Yucca Valley, California – – – As the US Rep.
“We are not liberal or conservative in the team. We are not in the Team Republicans or Democrats. We all play for Team United States of America, ”Oberolte told The Overflow Crowd last month in the Yucca Valley Community Center.
Boos drowned it out.
Oberolte asked the election reports to call his office “if you have problems with your government”. A woman in the audience replied with singing, the melody of the title song “Ghostbusters”: “Who will you call? The fascists! “
The crowd was angry that Oberolt had defended the mass shots of the Trump government of federal workers. She screamed when he said that he was glad that the billionaire Elon Musk, who heads the Department of Government Efficiency or Dogy, “looks at all waste in the federal budget”.
And with regard to Trump, she called: “No king! No king! No king! “
The scene in the festival conservative, mostly rural 23rd congress district was mirrored All over the country in the past two weeks, from California via Texas to Wisconsin and Georgia, when the Republican legislators returned to their home districts to apply for the first month of the Success of the Trump government in town hall meetings.
Instead, many of these meetings broke out in confrontation and blame, whereby a large part of it focused on the power that Trump triggered to musk when the administration puts a jackhammer into federal employment, which eliminates tens of thousands of mid -range jobs, apparently regardless of the salary or service, which a certain employee offers.
The pushback was particularly heated to reduce the National Park service, which loses almost 10% of its workforce against buyout and layoffs of the federal government. The eliminated workplaces include Rangers, wildlife researchers and maintenance staff, and last weekend led protests at around 140 locations across the country, including the Joshua Tree National Park near the Yucca Valley.
The Republicans have orchestrated the Testy Rathäuser as from Democrats: “Paid 'unrest tags' at Republican town hall meetings. On Tuesday, Republican campaign officers asked GOP members of the congress to organize town halls in a virtual environment.
In Interview with CNNHouse speaker Mike Johnson, made the setback in red districts “paid demonstrators” and “Democrats, who went to the events early and made the seats filled”.
But in the advisory areas themselves, while some speakers identified as Democrats, Others identified as a republican. And on February 22nd Yucca Valley eventInterviews showed that the audience included many residents; At least one wore a Trump hat and some were clearly dissatisfied with the pronounced participants.
GOP MP Jay Oberolte was shouted in his town hall on February 22nd in Yucca Valley with Boos.
(Stacy Moore / Hi-Desert-Star)
In an explanation of The Times, Oberoltes Büro played down the Yucca Valley meeting as “Anomaly” and said that he had organized six other meetings in the district who had “more constructive discussions”.
Although there was “some animated voices” in the Yucca Valley, the explanation of “intention to disturb a productive conversation and not to disturb” visited the explanation.
The explanation of Obernolte continued: “It claims that our public debt of 36 trillion US dollars is an existential threat to our nation, and it supports the efforts, waste, fraud and abuse of tax money.”
Oberolte was re -elected in November during a right in California who has Nine Republicans US House members and more than 6 million Trump voters.
California was at home for some of the country's most competitive congress races last autumn and gave the state an oversized role in determining the balance of power in the house. The GOP has one of the slimest majorities in history and holds 218 seats while the Democrats hold 215.
But because the Republicans control both congress houses and the white house, their honeymoon is already over, said Shaun Bowler, political scientist at UC Riverside.
“They had the photo -ops. They had the press releases. They had their 15 minutes with Fox or Talk Radio. It's time to deliver and there is no reason not to deliver now, ”said Bowler.
Oberoltes huge district, which extends over the Mojave Desert and San Bernardino Mountains, comprises most of the district of San Bernardino as well as parts of the counties Kern and Los Angeles.
The high desert cities around Joshua Tree have undergone fundamental changes in recent years. During the pandemic, city dwellers and remote workers moved into the desert to find more affordable apartments and easy access to nature. Real estate prices rose. Real estate has been converted into holiday rentals. And car stickers that landed “Go Back to La” became a frequent sight on Highway 62, the main artery by the Morongo Basin.
The registration of voters in the district is evenly divided by Democrats and Republicans. But the district historically preferred conservatives.
In November Oberolte won the re -election by 20 percentage points. And both San Bernardino and Kern Counties, from which 92% of the district make up, voted for Trump.
The district includes both the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms and the FT. Irwin National Training Center. It is home to tens of thousands of military veterans.
It is also one of the poorest congress districts of the state, so Analysis of The Public Policy Institute of California and the Stanford Center for poverty and inequality.
Many of the better paid jobs in the region are positions in federal authorities. And his small cities are born on tourism in Joshua Tree National Park.
Parking employees confirmed compared to the time that at least six full-time employees in the fee department were commissioned to collect entry and camping fees and the occupation of the visitor centers as part of the cuts of the Trump management.
At his Yucca Valley meeting, Oberolte was with questions about the parking service shots and potential cuts against Medicaid and the well -kept Supplemental Nutrition Assistance ProgramFood support for low -income Americans offers.
Despite his praise for Muschus, Oberolte told the audience that he disagreed with the Joshua tree cuts. “It will create a terrible experience for our visitors,” he said. “It will destroy our communities.”
He praised the government's decision to eliminate thousands of temporary positions in the National Park Service after the cost reduction train was created with a loud public outcry. However, as part of a multi -robbering of subject workers who remove tens of thousands of jobs, the administration advanced in advance with a dismissal of around 1,000 employees of the PARBER PARK service -generally people in the first two years of service.
According to an internal email that was sent to Park Supervisors last month, the National Park Service employees take part in the federal Buy-out program all year round, which the Trump administration advanced in the campaign to upgrade the federal employees.
When asked about potential cuts in the network of the social security network, there was “a lot of fear and dismay about programs that everyone like Medicare like Medicaid depends on.”
“I want to be crystal clear about it. Nobody speaks of reducing the advantages for people who rely on them, ”he said.
The crowd sang: “Liar! Liar!”
Keith Hamm, a holiday home and a registered Democrat who lived in Joshua Tree, belonged to those who took part in the event. He said he was expecting a sleepy affair in which he would be one of the few people with a different opinion. But then, he said, he heard “a lot of structure” and expected the meeting to be controversial.
“To be honest, it was more than I expected,” said Hamm, who described the district as a “deeply impoverished” place where many people rely on food advantages and medi-Cal.
He said about Oberolte: “It is just so frustrating to face people like Jay. He is completely out of contact with his constituency. “
Joseph Candelaria, a 38-year-old musician and lifelong resident of Twentynine Palms, started public issues by describing in a community that he described as “underprivileged, under-realized”.
“You talk about how the military is not paid enough. So do we take Snap advantages away? Do you know who uses Snap advantages? Military communities because we don't pay enough, ”said Candelaria.
In an interview, Candelaria said that the outcry at the event was real, that the room was filled with locals and that he was angry with the attempts to reject the setback in red districts.
“I think this community was historically exploited because we are nice people. We are nice. But we are not stupid, ”he said.
Candelaria said that he is not registered with one of the two major parties, but often visited local political events and has never seen that you are so controversial.
He said about his own public comments: “I was told that I had inspired too much.”
Not everyone in the crowd was outraged under the new Trump government in the first few weeks. Many participants nodded softly or clapped when the top spoke.
A few days after the event, the Brad Irwin, who lived in Joshua Tree, who had a worn out Trump 2024 hat, was in agreement when he left a harbor freight in the Yucca Valley. The 75 -year -old Irwin said that he did not take part in the Oberoltes event, but was glad to see how Dogs moved so quickly.
“I wake up every morning and say:” Thank you, Lord, for President Trump, “said Irwin, who worked in the grocery store for 35 years.” We have this unique chance of finishing our country financially, and if we don't, we're done. “
After the layoffs in Joshua Tree, Irwin described himself as a “outdoor person” that the national parks loved, believes that government agencies need a better supervision.
“How many people in the government are on the porn sites if they are supposed to be at work?” he said. “How many people do transgender changes get if they are supposed to be in the job?”
Branson-Potts reported from Los Angeles; Plevin reported from the Yucca Valley.
This article is part of the time. Stock reporting initiativePresent Financed by the James Irvine FoundationExplanation of the challenges for employees with low income and the efforts to cope with California economic gap.