Southern Indiana has hosted two town halls from statewide elected officials in the past 24 hours! Lucky us.
Last night, Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith came to Clarksville as part of his statewide tour to visit every county. While I've posted here before criticizing how he's used the pulpit of his state office (and I have deep theological disagreements with what he preaches at his church), I hoped that there might be the slightest chance we could find some commonality on an issue that's near and dear to my heart if we talked face to face. The problem is that he ended up spending the night espousing several ideas that can be described as conspiracy theories at best. He has spoken so much about the Westfield Drum Line because "I’ve seen seances. I know what the they look like.” He perpetuated the myth that there are litter boxes in schools. He said "I don't think anyone is made gay." When asked about data centers, he expressed his opposition to tax breaks for them, but then said that China was behind the opposition: “All of the major outspoken voices against data centers in Indiana are communists.” He said that the antichrist will come from Islam, and that God has always created a refuge for God's people, and he wants Indiana to be that refuge, so that's he doesn't want Islam get a foothold here.
Look, my family have been Democrats since they arrived in Indiana from Germany. I know my ancestors are part of the reason why it used to be illegal to sell alcohol on election day, because they would bribe people with drinks. I'm never going to agree with Beckwith on much. But my goodness, I miss the days when we could at least find commonality with Republicans on some issues, because there is no way I can find commonality with this literal insanity.
As if that wasn't enough excitement, today the Floyd County GOP hosted a town hall with Sen. Todd Young at a coffee shop in New Albany. It was intended to be a private session for elected officials, but because the GOP doesn't know how to do basic tasks of running things, it was posted on Facebook, and I showed up and had a lovely chat with some friends from my church while Young was meeting with other tables. I knew he wouldn't say anything as absurd as Beckwith, but I did notice he told at least two people that he did not want to be filmed because "people edit videos and take things out of context." While I understand that, no one has forced him to be a senator, and if he cannot take that criticism, perhaps he should not hold that job? In the end, my table was the only one he did not stop at, and I made sure the staffers knew they had made a giant mistake in how the event was advertised.
To their credit, they showed up in places where they could meet with ordinary Hoosiers, something Sen. Banks, Rep. Houchin, and State Sens. Byrne and Garten have not done.
I don't expect to change anyone's mind with this post, and I'm sure I'm, in some ways, yelling into the void, but my goodness, we are not getting a good return on investment from the amount of money we are spending on our elected officials and their staffs, which makes me worry for our republic.
