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Local activists from the progressive Indivisible group gathered on Friday outside of Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick’s office to make their voices heard.
The event, which coincided with St. Patrick’s Day, marked Fitzpatrick, a Republican whose office if off the Newtown Bypass in Newtown Township, being place on Indivisible’s Unrepresentative 18 list, which targets Republicans who ran as moderates.
One of the complaints by constituents at the event was that Fitzpatrick doesn’t hold open in-person town hall events for residents to make their voices heard.
“Congressman Fitzpatrick doesn’t hold in-person town halls, and he doesn’t hold events where his constituents can voice their concerns to him directly,” said Laura Rose, a member of Indivisible Bucks County leadership team. “The way Congressman Fitzpatrick avoids his constituents shows why he was named to the Unrepresentative lawmaker list, and why we have to hold events such as these to bring our concerns to his attention.”
The congressman in the past has said his office often hears from constituents and he talks to people out in the community. However, both Democrats and Republicans have criticized him for his lack of town halls over the years.
Zoe Langdon, speaking on behalf of the leadership of Indivisible Lambertville-New Hope, said: “Right now, the Unrepresentatives are flying under the radar intentionally to avoid being associated with MAGA’s dangerous vision for America and the worst actors of their own party. But the truth is, Congressman Fitzpatrick is enabling them every single day.”
Fitzpatrick was endorsed by then-President Donald Trump in 2020, but he has also spoken against the former president’s tone and has framed himself as a moderate.
“In the ten weeks since he was sworn in, Brian Fitzpatrick has been a reliable vote for the MAGA-Republican agenda under Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s leadership. He may seek to distance himself from the extremists in his own party – like Marjorie Taylor Greene and Matt Gaetz – but he votes alongside them and uses his vote to back their goals. This is not the kind of representation that Bucks County voted for,” said Kierstyn Zolfo, a representative of Indivisible Bucks County’s leadership team.
Credit: Tom Sofield/NewtownPANow.com
Fitzpatrick’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment on the protest by LevittownNow.com, but his spokesperson did tell the Patch.com network this week that “Indivisible is the QAnon of the left,” comparing the progressive group to the violent QAnon conspiracy supported by some high-profile Republicans.
“They are a far-left ideological fringe organization that seek to rip democracy apart at the seams by driving wedges in our community,” Fitzpatrick spokesperson Reagan McCarthy told Patch.com.
The baseless QAnon conspiracy theory alleges that Democrats and some Republicans who do not support Trump eat babies and harvest a chemical compound from their bodies. It also claims that the “Deep State” has murdered opponents, is behind sex trafficking, worked to hide evidence of a shadowy global “cabal” that spans from royalty to Hollywood actors, and that gaffes made by Trump were secret signals to conspiracy supporters. Part of the conspiracy is that a high-level government official or officials are posting their moves online. However, QAnon predictions are almost always wrong, but part of the conspiracy is that anything that is wrong is just to throw off opponents.
The QAnon movement has been linked to violence and the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Rose read McCarthy’s statement comparing the progressive activists to believers of the QAnon conspiracy equated to the Republican congressman’s office “calling us crazy.”
“Call me crazy for still loving democracy enough that I want my representative to actually represent. And for reminding Brian Fitzpatrick that representing his constituents—whether we voted for him or not—is a cornerstone of the democracy we hold so dear,” she said.
