Why meetings of the kind I attended last night are so important

They give firepower to rank-and-file conservative House members to stand up to John Boehner:

The House GOP’s conference call last week turned “ugly,” in the words of one Republican on the call, after Speaker John Boehner announced his intention to pursue a short-term continuing resolution to fund the government, hinting it would not use the bill to pick a fight over the implementation of Obamacare.

Representative Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia, one of about a dozen voices who said they were feeling the heat back home, told Boehner to “go back to the drawing board.”

“We hear it in our town halls, we hear it our one-on-one meetings with constituents. We hear it when we’re at county fairs or events we’ve attended during the August recess, of which there are many. And the message all over the country, at least as relayed by members on that phone call, is that this is the overriding issue that is being discussed. Way more than immigration, way more than the debt,” says Representative Cynthia Lummis, who spoke up on the call herself.

They listen to us.