Eek! Just got the most upsetting call from GA Congressman Paul Broun

[Chiquitita]

Ok, so I'm fixing dinner and I get a call telling me that Paul Broun (R) GA, my congressman and a known nut, is having a LIVE phone "town hall" and that if I stayed on the line I'd get a chance to ask him a question. I'm intrigued by this possibility, so I wait to be put through.

Sure enough, I get to listen in to Broun answer a series of questions from other GA constituents, each one of us in turn. When asked how Republicans are planning to fix the economy and create jobs he responded by explaining that Obama is a closet socialist or worse, and the Democrats have as their goal to ruin "Free enterprise". Broun's five pillars for fixing the economy?: 1. Limit govt 2. deregulate everything 3. abide by the rule of law (not sure why this is relevant?) 4. protect property rights 5. uphold morality (he quoted a psalm here). The caller accepted this as an answer.

Next caller: Why is Washington discussing changing Social Security, "if we people worked for that money, right?" she asked Broun. His response? There is nothing, 0, in the social security trust fund because the Democrats are trying to rob and destroy it while the Republicans are trying to safeguard it! Needless to say I was shouting into the phone at this point, but to no avail since I was muted. Next caller asked about the Canada Gulf pipeline and the damage it might do.... needless to say Broun is all for it. I couldn't keep waiting for my chance to speak to him and just hung up.

Too bad all these people who are patiently waiting to talk to their representative are A: getting horribly misinformed and B: accepting a dynamic of Broun as authority telling them what to believe, instead of as someone who is supposed to be serving their interests!

[nineteen50]

1. I think these set up calls are flat

fraudulent.

[Chiquitita]

2. Do you mean you don't think it was him live?

I was getting instructions to press #3 if I wanted to make a comment or ask him and question -- so I thought if I remained on the line I'd get my chance. Just couldn't stomach it; but I should have waited and tried to hold his feet to the fire. He's just so crazy though. Our local Athens paper, the Flagpole, has a weekly column devoted to him called "Krazy Korner".

[dixiegrrrrl]

5. It does sound odd to me.

He is a Republican, you are not.
You get a telephone call purportedly from him/his office, which tells you if you stay on the line you can ask him a question.
Was that a live person telling you this or a recording?

I do not know how many people there in his district but surely he did not have time to answer questions from everyone of them.
And why would his office not screen numbers from the Republican voters only?

It sounds to me like an automated call system to get people to listen to him, sort of free advertising.
the whole thing could have been recorded earlier.

Just the way it struck me, I could be wrong.

[csziggy]

3. Unless you lied to the screeners, you would never had gotten to ask

A question. I sat through one of those calls for my local Congressional nutjob teabagger, Steve Southerland, and never got a chance to ask my question even though there were times he was clearly stretching his answers while waiting for "friendly" questions.

Remember, if they have an (R) behind their name, they are probably lying.

[Chiquitita]

4. I'm glad I didn't stay on the line then.

Anyway, my delicious dinner was calling. But what's so bizarre to me is the way he can so blithely commit all the most egregious rhetorical fallacies like some sort of laughable preacher and people still vote for him. Education is the key -- especially critical thinking and humanities style rhetorical analysis to having an intelligent voting public.

[csziggy]

7. Yes, the problem is that most people don't have the information

To realize that they are being systematically lied to. Our news media is not doing their jobs and the few information outlets that try are labeled as being "left" or "liberal" - as if those are bad things - and are dismissed by the average person.

I don't know how we can educate voters at all, especially in time for the next election.

[Pyrzqxgl]

6. Go out in your local pasture & find a big old meadow muffin & mail it to him.

He might not have enough bullshit and we've got to keep these Republican's supplied.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. I found out Repubs ARE doing these calls, as part of "Secret Town Halls"!!!!

Posted about it just a minute ago.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2161622

[Erose999]

9. Broun is crazy. A simple google search for "Rep. Paul Broun jr." will lead you to all sorts of crazy

truther/birther/conspiracy theorist/white supremacist bullshit.

I'll add that I've lived in Athens since 2004 and I have yet to see our Congressional representative in his supposed hometown. He never even campaigns here. If he has a town hall its always somewhere out of the way like Comer or Winterville or Toccoa or Cornelia. His office in Athens is next to the mall, in the part of town where all the big box stores and fast food restaurants are. That says a lot about him, I think.