Raise Your Hand

I had two separate speaking events last week. One in Illinois at a Farm Bureau and another in rural Missouri at the local Eagles Hall.

I think many would find it strange to know that I meet up with Democrats in these spaces…it’s not. In rural areas, I meet with folks in churches and libraries and barns and county fair buildings and parks.

I will speak anywhere as long as there are people who want to hear what I have to say about rural America. No fancy event space required.

Since I spend a lot of time traveling and speaking and trying to get people to run for office in rural areas, I often start these events with a story about my own Representative and what pushed me to run for office.

Long story short, I tried to contact my State Rep for several weeks after he voted to ban abortion with no exemptions for rape or incest or life of the mother. I called and emailed and texted and sent DMs and tagged him in posts and even wrote a Letter to the Editor in our local paper to no avail.

After several weeks, I had an idea — I asked my husband to call our Representative. My husband received a call from our Representative in 20 minutes.

The call I had been waiting weeks to get.

My Rep did end up calling me after my husband insisted, and this is the part that always elicits gasps and groans when I retell the story: my Rep told me 1) He didn’t have to talk to me, and 2) He was calling me out of a favor to my husband.

I think about that interaction often. He was telling the truth because he rarely had any opposition on the ballot and didn’t have to listen to his constituents (which is why we should be contesting every race, even if we know we may lose.) But more than that, this is the treatment most people receive when they reach out to their Missouri Representatives.

I am not special. Most of us get the supermajority treatment. I mean, unless you’re a donor, and then the phone lines are open.

Speaking to a group in Iowa.

I often ask my audiences to raise their hands if they have reached out to a Representative and never heard back. Have they called or emailed or stopped by their office and either couldn’t talk to their Rep or just never heard a peep in return?

Without fail, almost every hand in the room goes up. I am talking like 80% or even 90% of the folks I talk to have tried to get in touch with their Representative and have had no response.

Nothing. Not even a canned email.

You may be nodding your head in agreement right now as you have likely had the same experience — it seems widespread and nationwide. Many elected Representatives are not the least bit concerned about listening to their own constituents.

Yesterday, I opened an email from Missouri’s 8th District Congressman Jason Smith.

Smith is not my Congressman, but I have subscribed to every newsletter from every Missouri Congressperson because I don’t want to miss out on something just because my Congressman didn’t speak on a topic.

What I didn’t intend to do was make my own head explode with some early morning rage — it’s not so easy to control my anger these days because I am short on patience with the current regime, but I am also a rural Democrat living in Missouri. Irritation can happen as soon as I open an email or a newspaper.

Such is life.

At any rate, the newsletters from Missouri Congressman Jason Smith are usually filled with partisan drivel and little truth.

Biden this and Kamala that. Socialism and Marxism. Burn the books and ban the history. Republicans good. Democrats evil. Epstein? Never heard of him.

But the newsletter I read yesterday morning was a lie from the first sentence to the last. The title? “Republicans Continue the Fight for Working Families.”

Laugh. Out. Loud.

The newsletter went on:

Republicans are working to restore integrity and affordability to America’s health care system, while Democrats prolonged a shutdown to try and keep billions in taxpayer dollars flowing to the insurers and brokers who benefit from this corruption.

American families were being held hostage because of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s demands to provide taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants.

Listen, I don’t doubt there is corruption in the current healthcare system…I know there is. But I also know that I couldn’t afford health insurance before the subsidies kicked in a few years ago. And I know that my premiums are scheduled to double if the subsidies are not extended.

Jason Smith is lying about restoring affordability.

I know undocumented immigrants are not eligible for coverage through the marketplace (ACA) or for federal programs like Medicaid or Medicare.

Jason Smith is lying about immigrants.

I decided to call Jason Smith’s office to ask about the “integrity” and “affordability” he is bringing to me through the ACA.

I called two of Smith’s Missouri offices, and got no answer, so I called his DC office and a young man answered.

I told the staffer that I had read Smith’s newsletter and I had some questions about the ACA section. He said he hadn’t read the newsletter. I read the section to the staffer and asked when I could expect some affordability in my premiums?

The staffer said my premiums will go down next year.

I told him that’s untrue because I called my insurance carrier and was assured that my premiums are going way up.

The staffer told me that it could vary from person to person.

I asked him where I could find the information Smith cited about the ACA premiums going down. He told me he wasn’t sure. I asked for data on the affordability that Smith mentioned. He said he’d have to get back to me.

And then I asked the staffer just how often he “gets back” with Missourians who call. I asked him if he had ever returned a call.

He said, “Ma’am, I can’t answer that.”

There you go.

Raise your hand if you’ve had this experience with a Representative? Or is it just in GOP-dominated states? Do they care in other places? Will they take your call?

Will they do their job?

The primary role of a Representative is to address the needs of their constituents. To hear their concerns. To act on both. To communicate. To help their own.

To hold the town halls I’ve heard of, but have never seen with my own eyes…

Raise your hand if your Representative acts like they don’t work for you.

Raise your hand if you’re sick and tired of it.

Raise your hand if you know it’s not just lazy bureaucracy: It’s a message. Your voice doesn’t matter here. If you’re not a donor, don’t expect anything. No call. No help. No one cares.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

How about this instead: meet me in a barn or a library or the Eagles Hall sometime…we can help elect folks who will do better.

~Jess