Laughter is the best medicine, they say, and satirist Andy Borowitz has been having a field day in The New Yorker skewering Republicans with fake news article that, sometimes, verge perilously close to reality.
Today, he uses U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton to make fun of Republicans running from public meetings. OK, it’s a little unfair to Cotton, who did actually meet with thousands of unhappy constituents. No medal for doing your job, but Cotton did fade the heat and paid lip service in the process to free expression, even by an organized group.
Here’s Borowitz. And an excerpt:
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Saying “Enough is enough,” Republican senators on Friday angrily accused their constituents of “intentionally and opportunistically” using recent town-hall meetings as vehicles to express themselves.
One of the angriest Republicans, Senator Tom Cotton, of Arkansas, said he was “disgusted and offended” by the “flagrant exercise of freedom of speech” he witnessed at his town hall.
“The spectacle of people standing up, asking their elected representatives questions, and expecting them to answer is the most disgraceful thing I’ve ever experienced,” Cotton said. “This will not stand.”
Cotton accused “outside agitators” of sending voters to the town halls “to cynically exploit an obscure provision in the Constitution called the First Amendment.”
UPDATE: On a real news note: Gov. Asa Hutchinson told Politico that he thinks strong interest in town halls is a good thing and his party should take heed.
Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Friday that Republicans should pay attention to the hostile town hall meetings across the country as many voters express anxiety and concern about the plan to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“To my conservative friends and my Republican friends: Pay attention to this,” Hutchinson said during POLITICO’s annual State Solutions Conference. “Because that portends what could happen down the road with increased intensity if we don’t handle health care right, if we don’t handle all of the promises that we’ve indicated we want to work on right.”
…“I think it’s great for democracy any time you have 2,000 people come out to a town hall meeting,” Hutchinson said. “I think they are by and large Arkansans who are expressing themselves.”