First off, thank you all for putting my Ted Cruz diary on the Rec list. As much as I love seeing Ted Cruz get called out, there’s one particular Republican Senator I feel really does need to be called out even more:
And of course, Twitter blew up calling out Toomey:
To be fair, Toomey does support some federal gun safety measures, including strengthening of background checks for all commercial sales, including those made at gun shows and on the internet; banning the purchase of firearms by people on the No Fly List; and directing the FBI to notify state law enforcement when a prospective gun buyer lies about their criminal background.
But Toomey's response to Friday's violence, and the accompanying reaction in the Twitterverse, make clear that many people do not think Toomey individually and Congress as a group are doing enough to prevent more children's blood spilled. Here's a sampling of some of the 206 responses to his tweet:
This is just a taste of the type of responses Toomey has received. Toomey is someone who absolutely deserves to be called out the most for his inaction on gun control. Let’s not forget, he used this ad to get him re-elected back in 2016:
By the way, ever since his re-election & Trump’s election, activism has shot up big time in Pennsylvania, mainly against Toomey. Here’s a look back at Toomey’s 2017. On immigration,
he had a protestor arrested for asking him a question about deporting DREAMers:
Local police are reportedly planning to charge a man who attended Sen. Patrick Toomey’s (R-Pa.) town hall after he asked the senator a question that was perceived as “threatening.”
The exchange between Toomey and the man, reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, led Bethlehem, Pa., police to remove the man, who law enforcement said they would charge with disrupting a public meeting and disorderly conduct.
According to the Post-Gazette, Simon Radecki of Northampton County asked Toomey a question about a family member in an effort to talk about immigration.
“We’ve been here for a while. You probably haven’t seen the news. Can you confirm whether or not your daughter Bridget has been kidnapped?” Radecki asked the senator.
After several seconds, Radecki then said, “The reason I ask is because that’s the reality of families that suffer deportation.”
He also made headlines when he let the cat out of the bag why the GOP has failed to finally repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act:
Sen. Patrick J. Toomey offered a simple, remarkable explanation this week for why Republicans have struggled so mightily to find a way to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
“Look, I didn’t expect Donald Trump to win, I think most of my colleagues didn’t, so we didn’t expect to be in this situation,” the Pennsylvania Republican said Wednesday night during a meeting with voters hosted by four ABC affiliates across his state.
Toomey, now playing a critical role in negotiations over the GOP health-care bill, spent most of last year criticizing Trump’s personal behavior and the fights he picked on social media. Toomey did not announce his support for Trump’s candidacy until polls closed in Pennsylvania last Nov. 8, fully aware that no Republican presidential candidate had won his state since 1988 — and assuming that Trump would continue the streak.
Toomey did not participate in detailed Republican planning sessions on the Senate Finance Committee about how to reshape the nation’s health laws if Trump won the election — because no such planning sessions were really ever held.
He also made headlines when his office refused to take calls from constituents regarding Betsy DeVos’ nomination for Secretary of Education:
Lots of Pennsylvanians angry about President Trump’s cabinet picks, refugee/immigrant travel ban, plans to repeal Obamacare, or all of the above, say they can’t get Sen. Pat Toomey — who supports all of the above — to hear, read, or respond to their concerns.
There’ve been news stories about a group called “Tuesdays With Toomey” protesting outside one or more of the senator’s offices (there are seven in the state), and stories of always-busy Toomey phones and faxes, voice-mail boxes too full to take messages, and general unresponsiveness from Toomey.
Here’s a sample email I got on the issue:
“I am extremely frustrated in my attempts to contact Patrick Toomey (my representative in the senate). I have repeatedly tried to get through on the phone and have actually gone to his local office to try to voice my concerns to him. … I have not been able to leave a message (let alone speak to someone from his office). I have not even been able to get a fax through to his office! This is absolutely unacceptable.”
That came from Felicia Bloom, who, after I responded to her, said she’s a 54-year-old Montgomery County nurse, married to a physician and worried about people losing their health care. She says she’s not political but attended three protests in the last two weeks — “three more than I have ever been to in my entire life!”
I and other political writers got a steady stream of emails Monday about frustration/anger with Toomey.
They follow a pattern of complaints about unanswered calls or emails, and in most cases contain similar language about Toomey's failing to listen to constituents.
Yes, ever since Toomey was re-elected, his 2017 has been a pretty rough one already and the protests started way back earlier this year:
Eleven people — four men, seven women — were arrested after a sit-in at Sen. Pat Toomey’s Philadelphia offices on Tuesday afternoon. It was part of the weekly “Tuesdays With Toomey” protest.
Protesters said they’d sit in the lobby of Toomey’s offices at 8 Penn Center (17th and JFK) until he scheduled a town hall–style meeting with constituents. He has yet to schedule one, so they said they wouldn’t leave. Cops said protesters would be arrested unless they left. They didn’t, and so their hands were zip-tied. Protesters were taken into the back of a police cruiser.
This particular Tuesday protest outside Toomey’s offices had an environmental theme. People held up signs calling for Toomey to take on President Donald Trump over Trump’s plan to cut $2 billion from the EPA’s budget. One protester even held up a sign reading: “In Memory of the Massacre at Flowertown Bee Farm — 8/29/16. Over 2 Million Bees were killed as a result of aerial pesticide spraying.”
And Toomey was trying to hide for as long as could:
It’s become a weekly ritual for many area residents: A lunchtime demonstration outside Senator Pat Toomey’s Philadelphia office every Tuesday.
The gatherings have grown in size over the last three months.
About 500 people jammed the sidewalk and spilled into traffic lanes on JFK Boulevard, calling on Senator Toomey to meet with them and hear their concerns.
“We have to keep it up until we upset him enough so that he acts as if we are his boss,” said one protester.
These weekly “Tuesday with Toomey” protests began one week after the presidential election, when half a dozen people showed up in response to a Facebook post by Alexandra Gunnison.
Gunnison says crowds have grown steadily, but she has yet to encounter Toomey.
“Where is he? I think he hides a lot more effectively than other senators might,” she said.
But he couldn’t escape the bad press and the protestors. In fact, some of them were really creative in going after Toomey:
Meanwhile, a Philadelphia teaching artist who started a crowdfunding campaign to “buy” Toomey’s vote surpassed her funding goal and was poised on Monday to raise $70,000, money she has pledged to Philadelphia charities that support children.
More than 4,000 people donated to Katherine Fritz’s cause, which has attracted national attention.
The backlash against DeVos, a Michigan philanthropist who has derided public schools and backed charter schools and vouchers, has been widespread. She is viewed with suspicion by progressives for never having attended or sent children to a public school, and her unsteady performance at her confirmation exacerbated their mistrust.
Fritz said she was flabbergasted to note that her GoFundMe campaign was almost at $70,000. Her goal was $60,000 — roughly the amount DeVos has donated to Toomey — but her expectations were far more modest.
“I thought I would raise $30,” she said. “I thought people would recognize it as a joke. It never really crossed my mind that somebody would see this and actually get their credit cards out.”
That such a staggering sum — more than double what she has ever earned in a year, Fritz said — poured forth in just four days means something significant, she said. Teachers have been organizing protests, and parents have been calling, faxing and emailing Toomey for weeks, rarely able to get through but still trying.
Fritz said she started the campaign out of frustration and anger that someone who couldn’t distinguish between proficiency and growth, who seemed confused about the federal law protecting disabled students’ rights, might be the top education official in the country.
And people responded, mostly in small sums — $5, $10, $25. Some left messages — “Our democracy is at risk,” and “My husband and I are both music teachers with two toddlers at home. If Betsy DeVos is appointed and our positions get cut, I'll be coming to you, Sen. Toomey, for a job and student loan money.” Fritz was riveted.
Here’s another great one:
U.S. Sen. Pat Toomey wasn't at an event Tuesday night set up by protest groups and billed as a town hall, so they stood an empty suit at the front of an Allentown church as a target.
For two months, people have picketed Toomey's offices across the state, demanding he speak to his constituents and explain how he would stand up to some of President Donald Trump's actions. Toomey, who publicly endorsed Trump after voting for him about 6:30 p.m. Election Day, campaigned as an independent check on whomever won the White House.
To date, Toomey has backed Trump's Cabinet nominees and initiatives in the Senate. Angry voters have inundated his offices with phone calls and letters demanding an explanation or action, as voters have at other Republican congressional offices across America.
Complaining of little feedback from Toomey, two activist groups scheduled an event Tuesday night at the Resurrection Life Community Church in Allentown and invited Toomey, an Upper Milford Republican. He declined their invitation. They had it without him, and many people attended.
Organizers insist their main goal is to discuss the issues with Toomey and make sure he is representing them in Congress. The Pennsylvania Health Access Network, which co-hosted the event with Tuesdays with Toomey, another group, says it wants to ensure people will have high-quality, affordable health care if the Affordable Care Act is repealed. Toomey, the activists say, has ducked their questions concerning people with pre-existing conditions or those covered under the expansion of Medicaid.
And there’s plenty more where that came from. There’s been a huge wave of activism going on in Pennsylvania and we have Toomey to thank:
In fact, Toomey’s reluctance to consider the requests of his protesting constituents is not only energizing opposition to his agenda, it appears to be increasing opposition against other Republicans in Pennsylvania.
Mary Dallas, an organizer with TWT in Philadelphia, says rallies will continue outside Toomey’s offices, but protesters are now doing more than just waving signs. “Even if it seems useless to be having these rallies, there are things going on behind the scenes,” says Dallas. “We are getting involved at the local level, even at the ward level.”
Dallas says TWT is evolving, and beginning to target efforts to unseat local Republicans in the U.S. House, and even the state house. “To affect changes with Sen. Toomey, we need to weaken his bench and his influence,” says Dallas.
Laurison agrees. She says a town hall with Toomey would be good, but “there are other areas where fights need to be raised that will be more effective.” TWT has already inspired groups like Mondays With Murphy, in opposition to U.S. Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Upper St. Clair) and Where’s Rothfus Wednesdays, in opposition to U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus (R-Sewickley). But Laurison says that’s just the start, and she’s begun to organize opposition to other Republican politicians, like state reps Martina White (R-Philadelphia) and Daryl Metcalfe (R-Cranberry), as well as state Speaker Mike Turzai (R-Marshall).
Jill Helbling, of TWT Pittsburgh, says a new focus on Turzai is also growing within his district. In July, TWT joined with another grassroots political group, PA 12 Progressives, to hold two rallies with dozens of constituents and protesters outside of Turzai’s McCandless office. Helbling says the frustration with Toomey is “trickling out to other reps and congresspeople” and bringing the heat to them. And it might be having an effect. A PoliticsPA reader poll taken shortly after the Turzai protests showed that 67 percent of readers blamed Turzai for the state budget stalemate.
Additionally, TWT is looking to provide support for interests currently under attack by Republican lawmakers, like health care. On Sept. 4, TWT asked its followers on Facebook to share an open-enrollment ad for the ACA, because President Trump is slashing 90 percent of its advertising budget. The post was shared more than 540 times, and has been viewed about 33,000 times.
“Groups like ours will try to do more,” says Helbling. “If the government is not going to help people get health care, then activist groups like ours are going to step in.”
Also TWT has joined forces with many longstanding activists, government-reform organizations and labor unions throughout the state. TWT is currently working with anti-gerrymander group Fair Districts PA, Allentown’s social-justice group POWER Northeast, Reading’s immigrant-rights group Make the Road, Service Employees International Union and others. Helbling says TWT wants to follow these longstanding groups’ lead and provide them support in numbers.
Other smaller grassroots groups are following TWT’s lead and lending hands to Pittsburgh groups. Angela Wateska, of South Hills’ 412 Resistance, is holding a fundraising event in October for immigrant-rights group Casa San Jose.
Emphasis Mine.
It’s because of all this, it’s no wonder Toomey is so hated on Twitter:
Tweets are gauged by how far they spread and what reactions they receive. A good tweet is typically retweeted far and wide, and also receives thousands of likes, or faves. A bad tweet is one that receives more replies than likes. This phenomenon is called being "ratioed" and it has become generally accepted on Twitter that being ratioed means the tweet is a poor take on an issue.
“The lengthier the [Twitter] conversation, the surer it is that someone royally messed up,” wrote Luke O’Neil on Esquire Magainze’s website in April 2017.
And new data from progressive analytics firm Data For Progress shows that the U.S. Senator with the worst ratio and highest percentage of ratioed tweets is none other than Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Lehigh). Data for Progress calculated every U.S. senator’s Twitter ratio by dividing all senators’ tweets by the number of replies they received from Dec. 25, 2016 to April 18, 2018.
Toomey’s Twitter account, @SenToomey, recieved in this time period about 118,000 replies to about 68,000 likes, a ratio of 173 percent. This means Toomey’s tweets see almost two replies for every like. Toomey’s most ratioed tweet came on June 22, 2017 when he tweeted a statement of his support for Senate Republicans’ failed effort to repeal Obamacare (see below). The tweet has 1,064 comments to 43 likes, a ratio of 2474 percent. And while some replies can be affirmative in nature, scrolling through Toomey’s feed shows scores of critical and angry replies.
Unfortunately, Toomey isn’t up for re-election this year so we can finally vote him out. We have to wait until 2022. However, Toomey’s colleague, U.S. Senator Bob Casey, Jr. (D. PA), is up for re-election has been an excellent voice of the Resistance. Also, he knows how to properly respond on Twitter to tragedies like what happened in Texas:
No “thoughts & prayers”, calls for action. If you want to raise Hell on Toomey and want him to act on gun control, click here to contact his offices.
Also, let’s make sure we have Casey’s back this year. Click here to donate and get involved with his re-election campaign.