Every congressional town hall seems worthy of note, and attendance, so our household was there when Oregon 6th district Representative Andrea Salinas showed up this evening at McMinnville High School.
Around 300 other people seemed to have the same idea, making this turnout somewhere around six or seven times the normal size for a U.S. representative town hall in these parts, and a good deal more boisterous as well.
In some contrast to the events held by the state's U.S. senators, this one had a distinctly partisan feel to it, and Democrat Salinas periodically made references to how Democrats should respond to the whirlwinds centered on the White House. While a few people clearly disagreed with her take, the overwhelming majority - this in a county that voted for Donald Trump for president, three times - expressed disdain or anger toward the Trump Administration.
Often loudly.
"I am really outraged at the behavior of our president right now," she said in her opening. "We have a president who wants to make himself king."
That got loud applause.
As whens he talked about the sweeping cuts and policy changes of recent weeks: "This is absolutely not what the people voted for." She said she was hearing that from Republicans, often privately, as well as Democrats.
As there was move approval when she talked about walking out during Trump's recent address to Congress; she was one of a small number of Democratic legislators who did that. She said she was prompted to do by hearing repeated "fantasies" from Trump over the long speech.
Salinas was fiercely critical of the vote by Democratic Senate leader Charles Schumer, who voted in favor of adopting the recent budget bill approved by Trump and House Republicans but opposed by most Democratic senators.
She focused much of her talk on Medicaid, and to some extent Medicare and Social Security. "He is clearly not the right person for this moment on the Senate side," she said. "I'm not in the Senate, thank God."
Most of the questions were sympathetic. The closest to a challenge came from one audience member who accused Democrats of engaging in "lawfare" - lawsuits filed in court - against some of the actions Trump had taken. She noted that the courts have become essential backstops to keep a president from going too far.
Another town hall of a piece with many others around the country. Which makes all of them the more remarkable.
Not many of us can say we know much about Greenland, the rather large, frozen island belonging to Denmark. It's even harder to find someone who's been there.