, but our pussy hats are much nicer than those dangling teabag thingies. Hmmmm, inadvertent juvenile sexual connotation...I can't help but leave it there for so many reasons.

[politicat]

6. And in Utah 3. Will wonders never cease.

Just for reference: Utah 3rd is deep red. It's the western part of SLC metro, plus Orem and Provo and a lot of empty eastern Utah along the Colorado border (it's gerrymandered into a weird funnel shape). This is the heart of Mormondom -- 90% LDS, with BYU in the heart of the district. The 3rd is more conservative than the UT4th (Salt Lake City). The 3rd is more conservative than the AZ 5th or the CO 5th -- both extremely conservative, very safe seats. Chaffetz got 73% of the vote in November.

That there are at least 1000 people in this district willing to come out on a Thursday (school night) and yell at him (this is not typical LDS behavior) -- he may get his walking papers handed to him in 2018.

I don't know if a Dem has a chance in this district -- if one does, they'll have to be fairly conservative, likely Mormon (but not loudly so, because Mormons in Utah don't publicize their Mormonness when they run for office) and will have to run a very LDS consistent Dem platform. (Thus, little talk about reproductive rights, minimal about LGBT rights, but lots of discussion about education, community service, and ethics.) But an independent, or someone from the Evan McMullin to Jon Huntsman wing could win at the primary level.

And honestly, I'm willing to accept a conservative, Western-states style Dem (who is not a Manchin) or a sane R from that district. It's the best that can be hoped for.

[Lucinda]

10. It would be an improvement. What are the odds for a Dem candidate stepping forward?

[politicat]

11. I don't know.

Utah Dems *do* run at least a sacrifice candidate every cycle, and even with no money, that candidate gets 25%. So the party isn't fucking up that part. They are running someone. But the Utah party has no money and not much clout. (I am not there, but CoDems run joint training with them occasionally, especially for the Western Slope counties, which have voting patterns more similar to UTDems than to Front Range.)

But the national party needs to accept that bringing Mormondom to the table will require a focus change in the region. It's highly possible to bring Mormondom into the tent -- the LDS have a strong cultural emphasis on a form of internal socialism. They do support the poor in their communities, and build houses for one another, and want to keep their communities fed, with medical care, and housed. Younger Mormons are not significantly racist, because the Lamanite teachings have been depreciated since the 1970s, and Mormondom has a significant South American and Pacific Islander population. Gender roles are still an issue, so talking about support for families -- family leave, care-giver pay (or at least Social Security credits for stay at home parents) and universal pre-K will help.

And we do need to talk about polygamy in relationship to same sex marriage. Not that Mormondom especially wants polygamy -- most Mormon women have a lot of anxiety about it -- but we need to be having the discussion because it is a valid choice for some people, both religiously and socially, and part of their opposition to Prop8 was a deep cultural discomfort with the potential progression of same sex marriage to poly marriage. Mormondom has a lot of ambivalence about the concept of marriage, because they've got a difficult history with it, so just writing them off as homophobic isn't completely accurate. (Yeah, there is homophobia, but again, much less in the younger generations than in the older ones.)

[not fooled]

8. The bastard

Hopes this gives him and his thug cohorts pause and derails their plans to enact massive tax cuts, gut SS & Medicare, destroy the Civil Service, and carry out all of the other garbage they are plotting.

We will be watching and acting when they try.

[DesertRat]

9. And this was in the deep red state of Utah!

[blueseas]

12. By the people for the people

UTAH!!!

[mahatmakanejeeves]

13. In case you're feeling sorry for the guy: House Republicans already preparing Clinton investigation

House Republicans are already preparing for ‘years’ of investigations of Clinton

By David Weigel October 26, 2016

SOUTH JORDAN, Utah — Jason Chaffetz, the Utah congressman wrapping up his first term atop the powerful House Oversight Committee, unendorsed Donald Trump weeks ago. That freed him up to prepare for something else: spending years, come January, probing the record of a President Hillary Clinton.

“It’s a target-rich environment,” the Republican said in an interview in Salt Lake City’s suburbs. “Even before we get to Day One, we’ve got two years’ worth of material already lined up. She has four years of history at the State Department, and it ain’t good.”
....

David Weigel is a national political correspondent covering the 2016 election and ideological movements. Follow @daveweigel