Port Angeles Town Hall crowd demands answers

by Tim Wheeler

PORT ANGELES — A raucous crowd packed the floor of the March 15 Town Hall Meeting in Port Angeles, demanding action from U.S. Representative Emily Randall and her colleagues on Capitol Hill the day after Senator Chuck Schumer voted with Republicans to approve a continuing resolution to avert a federal shutdown.

“The last twenty-four hours have been some of the most challenging,” the Democratic lawmaker admitted to a crowd of more than 450 voters packed into a theater and an overflow room at Peninsula College.

“The impact of the continued cuts, especially to Medicaid, the overwhelming sense of being let down, of betrayal…” Randall continued as the crowd erupted into boos at what they saw as Schumer’s capitulation.

Wearing her signature denim jacket, Randall denounced President Donald Trump’s “gutting of Federal agencies from inside… eroding government from inside, destroying the sense of democracy.

“I am deeply concerned about the attacks on civil rights, voting rights, Medicaid,” she continued. “We must lift up the real stories of the impact of these cuts.”

Port Angeles was the site of the fourth Town Hall meeting organized by Randall since the continuing resolution vote on Thursday. Since arriving in her home state, she addressed overflow crowds at Town Halls in Tacoma and in Bremerton, where her father worked as a union shipbuilder. Although the Bremerton meeting was held in one of the largest halls in that U.S. naval shipyard city’s history, so many were unable to get in that the hall was emptied, filled again, and Randall spoke a second time.

By contrast, Republican leadership ordered GOP lawmakers not to appear at any Town Hall meetings after angry hecklers confronted Republican lawmaker Chuck Edwards at a Town Hall meeting in Asheville, N.C.

Randall responded to a barrage of questions from the floor (see a samples, below), admitting, “There is not one way that is going to get us out of this terrifying experience, to survive the next two years.”

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From the crowd at the Port Angeles Town Hall meeting:
HIGH ANXIETY — A 67-year-old woman who admitted the Port Angeles Town Hall was the first political meeting she had ever attended told Randall, “I am not sleeping at night. I see what is happening. I see what we are losing.” 

THE CUTTING OF MEDICAID — The mother of an autistic son completely dependent on Medicaid said she was fearful of the “removal of programs that so clearly serve the needs of my son. What can I do as a parent? What can I do?” 

Randall’s sister, Olivia, was born with severe disabilities. After 18 years, her family recently received access to newly expanded Medicaid benefits. Randall pledged to keep fighting back, demanding full funding of Medicaid. “The Republicans talk about ‘fraud,’” she said. “That is how they like to talk about Medicaid.” But the federal government handled two million cases of Medicaid in a recent year and found a mere 42 cases of fraud. “This is unlike anything we have faced before,” she admitted. “It is terrifying.”

THE END OF DEMOCRACY — The son of a U.S. soldier who fought against the Nazis in the Battle of the Bulge during World War II noted that it has been 93 years since the 53rd day of Hitler’s takeover of Germany and the destruction of German democracy. “The German people largely stood by silently,” he said. “Yesterday was Trump’s 53rd day… We need to awake the public, mobilize the public not just convince your fellow lawmakers…”

Randall agreed. “It is the collective power of the people that is going to deliver us.” She urged the crowd to reach out, convince family, neighbors and friends to telephone or email her office and the offices of her colleagues demanding that they stand up against Trump and the MAGA Republicans. 

DISMANTLING OF DEI — Randall blasted Trump’s executive order terminating funds for any program to implement “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” or DEI. 

“Jobs are being terminated that have nothing to do with DEI,” she said, “and the mass firings undermine the ability of healthcare workers, firefighters, researchers, inspectors, food, drug, and safety code enforcers, to protect the lives and health of the public.”

IMMIGRANTS: Randall urged the crowd to fight back against Trump’s war on immigrants. “Know your rights,” she said. “If you are in touch with people who have reason to be nervous, there are things you can do to protect them. Please get in touch with our office…”

REACHING THE WORKING CLASS: In response to a young man who asked, “How are you appealing to the working class?” Randall cited her own background; her father was a union shipyard worker, her mother was of working-class Mexican heritage. She assured the crowd that the Democratic Caucus is holding meetings with non-profit civil rights and civil liberties groups and with unions that represent fired federal workers, to share ideas on fighting back.