The Importance of Town Hall Meetings

Professor Lazer’s study on online town hall meetings brought forth some very important facts. There is a huge disconnect between politicians and the general public. Most Americans don’t understand the issues or why politicians take certain actions regarding different policies. The task of reading, understanding, and fact checking different topics can prove to be difficult and time consuming. Therefore, many people give up on the effort and blindly form their opinions based on their feelings, which may not be backed by reality. One major consequence of this is that people strongly dislike and distrust those who disagree with them. According to Professor Lazer’s study, town hall meetings can increase approval of the member and his/her position, increase engagement in politics, and increase the probability of voting for that member. All of these points are very important for a working democracy.

I was recently watching an episode of Top Gear, and it proved Lazer’s points perfectly. Top Gear is a British/American car show on BBC America, and is riddled with jokes and silliness. Each episode has a guest whom they interview for 10-15 minutes. However, a recent episode had Lord John Prescott on the show, who is a former Deputy Prime Minister and First Secretary of the State of the United Kingdom. When he was first introduced, he was booed by at least half of the audience. Throughout the interview, the host was surprisingly grilling him really hard on issues, despite it being a car show. It was amazing how he answered every question with a very understandable answer, which made his decisions very clear. After the show, everyone clapped for him, there was no more booing, and I’m sure everyone in the audience had an “Aha!” moment as to why he made enacted some of the policies that he did. It is amazing how one small interview with a policy-maker can change ones entire views on that person. If we can get more people to be part of these town hall meetings, which is helped greatly by online meetings, then perhaps we can have a more successful democracy.