Outside of Newton North High School on July 30, members of Sawa, the Newton-Area Alliance for Peace and Justice, quietly held signs and distributed “No More Bombs with our Tax Dollars” leaflets. A member of Sawa said the group did not want to be confrontational.
Inside, the peaceful atmosphere did not last.
During the Q&A that followed the Congressman’s update to constituents, questions were selected by random lottery from a predominantly senior-aged audience. The Congressman’s staff asked people to move on from topics that had already been explored two or three times, but passionate pleas kept returning to do something about the situation in the Middle East.
Congressman Auchincloss stated that Hamas is ‘singularly responsible’ and ‘has the power to end starvation now,’ adding that Israel has the ability to improve food distribution. He claimed Israel and AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying organization) have been unfairly singled out, noting that there were many lobbying groups funding Congress and many conflicts in the world with civilians suffering. He said that the President needs to put pressure on Israel, Hamas, and Qatar to end the crisis. His replies were met with the audience shouting at him and each other.
When asked about Qatar’s gift of an airplane to the President, he replied that the invisible gifts that Trump is receiving are more worrying. The public cannot see who is trying to buy influence through purchases of the $Trump coin.
How can the Democratic Party regain power was the second most common question. The Congressman noted that attacks on Trump have not changed the president’s favorability ratings for over a decade. To ‘get back in the game,’ Democrats need to focus on the rising costs of housing and healthcare, which together consume 50% of a middle-class American’s budget. He stated that we need to build more housing, and that the MBTA Communities Act can only create 15% of the new housing the State needs. He welcomed the suggestion of creating a new small city at Fort Devens (state-owned land). He called for strengthening state-run Medicaid programs and ‘expanding the footprint of government’ health care at the local level. He said Democrats need to hammer home in the midterm elections that Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill is increasing health care costs.
There were several other topics that were dealt with briefly:
ICE: He said he strongly opposed Trump’s use of the Marines in Los Angeles and ICE becoming an internal police force with a budget of $75 billion. The Congressman said he is leading efforts on immigration reform and believes public mobilization, such as the “No Kings” protests, helps restrain ICE.
Reducing extremism in politics: He suggested ending the system of party primaries begun in 1968. Instead, he thinks the country should consider adopting open primaries, as seen in California, where the top two candidates, regardless of party, win the primary and compete in the general election. He believes that the fear of being challenged in the primary by an extreme Trump-supported candidate stops many Republicans in Congress from working across the aisle on issues like NIH funding. He supports banning stock trading by members of Congress members, to rebuild trust in government.
Vocational/Technical Education: He noted that Voc/Tech jobs are growing faster than jobs requiring a 4-year college degree, and he said America needs to increase investment to stay competitive with China. He said Democrats need to “lionize the dignity of work.’ (Side note: The Federal Government originally began funding Voc/Tech education in 1916 to stay competitive with Germany.)
DEI: He stated that he and other Democrats have successfully restarted clinical trials with diverse participants, which ensures medical advancements benefit all populations.
Environmental Pollution: He will look into becoming a co-sponsor of the New England Coastal Protection Act and the Farewell to Foam Act. Currently, he is focused on reducing PFAS (“forever chemicals”) in Massachusetts.
Universal Service for 18 to 19-year-olds: He believes that universal service is a good way to get people learning to work together, and that it would help build a shared reality.
Planned Parenthood: He is opposed to the defunding of Planned Parenthood.
Social Media and Children:. He believes online access in school should be mediated through teachers and that one-on-one Zoom tutoring has been effective. He finds China’s ownership of TikTok concerning, and he believes Congress should revoke laws it has passed that give blanket immunity to social media companies, gun manufacturers, and pharmaceutical benefit managers. He wants social media companies taxed.
President Obama in the recently declassified documents on Russia: He said that he has not looked at them.
Topics that were not raised included climate change, infrastructure, transgender rights, and the Ukraine war.
After the event, Marcia Cooper, former president of GreenNewton, expressed surprise that no one asked a question about the climate. She told Fig City News, “This is a time when tax credits for wind and solar energy are being phased out and the Environmental Protection Agency is turning into the Fossil Fuel Protection Agency, even though billions of dollars are being spent on more frequent climate disasters.”
See NewTV’s video of the event.
