At a town hall in Seaside on Saturday, U.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici spoke about the government shutdown and healthcare costs and fielded questions about actions by immigration officials and concerns about humanitarian aid to Gaza.
Then Troy Bowers from Manzanita asked an unanswerable question.
He had attended public events with Bonamici months earlier where she had urged people to remain engaged in their communities and their government, to call their representatives about their concerns and, if need be, to protest peacefully.
Bowers told Bonamici on Saturday that he assumed the situation— the actions and policies of the Trump administration that he believed were harmful, wrong or illegal— would get worse before it got better, but now he wondered: Did she see a timeline for things to start improving?
“I wish I had a working crystal ball,” the congresswoman replied.
She added, “Authoritarians like to wear people down and make them feel like they don’t matter, and give up. I say to this community I’m not going to give up.”
She said there is too much worth fighting for and she urged people to continue to stay involved.
“I think change is really going to come from the ground up,” she said. “These policies are not very popular on both sides of the aisle in terms of how they’re being executed, but also in terms of cost with costs going up. I don’t know if it will start getting better yet, but I think it’s going to turn around when the administration starts to realize they don’t have the support of the public anymore.”
In opening remarks at the town hall, Bonamici focused on the government shutdown and reemphasized the Democratic Party’s message that the move was necessary to force negotiations on healthcare subsidies
She also spoke to issues around cancelled federal funding that are impacting local organizations such as operations at Tongue Point Job Corps and a major expansion project at Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria.
During the town hall, Bonamici questioned the Trump administration’s announcement that it planned to send 200 National Guard troops to Portland, an operation temporarily halted last week by a federal judge. If the deployment goes forward, it is expected to cost an estimated $10 million.
“I mean, we have our local law enforcement handling this already,” she said regarding the protests in Portland at an ICE facility that prompted Trump’s efforts to deploy the National Guard. “To me it doesn’t seem like a good use of $10 million. I can think of a lot of things where that would be better spent.”
Many in the audience at the town hall were at the liberal and Democratic end of the political spectrum. Indivisible North Coast Oregon was present and many people wore pins proclaiming, “No Kings,” a reference to ongoing peaceful protests against Donald Trump.
Seaside resident Mark Rolofson had the chance to ask the first question at the town hall. He wondered what the congresswoman and her staff were doing to help international activists who had been arrested by Israeli forces last week as they attempted to get aid to Gaza by boat.
Bonamici noted her early calls for a ceasefire in that region and said her office was monitoring the recent detainment of the activists.
Gaza should not be relying on activists trying to float a boat in to get humanitarian aid, she said. “That is something that we should be doing as the United States of America.”
But in a response to another question regarding Gaza and Israel, she said she did not support cutting U.S. funding for the Israeli missile defense system Iron Dome — an answer that disappointed Rolofson, who feels Israel could use those same systems to harass or attack neighboring countries.
He liked Bonamici’s responses overall, though.
Still, he says he left the Democratic Party long ago. He’s a member of the Green Party and feels actions by Democratic leaders are the reason Trump is back in office. He is not hopeful that the Democrats are going to be able to change anything.
“I’m very concerned that we’re at a pivotal moment here where Americans are going to have to start to take the bull by the horns,” Rolofson said, advocating for a general strike to get leaders to listen.
Outside of Pacific Ridge Elementary school, where the town hall was held, Mary Romanaggi prepared to get on her bicycle.
A former emergency room nurse, Romanaggi retired from Providence Seaside Hospital this year following a major strike across multiple Providence hospitals and clinics.
She was encouraged by comments Bonamici made about how the checks and balances across the three branches government are still in place. Bonamici had noted various times where lawsuits and legal decisions by the courts were holding back certain actions by the Trump administration.
Romanaggi also saw parallels with the hospital strikes she experienced and the decision by Democrats to risk a government shutdown hoping it will force Republicans to negotiate on healthcare issues.
Romanaggi said she experienced resistance to negotiate from Providence’s leadership when nurses and other healthcare workers were on strike. She said the community and other unions mobilized to put pressure on Providence to negotiate.
She worried that with the deep political divisions, things could get ugly, but that she is hopeful, in part because of leaders like Bonamici.