Stories like this really, really make me question my opposition to violence. Some of these people seem like they won't listen to their constituents without some alternative persuasion. And that's sad.
I'm not sure I would personally ever resort to violence unless things get really out of hand and atrocities start occurring.
I will say, however, that I've met our representative when she toured our company last year and wasn't particularly pleased with the interaction. She was an air head, especially with respect to the issues that we (as a software company) care about. When I wasn't satisfied with her responses she said, "You're just one of those guys who hates politicians, huh?"
I wouldn't say that's true. In fact, her predecessor also toured our office in 2012, right around the time when SOPA/PIPA were being debated, and he seemed very well informed and appeared to take our comments to heart, despite actually being a SOPA co-sponsor.
Not to intentionally continue rambling but his departure that led to Stefanik's election was kind of fishy too. He was a locally raised, pretty well-liked democratic lawyer and retired Air Force captain who helped revitalize one of the cities he was stationed at during his service when the air base there was shut down. Then all of a sudden he just says he's not running for re-election. A friend of mine pointed out that due to the unexpected nature of his retirement it's within the realm of possibility that he was forced out in some way (blackmail?)
So Stefanik -- a young, female career politician and former Paul Ryan staffer rolls in and given the overall right-leaning nature of the area, people vote along party lines and she wins. Her only tie to the district is that her family owns a seasonal home here, which apparently was enough for her to meet residency requirements. She's spent most of her adult life in Washington. Barely anyone in her "hometown" in our district has even seen her [0]. On the campaign trail for her first election, she notoriously just walked away from reporters in the middle of a press event[1], so the "run away and hide" political strategy seems to have some precedent with her.
And, unfortunately, in most cases, any legitimate criticism you give with respect to her and her job performance often gets dismissed by her supporters as sexism. It's all very frustrating.
HN probably isn't the place for my ranting. Sorry about that.
