Placer County, Roseville Protest McClintock and Trump

The Tower Theater in downtown Roseville was the site of a peaceful, but loud, protest demonstration by residents of Republican congressional representative Tom McClintock’s district in Northern California. Rep. McClintock had scheduled one of his Town Hall meetings at the Tower Theater in Roseville. But I don’t think he was prepared for the hundreds of people who turned out to protest his support of President Trump’s Executive orders.

Picture gallery and video at end of post.

Protest Against McClintock and Trump

Tom McClintock represents the 4^th Congressional District, which is situated in the foothills of Northern California from Placer County down to Fresno County. Rep. McClintock does not live in the district. He reside in Elk Grove, Ca. As a Republican, he has easily won his re-election bids in this generally conservative congressional district. I’m not sure that McClintock or his staff was prepared for the large demonstration against him at his Town Hall meeting on February 4, 2017.

I arrived at 9:00 am, an hour before the Town Hall meeting was scheduled to start. There were already hundreds of people lined up around the block to get a seat in the Tower Theater for the meeting. I was surprised at the large turnout of demonstrators. While I saw a little Facebook post about organizing people to attend and ask questions, I heard of no professionally organized demonstration. This was truly and organic response to Tom McClintock’s support of the President’s authoritarian Executive orders of the last couple weeks.

Regular Suburban People Protesting

Most of the folks peacefully standing in the light drizzle of rain on the sidewalk looked like they – including me – could have been attending an AARP convention. They were a typical representation of the Placer County region in that the crowd was mostly white and affluent. Had they not they been carrying signs in support of women’s rights, affordable health care, and against Trump, they would have looked like the average McClintock voter. Actually, many of the folks I talked with had voted for McClintock in past elections and are registered Republicans.

There were even several of my fellow Granite Bay residents in attendance. I stumbled upon one couple who are the parents of a young man who went to school with my son at Granite Bay High School. We noted the irony that while our boys were away at college studying, we were out protesting against the horrible turn our country was taking led by a man with little regard for our constitution and another man who unabashedly supports him.

Police Close Off Vernon Street In Roseville

As 10:00 am approach, the start of the Town Hall meeting, it became apparent that few of the folks who had gathered on the sidewalk, around the block, would get into the theater. Folks began to gather in front of the theater and demand that McClintock come out and talk to them. The demonstrators spilled onto Vernon Street so the police closed off the street to accommodate the crowd. The police were very polite and did excellent job. I think they understood that us gray-haired citizens weren’t going to cause much trouble.

After half an hour, some speculated that McClintock would slip out the back entrance so we gathered at the back alley. More chanting ensued. People who were lucky enough to get into the Town Hall meeting came out and reported that McClintock said Trump was doing an excellent job, Steve Bannon wasn’t a white supremacist, and most everything was still Obama’s fault. Like a good slippery politician, McClintock was able to make a quick dash out the front entrance into a waiting car. He never addressed the hundreds of constituents who waited through cold and wet whether to hear him defend his position to support Trump. #Coward

McClintock Does Not Live In The 4th Congressional District

It was never my intention to actually go to the Town Hall meeting. I’ve heard McClintock speak at his highly controlled constituent meetings before. He has heavily scripted responses to any question that might question his political position. Everything was Obama’s fault. Obama was going to take our guns away, install death panels with the ACA, allow terrorists into the country, and enslave us to socialism. McClintock has never representative the residents of Congressional District 4, the district he does not live in. He has always representative the Republican Party first and those who contribute to his campaign second.

I have respect for many Republican representatives. But McClintock has always refused to engage in any conversation that he does not completely control. He didn’t even support Trump until it became clear that he had to when Trump became the Republican Presidential nominee. Now McClintock parrots the party line and illogical and irrational tweets of Trump. As far as McClintock is concerned, if it’s done by the government it is bad. (Excluding the sweet retirement plan he has from serving in the California Legislature and U.S. House of Representatives.) If business wants something, it’s good. The world is black and white to McClintock and his only consideration is getting re-elected to serve his corporate campaign masters.

It is hard to gauge whether the turnout at McClintock’s Town Hall represents a shift in attitude of the 4^th Congressional District. But there were certainly people there in attendance who were never politically active until Trump was elected President. Several of the folks I talked to were also at the Woman’s March in downtown Sacramento the day after the Trump inauguration.

Trump Is Just Not Normal

Normal people are realizing that Trump is not normal. Normal people are realizing that to support the President and some of his initiatives of banning Muslims, building walls, bullying foreign leaders, and questioning the integrity of U.S District Court judges who disagree with his Executive orders, is not only un-presidential, it’s not normal. These normal people, who lead normal lives, did the extra-ordinary and turned out to demonstrate against Rep. McClintock and President Trump.

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