Dean Hubbard, Kansas City Star Editorial Advisory Board Columnist

Now that the rabble rousers have gone full circle and attacked one of their own, Lindsey Graham, maybe the adults in both parties will take over and impose some sense on the format for town hall meetings. If they don’t, this critical component of our democracy, which dates back to the founding of this country, will surely go by the wayside. That will leave lobbyists with their buckets of cash as the primary source of information flowing to our elected representatives (I’m tempted to put that last word in quotes).

At their best, town hall meetings provide a two way forum where our representatives can explain the complexities of legislation and outline their position while listening to the opinions of those they represent. What we’ve been subjected to since August accomplishes none of these goals. While people parading their crudeness and ignorance is entertaining for a while, it wears thin very soon. At the end of the day, the impact is usually the opposite of what the screamers claim they had in mind. Serious people refuse to attend such charades--or switch channels, politicians refuse to participate--or stack the audience, and no one, no one, changes or expands their thinking about anything or, for that matter, learns anything.

For town hall meetings to work, written questions need to be submitted in advance and read from the podium. First, this allows for questions to be grouped around common concerns. Too often, follow-on questions are merely tweaked versions of the original query or, worse yet, attempts to commandeer the meeting. Second, the speaker can allocate time to each answer so that most, if not all, of the submitted questions get addressed. Third, the emotion can be stripped out so that a thoughtful exchange can take place. I know, this is the fun part for those who are pulling for a clinker; they should channel their need to the race track.

This democracy desperately needs more, not fewer, channels for communication if the will of the voters is to replace money as the driving force behind legislation.