Of Townhalls and Townhall.com
Known to Webster, a townhall is “a public building used for town-government offices and meetings.” And a townhall meeting brought together all concerned members of the public to discuss the issues of the day. In the classic New England townhall meeting, these discussions led to policy. This is perhaps the purest form of democracy known. It is something to aspire to. It is something President Bush says our soldiers must die to spread throughout the middle east.
Then there is Townhall.com. Townhall.com is the website where, according to the tag line, “Your opinion counts,” just like the townhalls of New England towns of old. Or is it?
While the concept of Townhall.com is fantastic—a community forum that gives equal voice to all of its members—not all voices are welcome. According to the website, “Townhall.com is designed to amplify conservative voices in America’s political debates just as the 2006 and 2008 election cycles begin to heat up.”
That’s right. In case you were unaware, Townhall.com is a conservative community. It is not designed to give an equal voice to liberals. Sure, liberals can join Townhall.com and can create their own blog, but how long do you think it will last?
Now, I have no problems with an online community devoted to conservative or liberal viewpoints. My concern regards the Orwellian doublespeak of calling a conservative community a townhall. Frankly, it is an abuse of language and a betrayal of the tenants of democracy.
Try searching any issue on Townhall.com and you will see the overwhelming dominance of the conservative viewpoint. In fact, while I know they must exist in there somewhere, I would be surprised if more than a handful of liberal comments could be found on the site, let alone found and respected.
Here are some examples of searches:
Global Warming
Gay Marriage
Minimum Wage
Living Wage
Equal Rights
Not only do these searches return almost exclusively conservative viewpoints, many of the results easily qualify as racist and bigoted.
I am not saying the Townhall.com community is racist and bigoted, but it speaks volumes about the undemocratic nature of the community when you are more likely to find racist viewpoints than liberal viewpoints.
Again, townhalls are about democracy and Townhall.com is not. Mr. Orwell, please sit down!