You can tell a lot about elected officials by the way they handle criticism and tough questions.
One good place to see that is a public, in-person town hall where an official faces constituents who can challenge what he or she says. Another is a debate where seasoned journalists question the candidates.
My fourth-term GOP congressman, Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania’s 9th District, has been avoiding both types of events. Instead, he prefers talk shows where he can spout MAGA rhetoric and try to put a positive spin on the latest atrocity Donald Trump and his Project 2025ers are inflicting or trying to inflict on our country.
In 2024, Meuser wouldn’t debate Democratic opponent Amanda Waldman, who I thought had bested him in a faceoff two years earlier. And instead of town halls, he’s generally resorted to conference calls where he can control who gets to ask what, with no opportunities for follow-up questions.
So I wasn’t surprised to hear that he hasn’t accepted invitations to debates from NBC affiliate WGAL, which issued one in May, and public TV station WVIA, which extended one some weeks later. His office didn’t respond to my request for comment.
By contrast, his Democratic challenger, Rachel Wallace, accepted both invitations immediately, saying the issues we’re facing are too important for voters to not know where the candidates stand.
That’s for sure, although she and Meuser might need to pull an all-nighter to cover everything.
For although the White House isn’t up for grabs this year, this midterm election will be a referendum on the Trump/Project 2025 regime, which has made life in the U.S. more expensive, more unpleasant, less healthful and less safe because of:
Ø the expensive, needless and apparently unplanned war it started
Ø its disrespect for and abhorrent treatment of our armed service members
Ø the diseases it’s allowing to spread
Ø the pollution and destructive climate change that it’s allowing
Ø its brutal cuts to crucial health care programs and government services
Ø the ICE goons it has unleashed across the U.S., including in our district
Ø the threats to our water supply, power grid and environment from the data centers it’s promoting
Ø the corruption it practices routinely, from self-enrichment to gerrymandering to attempts to suppress the vote
Ø its breathtaking waste, fraud and abuse
And we in this district can’t forget what nearly befell Tremont and Upper Bern townships before ICE finally abandoned its plan to dump concentration camps onto those clearly unsuitable locations. Or the data center operators who, with Trump’s blessing, have set their sights on our area.
Despite widespread opposition to both types of projects, Meuser has just talked up silver linings that are questionable at best. Like the elementary school lackey of the bully who holds up kids for their lunch money, the regime’s wishes are his commands.
He needs to be questioned before a television audience about every disastrous move that he’s rubberstamped in Congress and trumpeted everywhere else.
And the public needs to hear the alternatives that Wallace is proposing. From more affordable health care and housing to fighting corruption to protecting our environment and quality of life, she has listed numerous actions she would take in Congress for our district and country.
Who’s more accessible?
Although she doesn’t hold an elected position, Wallace already has held two public, in-person town halls in our district and plans additional ones.
That’s already more than the single one Meuser has hosted here, and that came only after nearly seven years of invitations, pleas and protests. Even when he sort of assented to one in Pottsville last December, it took negative publicity for him to admit the media and more than his initially selected guests to the small room he’d booked for lunchtime on a Friday.
Several weeks later, Democrats apparently were screened out of Meuser’s January “constituent social” in Sunbury, Northumberland County Democratic Chair John Merchlinsky told the Daily Item.
A lot has happened since then, including the war, more ICE, more data center proposals, more costly vanity projects, more voter suppression efforts and more crackdowns on dissent. (Remember, if you can’t organize and resist conditions you don’t like, you can only expect them to get worse.)
Interviewed by the Pottsville Republican Herald at the Schuylkill County Fair last month, Meuser defended his aversion to meeting his critics in a public forum, saying he doesn’t intend to “show up and get called names … and basically be a piñata.”
No names were called at the Pottsville event or during a confrontation with peaceful protesters last summer.
And really, a piñata, which releases gifts and treats when kids hit it? I can’t help thinking that Meuser is well aware that if he’s hit with questions about the indefensible policies he’s championed, he won’t have much to offer but platitudes, whataboutisms and empty promises to look into the problems his party has caused and enabled.
Canary note: Opinions expressed in any Op-Ed column appearing on this site are the views of the writer and are not necessarily the opinions of Coal Region Canary.
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