He held a town hall to discuss the upcoming special session of the Indiana General Assembly in which the leaders of Goode’s party will try to further gerrymander this state. The goal is to try to help President Donald Trump avoid any oversight of his actions by the U.S. House of Representatives.

That goal seems more important to many Republicans than, say, governing or keeping their constituents from becoming disaffected from their own government.

Goode, so far, is the only Indiana Republican to meet with constituents upset about Trump’s redistricting power grab.

That’s to his credit.

Town halls were once as common as fast-food restaurants. Almost every politician held them.

They were easy ways to build visibility and burnish one’s relationship with the voters. All the elected official needed to do was secure a place large enough to hold a crowd and make sure there was a decent sound system available.

Most of the questions were common ones and easy to anticipate. This was especially true if the politicians had competent staff who managed to seed the room with plants who lobbed the star of the show softballs every now and then.

That was then.

This is now.

Town halls have become increasingly ugly affairs. People who disagree with the speaker often show up with no other goal in mind than attempting to goad the politician into saying something stupid or mean-spirited.

Or often something that can be taken out of context to seem stupid or ill-advised.

Republicans and conservatives—who now control every branch of government at both the national and, here in Indiana, state levels—like to blame progressives and other outside agitators.

The truth, though, is that those on the right are far too modest about their own contributions to this dissolution of public discourse. I remember covering community gatherings 30 years ago when right-wing agitators routinely showed up to shout and otherwise disrupt the proceedings when Democrats and even centrists tried to meet with constituents.

I understand why so many elected officials, particularly Republicans, want to avoid town halls these days. It cannot be a whole lot of fun to be the bear in the political equivalent of a bear-baiting exercise.

What’s more, given that skilled political activists from each end of the ideological spectrum have done their best to turn such events into a kind of political performance art, they probably also feel like a colossal waste of time.

But the reality is that Americans and Hoosiers who occupy every point on the ideological and political spectrum now say they feel disconnected and disaffected from the state and federal governments that are supposed to govern in their names.

What I hear from both Republicans and Democrats who are not active, engaged members of the political process is that their disengagement occurred because they felt no one in power cared what they said or thought. They have lost faith in the very institutions that were supposed to empower them.

That’s not sustainable.

That’s why—respectfully—I would suggest to this state’s and country’s elected officials that they try a different model for town halls, one that builds on what Goode did and would discourage those who only want to disrupt the conversation from participating.

The elected official, Republican or Democrat, would say before gathering that he or she won’t be commenting beyond a simple welcome at the beginning of the proceedings and a farewell at the end.

The purpose of the event would be for the politician to hear what people care about—and not for the politician to try to argue or defend a particular position.

There is value in an exercise such as this.

Our lawmakers—state or federal, House or Senate—are supposed to represent their constituents. This presumes that legislators will attempt to discern the will of the people.

The lawmakers are not required to subordinate their own consciences to those of their constituents, but they should realize that defying the voters’ will can produce consequences not conducive to reelection.

The measure of that should be in the voting record.

Not a shouting match at a town hall.

One way out of the mess we’re in involves an old remedy.

Let’s devote more time to listening.

And less time to shouting.