Tuesdays With Toomey Meets Weekly to Keep Pat Toomey on His Toes
Jan. 03, 2017
[Update: On Tuesday afternoon, approximately 50 people showed up at Sen. Toomey'due south Heart Urban center office to talk well-nigh environmental issues, and inquire the Senator to vote No on Pres. Trump's nominee for the Environmental Protection Agency, Scott Pruitt. This time, the revolving door to the function building was locked, and then the TWT participants—including a few ecology experts—were unable to enter even the lobby. Several TWT members said a security guard would non let them enter, and would not accept the approximately 40 letters they brought to exit with the Senator'southward staff. And Vashti Bandy, who has been with TWT from the start, said no i in the function answered the telephone, either, despite taking calls earlier in the 24-hour interval. "I was flabbergasted," says Bandy. "They piece of work for us, as citizens." Afterwards, Toomey spokesperson E.R. Anderson sent the same response to The Citizen every bit she had after a previous meet ii weeks ago, noting that staff members were "committed elsewhere" on Tuesday afternoon. Bandi says TWT will effort again to get an appointment with Toomey staff members next week, simply will evidence up at his function either fashion, this fourth dimension to talk about civil liberties and oppose Trump's Attorney General nominee Jeff Sessions.]
When Pennsylvania tipped for Trump in the forenoon hours of November 9th, the news striking Vashti Bandy like a punch. As she sat on the couch before the Tv, checking the results against her phone, Pennsylvania turned red on the electoral map.
Her commencement thought was of her grandmother,Carolyn, who at vii years quondam fled Georgia with her family under threat of death from the Ku Klux Klan. Heading for Chicago, the family'due south mule died. The family inverse route and establish sanctuary in Philadelphia. They didn't run far enough, Swap idea.
The celebratory canteen of pink Moscato that Bandy had bought in anticipation of Hillary Clinton'southward election would have to look.
In the days subsequently the vote, Swap, a teacher and author recently returned from years in Japan, pushed through the stupor of Trump's victory and reached out to conservatives she knew. Through Facebook dialogues, these Trump-voters cited business concern for small business, disgust with the D.C. institution, and other fair-minded motivations. Hate, Bandy found, had non decided their vote. Advice, if not common ground, was possible.
Encouraged, Bandy moved the effort offline and showed upwardly in the lobby of 1628 JFK Boulevard, a glass and concrete tower that houses Senator Pat Toomey'south Philadelphia role.
A staffer named Katie came down from the 17th floor, and Swap handed her a greeting carte for the senator. It featured 2 puppies and the sentiment "We are the same." Inside, Bandy had written a plea to the senator to condemn Trump's selection to name Steve Bannon as master White House strategist. The two talked: Bandy sharing her fears of a rising tide of racism and xenophobia, and Katie taking notes, promising to laissez passer the bulletin forth to the senator.
Comprised mostly of heart-anile, centre-class women, well-nigh of whom had not been politically engaged across the voting booth, Tuesdays with Toomey has gained momentum with their insistent nevertheless ceremonious ritual of activism, one they intend to enact each Tuesday at 12:30 pm well into the Trump presidency. "I will—barring injury—be here every Tuesday for the next six years," says 1 organizer.
The following week, Swap returned to the foyer of 1628 JFK with a one-half-dozen similarly left-leaning women she had found on Facebook. They shared their thoughts on the election. They tweeted, instagrammed and posted video of their presence far and broad. Nearly chiefly, they had called alee and gotten an appointment with Toomey's office.
A staffer invited them up for a conversation. The staffer sabbatum with them, listened, and took notes, and promised to deliver their letters of business concern to the senator.
Stirred with good feeling at having been heard, the women left the office, and as they rode the lift down from the 17th floor, they planned to practice all again.
Adopting the moniker "Tuesdays with Toomey," the group visited once again on the next Tuesday at 12:thirty p.m., and too the following week. They tightened their general concerns into selected topics. One calendar week they chosen on Toomey to preserve the Affordable Care Act. On the next, they urged action over Trump'south conflicts of interest. Their attendance went from vi to a dozen and doubled over again. They attracted press attention and talked each fourth dimension with Toomey staffers. Comprised by and large of middle-aged, middle-course women, most of whom had not been politically engaged across the voting booth, Tuesdays with Toomey has gained momentum with their insistent yet civil ritual of activism, one they intend to enact each Tuesday at 12:thirty pm well into the Trump presidency.
"I volition—barring injury—be here every Tuesday for the next six years," Swap says, "I've got half-dozen years of concerns."
Only is the senator listening?
Talk less and listen more. In May 2016, this advice was amidst the gentler words Toomey had for candidate Trump. The senator decried Trump's "vulgarity" and his proposed ban on Muslim clearing. Trump, Toomey said, wouldn't rank as even his third choice from the Republican field. It wasn't until Toomey walked out of a Lehigh Valley voting booth on Nov eighth that he revealed his grudging support for his party'due south nominee.
Toomey ran to appeal to the "Clinton Republicans." His Philadelphia-area ads cited Ed Rendell's praise for Toomey every bit "a human being of uncommon decency" and President Obama's plaudits for the senator's push to expand background checks for gun buyers, a movement that dropped Toomey's "A" rating with the National Rifle Association to a "C." Toomey'south seemingly moderate path likely helped him outperform Trump in and around Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but price him in the dyed-cherry-red eye of the state. Toomey squeaked into re-ballot with a one.8 percent vote margin over Katie McGinty.
Even so, brand no error: Toomey is a true conservative. So, while the senator may be open to criticism of Trump's rhetoric, smoothen for Putin and tangled business interests, Toomey nevertheless holds a spate of positions diametrically opposed to the liberal leanings of those in Tuesdays With Toomey.
Listening has its limits, limits that TWT's most recent visit may take laid bare.
By 12:20pm on Dec 20th, TWT had gathered over forty activists on the sidewalk before 1628 JFK Boulevard, and more were on their way. Many wore bipartisan-purple hats, gloves or coats. TWT organizers told me that they had an date with Toomey'southward function on the agreement that a select few from their rank —with no press attached — would come up to resume the civil conversation of previous visits. However, according to a Facebook mail service from a TWT organizer, a Toomey office staffer who wouldn't requite his proper name had canceled the appointment via phone in a brief and "awful" exchange.
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Toomey's communications director would later tell me in an e-mail that the staff was "committed elsewhere," simply that "Senator Toomey does appreciate hearing from Pennsylvanians and keeps their thoughts in mind when because all issues."
Information technology's unlikely that Toomey would listen to today's bulletin: Protect Sanctuary Cities. A month ago, Toomey held the senate floor to revive his Finish Dangerous Sanctuary Cities Act . Co-sponsored by Senators Chuck Grassley (IA) and Ted Cruz (TX), the bill, which had stalled last July before coming to a vote, proposed cut Economic Assistance Programs and Community Development Block Grants (the latter of which would cost Philadelphia $39 million in 2017) to municipalities unwilling to share an arrested private'due south immigration status or comply with "detainer requests," which are bids to concur and give up specified individuals to Clearing and Customs Enforcement.
If Toomey's stances are so defined, what purpose does a weekly visit to his function serve, peculiarly when you observe yourself out in the cold with the doors locked behind you? For these activists, speaking truth to ability is its own reward. "We have to await the best of people and believe that they can modify," says one TWT organizer. "Look at gay marriage. Xx years ago information technology would take been politically insane to support it, but that changed cheers to the long term engagement of people like usa."
"We're calling on his better angels," TWT organizer Angela York-Crane said with a smiling.
TWT moved into the lobby and met a beefy, immovable wall of plainclothes police officers. With smiles, the officers directed the crowd away from the elevators and into an alcove.
Thusly corralled, TWT activists fought the acoustics of the glass and marble antechamber in short, positive speeches that made the instance for Sanctuary Cities. Hidden City writer Ann de Woods appealed to Philadelphia's past, inviting the senator on a tour of the metropolis's legacy every bit a "holy experiment," a haven for the persecuted. UPenn folklore professor Amada Armenta cited recent data showing immigrant felony rates to be roughly one-half those of native built-in Americans. David Applebaum, a retired Rowan University historian, warned that the U.S. risks replicating the culturally alienated ghettos and refugee camps of Europe. A Toomey staffer, a immature man named "Philip," arrived to receive the activists' letters of business. A box was handed to Philip from across the police line, and without a word he caught the adjacent elevator support to the 17th floor. With that, the police ushered TWT out of the golden-hued vestibule and locked the glass doors behind them.
As the sit-in wound down with announcements of hashtags and future events, two office workers defenseless a fume pause in the sunlight of the alley. Ane of the pair, a tall woman in a black shawl, shook her head. "These people are here every Tuesday. Every Tuesday. Like, what do they want?"
I wondered that every bit well. If Toomey's stances are and so defined, what purpose does a weekly visit to his role serve, especially when you detect yourself out in the common cold with the doors locked behind you? For these activists, speaking truth to ability is its own advantage. Then, week after week, they keep coming back, eager to salvage their relationship with Toomey's function. "We have to expect the best of people and believe that they can change," Sarah Roberts, a core TWT organizer, told me. "Expect at gay marriage. Twenty years agone it would have been politically insane to support it, simply that changed thanks to the long term engagement of people like us."
Furthermore, Toomey wasn't elected to be Toomey alone. "He represents Pennsylvania, and that includes usa," Roberts and several other TWT activists said to me. "It'south his job to heed."
Corrections: An before posting of this story misspelled Vasthi Bandy'southward grandmother'due south proper noun. Information technology was Carolyn. It too misquoted how long Bandy plans to attend TWT; it is half dozen years, the length of Toomey's term, not four. Besides, an paradigm in the earlier piece was of a group of MoveOn activists, not TWT. It has been replaced.
Header epitome by Mimi Salazar 
Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/tuesdays-with-toomey/
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