Over the past couple of months, there have been cries from the small, liberal, anti-Trump establishment of the OKC echo chamber questioning why Congresswoman Stephanie Bice hasn’t held any in-person town halls.
I can see why.
The ability to directly question your representative is a hallmark of American democracy. Plus, it just feels good to shake your angry fist at some spineless, hypocritical, brown-nosing political loser who serves Trump first, party second, money third, and people last.
One person who’s been particularly vocal about Stephanie’s town hall track record is her likely opponent in the upcoming general election – Jena (not Jenna) Nelson. She’s frequently brought it up on social media:
I guess Stephanie finally acquiesced to the pressure and, hoping to avoid the same shocking upset fate as former CD5 Congressman Steve Russell, agreed to hold an in-person “Coffee with the Congresswoman” event in a few weeks.
Here are the details via Eventbrite:
Although the event is free, I should note that it's already been removed from the WesTen website.
This could be because people are way too eager to drink coffee with Stephanie Bice, or maybe organizers had to cancel because the meeting was being held in the wrong district:
Yep, that’s right. CD5 is so gerrymandered that even Bice doesn’t know who, what, and where she represents! That’s equal parts funny and nitpicky, and an ironically perfect representation of how gerrymandering has totally wrecked the foundation of our political system. Good times.
In full disclosure, I don't know if Bice's event in her neighboring district has been cancelled or not. I guess I could check it out, but A) I like the mystery and B) I'm too lazy to care.
If I were Bice, I'd still do it.
We like to give her a hard time for transforming from the hip, cool Republican who liked food trucks, social media, and craft beer into the rank-and-file Trump-enabler she is today, but I think boosting her image is a good move.
Sure, she could face some angry and awkward moments when meeting with constituents, but as long as she doesn’t turn into Markwayne Mullin on steroids – something I mean in both a figurative and literal sense – and challenge voters to fights, or say stupid shit like “she pays her own salary in the form of taxes,” it will help silence her critics.
Well, at least until Stephanie starts dodging debates.
Although it’s cool to see Stephanie Bice at least slightly walk out of the DC shadows and meet with people, I do have one word of warning for the OKC liberal echo chamber:
Watch what you wish for.
Half the reason Kendra Horn won in 2018 is that her opponent – Steve Russell – spent more time updating his Wikipedia page than interacting with voters. Now that the map is so gerrymandered that even Stephanie Bice doesn’t know where it begins and ends, the district is going to be even more challenging to win.
It makes you wonder – instead of goading Stephanie to get off the couch and meet with people, wouldn’t Democrats be better off keeping her fat, happy, and lazy?
For example, instead of pressuring Stephanie to meet with voters, liberals should be working with metro breweries to launch special beer events for the weekends Bice is in town:
“Ms. Bice. The Fraternal Order of Police has invited you to their annual fall family jubilee at Wilshire Gun Range on Saturday, September 20th. Want me to put that on your calendar?”
“Well… uhm… buuuuurp… I think I’m gonna hit up Prairie Artisan for their Triple American Blueberry Daffodil Truffle IPA Porter launch. hic! The Cousins of Maine food truck’s gonna be there, too… so, uh… glug-glug… buuuurp… yeahhh, let’s do that.”
Seriously, why do Democrats want Stephanie out and about meeting with voters? That will only remind people to vote for her! Just keep her full of craft beer and let bloating do the rest. People will never hear from her!
Anyway, I hope Stephanie has lots of fun drinking coffee with voters in a different district, and we wish her the best of luck delivering us good content.
My only advice is that if she does meet with constituents, she should find a better way to dodge questions than pretending to misunderstand what someone said:
I don’t personally know the enumerated powers of Congress, but I guess “not looking like a dumb, dismissive asshat” isn’t one of them.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
