Ryan needs to be accountable to constituents too

Serving as Speaker of the United States House of Representatives is no doubt a difficult job. It can be hard to get lawmakers of divergent political views to come together to pass legislation that pleases the President. When that effort fails, the Speaker is often the one who gets the blame. The role of Speaker has become more difficult with the election of Donald Trump, who often singles out individual lawmakers for his attacking tweets, seemingly making it less likely those lawmakers would work to please the President. But in addition to being the voice of the party in Washington, Speaker Ryan also remains a U.S. Congressman representing Southeast Wisconsin. In that role, he is beholden to his constituents, but doesn’t seem to be making that much of a priority. Ryan held a so-called “town hall” meeting Monday night in his home district, which was carried live by CNN. But to say the crowd there was representative of the district he serves would be more than a bit of a stretch. The 300 people who attended were all invited. All had voted for Ryan, and all their questions had to be approved in advance. That is not a town hall meeting. In fact, Ryan has not held a town hall meeting, open to the public, in more than two years. That is shameful. Any citizen should have the opportunity to ask their elected representative a question, and get an answer. That is the way our democracy is supposed to work.