Left-leaning groups that are organizing protest town halls against Republican lawmakers are stealing a page right out of the Tea Party’s playbook.

Kristen Wyatt with the Associated Press did a good job of highlighting this in a recent story about “in absentia” town halls being planned by the left in an effort to trap GOP politicians like U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner and U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman.

A town hall for Coffman took place Thursday night in Aurora. Inside the Aurora Central Library, a photo of Coffman was placed on an empty chair as people railed against repealing the Affordable Care Act and President Trump.

A similar town hall for Gardner is planned for Friday evening at Byers Middle School in Denver. Organizers say more than 1,360 people have RSVP’d for the With or Without Cory Town Hall. Gardner does not plan on attending.

In some ways, it’s understandable why the politicians aren’t showing up. The events are being planned by activists; showing up would result in a barrage of verbal attacks that could lead to negative headlines.

That’s exactly what the Tea Party did in 2009 after President Obama was elected president. They organized similar town hall meetings in the name of patriotism and freedom and they lined up Democrats to go before the firing squad.

One of those Democrats was former U.S. Rep. Betsy Markey of Fort Collins, whose office in 2010 was in contact with police over fears that her home might be vandalized. Police patrols for congresspeople are routine, but Markey’s office felt a greater sense of anxiety at the time.

Despite all the drama, Markey still believes in showing up.

“That’s why you were elected, to represent the people. You come back on weekends, you come back on breaks, and you talk to people – even if they don’t like what you’re doing,” Markey told the Associated Press.

So, why not just show up?

We asked Gardner that question repeatedly on Wednesday. He largely dodged the question, answering, “I appreciate the people who are expressing their points of view,. Whether they support what the president has done, or whether they oppose what the president has done, it is very good for all of us to hear what is going on.”

He then pointed to more than 100 town halls over the course of his time as an elected official and said he might consider a telephone town hall. Protesters, however, say they want a face-to-face meeting. And not showing up only provides seemingly endless fodder.

Former state Sen. Morgan Carroll, who is running to serve as chairwoman of the Colorado Democratic Party, immediately issued a Facebook post after Coffman didn’t show on Thursday.

“Dear Mike Coffman – I attended a townhall your constituents held for you today. In case you are interested, here is what your constituents were concerned about,” Carroll wrote, going on to point to the ACA, Trump, protesters, Social Security, bigotry, racism and Planned Parenthood, to name a few topics.

A group of activists on Thursday found Gardner in Broomfield on his way to a meeting. They followed him into an elevator and repeatedly asked, “When will you hold a town hall?”

Gardner was polite and cordial, and repeatedly directed them to his website where they could find out about telephone town halls. But it’s still an image that the senator could do without.

Given that not showing up is providing fodder to activists, why not just get it over with? Like a Band-Aid.

The lawmakers could host their own town hall, or show up to one that has been planned, and simply let the protesters have at it. They would stand there for two hours or so and just let the activists vent. It could be like a therapy session. And the lawmakers would nod, and offer empathetic talking points, and then it would be over.

Even if it’s likely that negative headlines would come out of the meeting, so what? Headlines haven’t been all that flattering for Republicans over the last few months since Trump was elected anyway.

And when another town hall is planned in the same type of entrapment spirit, lawmakers would remind protesters that they did in fact show up to a town hall, or planned their own. It at least gives them something plausible to fall back on.

And if not, as the Tea Party taught us, it’s open season. Republicans might want to plan for years of payback.