Constituents of Wisconsin Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson held an “empty chair” town hall Saturday at Nicolet High School in Glendale.
The progressive groups Grassroots North Shore, Grassroots Germantown, League of Progressive Seniors and Worth Fighting for Wisconsin had invited the senator to take feedback about cuts to federal programs and services and other Trump administration efforts.
Organizers placed a few stuffed and rubber chickens at Johnson's empty chair, they say reflected their view that the senator was “too cowardly” to come to the town hall, held during Congress' April recess.
More than 350 people showed up, with 54 of them taking three-minute turns at the mic. When people agreed with what a speaker was saying, they were asked to raise a green sign that said "I agree." When they disagreed, there were red signs to hold up.
Many were livid about potential cuts to Medicaid and other federal programs and agencies. One retired nurse practitioner, Mariaelena Calhoun, declared, "I believe in science! I believe in science!"
She said she's appalled at what is happening in the government, "the destruction of institutions that protect us, the CDC, the NIH, the food inspection program and many other things, the VA. I have a niece who is a doctor at the VA and who has lost half her medical staff because of these cuts. So why don't you support veterans, Ron Johnson?"
Several speakers mentioned that their family members have cancer or other health issues, and that funding research is the only way forward.
Others decried detentions of visa holders and other immigration efforts, and what they say is consolidation of power into the hands of a few. Joette Rockow from Milwaukee posed a question to the video camera that organizers were using to record the speakers. Their plan? To send the commentary to Johnson. When it was Rockow's turn to speak, she asked rhetorically about the senator's line in the sand.
"Attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid," Rockow said, "that seems to be just fine with you. Grabbing tourists and and students off the street and people here legally, that seems to be just fine with you, and sending them off to detention centers around the world, that seems to be just fine. Spreading lies about vaccines and canceling money for research that goes for Alzheimer's and children's cancer and leukemia and other diseases, that seems to be just fine with you."
She continued, "Trashing our national parks, cutting money for veterans, that seems to be just fine with you. So I want to know, what is your line in the sand? Is it going to be when we attack Canada to make them our 51st state? Is it going to be when we start sending U.S. citizens who are really bad people to prisons in El Salvador? What is your line in the sand? Senator, I would like an answer to that question, and I haven't seen a line in the sand yet."
Angela Schneider from a GOP-leaning suburb of Milwaukee addressed Johnson directly. "This is how democracies fall. Stand for democracy, not dictatorship. Stand for your oath [to the Constitution]," she said to cheers.
The town hall was coinciding with a weekend of national protests around the country, as part of a "day of action" organized by the 50501 Movement. Organizers say the protests are in response to the "anti-democratic and illegal actions of the Trump administration."
Down the street from Nicolet High School in Glendale, a few hundred protesters lined up along the I-43 overpass at Green Tree Road, hoisting up signs and cheering as drivers honked in support or gave a thumbs up. Every so often a driver flashed the occasional thumbs down in protest.
Johnson’s office said in a statement that, “Senator Johnson appreciates the invitations he receives but is unable to accept them all. He holds regular telephone town halls in which thousands of constituents are on the line to ask questions and/or listen to the answers he gives.”
