Lungren's Scabrous Town Hall

Lungren’s Scabrous Town Hall
Justin Smith
3/28/2006

On March 20 the third anniversary of the Iraq war Dan Lungren held a town hall meeting in Rancho Cordova California to talk mainly of immigration reform. Upon receiving the flyer outlining his meeting it immediately felt xenophobic, nationalistic, and reeked of racism. The flyer consisted of the American flag and it was titled, “Say no to any Amnesty guest worker proposal”. His speech and power point presentation consisted of flood protection, immigration reform, Urban Area Security Initiative, and port security.

Immigration Reform
To begin with Lungren’s most offensive proposal, he would like to see the automatic birth right citizenship abolished. When he introduced this he got a lot of disapproval that came in the form of boos and uncomfortable weight transfers of those sitting. I don’t think there was anyone in there that thought this was a good idea. He stressed that this would only relate to those who are born in the US who have immigrant parents. Then he listed a bunch of countries that do this and portrayed the US as behind and needed to catch up with the times. He also and ever so cliché linked aliens with sapping resources, increasing the deficit and putting the cost on the taxpayers. But as a remedy to absolve illegal immigration he condoned expedited removal, legal immigration, and register guest workers. After all on his flyer it states that, “Amnesty rewards illegal immigration – a potential slippery slope to lawlessness.” He then asked the crowd,” What is citizenship worth in this country?”

UASI and FLOOD PROTECTION

When elaborating on the Urban Area Security Initiative Lungren noted the Department of Homeland Security uses a risk based formula, this includes threat, vulnerability, and consequence. He stressed that the most vulnerable and devastating threat from terrorists is the Folsom dam. Lungren also supported to build the Auburn dam, which would rest on a fault line but proposed a feasibility study of the dam first. Now if dams are a safety concern especially terrorist threats and lackluster levies as per Lungren why would he support to build a dam on a fault line? Especially when it appears that everywhere in Sacramento is a floodplain not to mention that many have already been developed with houses or will be. Natomas a fledgling community and a floodplain would see flooding between 15 and 20 feet in a 24 hour period.

PORT SECURITY
Lungren’s proposal to increase port security in his Safe Port Act called for screening every cargo container for radiation. His plan for port security would check cargo at ports over seas, and background checks for those manning the ports. When asked what Lungren thought of the port deal, he predictably mentioned 9/11 and the Manichean position dictated early on Bush’s presidency for Americans to follow, “your with us or your against us”. So if you want to fight terrorists you best support the port deal. But he said he was all for it. He wanted Muslims to work with the US and said how important it was for the US to engage them. But only Americans can work at the ports. His proposal would allocate more money to the Coast Guard and give them more authority to police the ports.

The Forum
When the question and answer time two questions stuck out. One man noted that the Iraq war was not on Lungren’s agenda, “Is civil war your idea of liberation?” Lungren’s reply was, “Do I believe that taking out Saddam Hussein was a good thing?” This was immediately recognized by everyone that he wasn’t answering the right question. Everyone started screaming that’s not the question, that’s not what he asked. Lungren followed though with his own question and answer, and was staying the proverbial course.

One of the few young people in the crowd asked, “what about accountability, at what point would you break rank from the Republican Party? There are no weapons of mass destruction, shouldn’t we hold the president accountable?” The crowd nor Lungren liked this young man’s question, while booing and hissing one old man turned around and asked, “you gotta be kidding?” The young man replied, “No. I’m very serious.” Lungren responded I wouldn’t vote for a censure, then he insisted that there are WMDs in Iraq, and that there is nothing the administration can do for Lungren to break from his party. He appeared to me as a little G dub incarnate. Then Lungren when on to castigate this young man for blindly attacking people and asking rhetorical questions.