Tuesday’s “town hall” was a complete mess

This past Tuesday, Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak (North Dakota’s sole Representative) held a “telephone town hall” where constituents could ostensibly ask questions and voice concerns they might have regarding the new federal administration. Like three thousand other people, I signed up the day beforehand to ask a question and received a phone call at 6:30 when the town hall started, connecting me to the broadcast and, in theory, putting me in line to speak to Representative Fedorchak. 

Unfortunately, the “telephone town hall” wasn’t much more than an opportunity for Fedorchak to tell us all to shut up, chill out, and trust that Donald Trump was taking good, good care of us. She only answered eight questions in the session which was supposed to be an hour but cut off at 50 minutes, and had calls screened beforehand to find out what you were going to ask about. I foolishly told the truth and said I wanted to know how keeping all nine transfeminine people in the NCAA from competing was going to lower the cost of my eggs. I was not given the opportunity to ask my question and, despite speaking with someone at Fedrochak’s office right away and being assured I was “in the queue,” when I checked thirty minutes later I had been kicked out of the queue without being told. I tried to get back in, but it was too late, and I don’t think it was an accident that I–and countless other North Dakotans with real concerns–were kept from speaking. 

Most of the questions Fedorchak answered were about things like the economy, “drill, baby, drill,” and cuts to Social Security. This seemed to be because these were the topics she had been given pre-written answers to and could spend seven minutes answering without actually answering the question. Fedorchak focused on topics like the alleged massive flow of fentanyl entering the country from Canada and Mexico (according to the DEA, most of the chemicals used to make fentanyl actually come from China), “rampant government spending” (non-specified, presumably not referring to the amount of money Elon Musk is currently hemorrhaging firing and re-hiring half the federal government), and how 67% of North Dakotans voted for Trump so would you shut up already? One caller was cut off midway through her question, and when another person accurately stated that the current administration was a “shitshow,” Fedorchak responded by saying that a wide range of ages could be listening, so please try to keep your language “appropriate.”

Fedorchak displayed an impressive amount of skill in saying absolutely nothing and talking about unrelated buzzwords instead of answering questions. The overwhelming sentiment among those who were allowed to speak was one of extreme dissatisfaction with the actions of the federal government. This is perhaps one of the reasons Fedrochak chose to hold a town hall over the phone with her staff screening it, rather than in person. Ironically, she chose to highlight Trump’s decision to stop letting federal staff work remotely as one of the “many ways” in which the country was getting “back on track.” This is interesting, considering she held an ND town hall from her office in DC despite spending the last week here in the state.

I can’t say I’m surprised at how little Fedorchak even pretends to care about ND, but I’ll admit I was a little bummed. I try to give the benefit of the doubt, and I had hoped that at least one of our elected representatives would care enough to actually listen to what citizens had to say. Unfortunately, the “town hall” was very little more than an opportunity for Fedorchak to praise Trump, recite pre-written soundbites, and overall just piss people off.