FreedomWorks VP Refuses To Try To ‘Calm Down’ Angry Protesters At Health Care Town Hall Meetings (Updated)
FreedomWorks VP Refuses To Try To ‘Calm Down’ Angry Protesters At Health Care Town Hall Meetings (Updated)
FreedomWorks, an industry-backed right-wing group led by former GOP congressman Dick Armey, has been heavily engaged in organizing conservatives to ambush Democratic members of Congress supporting health care reform at town halls across the country during the August recess. Its “astroturf” campaign is designed to present the appearance of wide-spread public discontent with health care reform, but the reality is that the town halls have become forums for disruption, extremism and even violence.
Last night on MSNBC, FreedomWorks Vice President Max Pappas boasted about flooding congresspeople’s town hall meetings and “blowing them apart.” “We have about 400,000 on-line members who we can contact with an e-mail database that we have, send them information about when the town halls are, give them briefings on the health care reform plans,” he said.
Pappas was on C-SPAN this morning, and a Republican veteran called in and asked Pappas to “to tell these people to wrap it down.” “We Republicans already have the image of being owned by corporate America. Now we’re getting the image of being owned by wild red-neck America,” the caller complained. But Pappas refused his request, claiming he doesn’t “have the power” to calm down his troops:
PAPPAS: We don’t have the power to control how many people turn out or how they behave there. All we really do is facilitate their participation by letting people know when these town halls are and giving them information about the issues that are going to be discussed The passions are so deep about this issue that we can’t send out an email that says “calm down.”
Another caller who claimed to be from the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC) — a group that claims the U.S. is a European country and was founded by a “longtime white-power activist” — praised Pappas. “I want to salute you, you’re a true patriot,” he told Pappas, who later urged the CCC member to join FreedomWorks. “[I]f the caller wants to join FreedomWorks, it’s free. You can sign up on our website and we’ll keep you up to dated on what’s going on on Capitol Hill,” he said. Watch it:
Transcript:
CALLER: Hey Max I want to salute you, you’re a true patriot. I belong to a small group out here [in Indiana] called Council of Conservative Citizens and once you get out of the major cities and you get out into the Midwest you realize that the average American just wants to go to work, work hard, be patirotic, pay his bills and hope that the government stays out of his way. What’s happened over the last six, eight months isn’t just a progression of the Democratic Party. Mr. Obama is way passed Democrat/Republican, it’s a socialist view that the government can take care of everybody. […]
PAPPAS: And if that, if the caller wants to join FreedomWorks, it’s free. You can sign up on our website and we’ll keep you up to dated on what’s going on on Capitol Hill. […]
CALLER: As a true Republican, — or, you say you got the power to get these people out through emails. I call on you and challenge you to send an email today to tell these people to wrap it down. We Republicans already have the image of being owned by corporate America. Now we’re getting the image of being owned by wild red-neck America.
You look at these crowds, I’m looking at one of them right now, evidently most of these people are on Medicare at the same time, you see no minorities there, you see no blacks there, no hispanics there. That’s the groups we gotta get back in our Party.
It’s just like, I tell friends of mine, I’m a 100% disabled veteran, 73 years old on the VA, which y’all identify as socialistic, it’s a socialistic system. Most of my friends are on Medicare which according to you and your group is a socialistic system.
I tell my friends, or tell people, strangers I meet some of the things I know about our Party they say, “Where’d you hear that?” I say “Oh Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh.” They laugh at me, they laugh at me. Everybody thinks that these Rush Limbaughs and Sean Hannities and all these radio talk show people who hold all this power, they’re the joke of the average American. They’re nothing but jokes. This new guy, what’s his name, I can’t even remember his name he’s over there on Fox News, he comes on at 5 o’clock, he’s a mad man!
PAPPAS: We don’t have the power to control how many people turn out or how they behave there. All we really do is facilitate their participation by letting people know when these town halls are and giving them information about the issues that are going to be discussed The passions are so deep about this issue that we can’t send out an email that says “calm down.”
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After spending all that time and money to stir them up!?
Hell no, Jimmy Smugpants isn’t going to calm anyone down –
that’s going on his resume, and will likely get him a job with the FEC when there’s another R to put him there.
Just exactly like the Mafia, is how your righty/gop/astroturf world operates.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:06 pm***
so now we know where the insurance industry stands on violence.
*
well no wonder, they’re not going to pay the hospital bills.
:)
August 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pmWhat he meant to say was “We don’t have the power to control our greed, so use our power to control how many people turn out or how they behave there.”
You know when rational Republicans are calling C-SPAN to ask that the rhetoric be more moderate, and the response, is “no can do!” it’s not going to end well.
PEACE
August 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pmOkay, Pappas, as long as you are fine with being thrown in jail for inciting violence when someone is critically hurt, or even killed. Remember, you promote this violence. Because you have all the power to control your sheep– you just refuse to use it. Repubs & their minions have incited this hate & violence, don’t tell us now you can’t control it. If that’s true, the Repubs are a weak, uncontrolled, hateful, racist group that just plain runs wild over the Constitution. Are you admitting that finally?
August 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pmThere are sane Republicans out there. They are our grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins and friends. If you have not sat one down and discussed what the truth about what is being proposed, do it today. Make sure they know the truth, not what they hear on Fox, not what they here from people scaring them. Simply say, “If what you hear scares you, please call me and we’ll talk about it.” Only we can spread the truth. Power to the People.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:08 pmIs he saying they are too angry to reason with?
This is getting funny, in a pathetic sort of way. This guy is another Zombie!
August 7th, 2009 at 6:09 pmIsn’t it nice to see how all these “good Christians” are sooooooooo opposed to having a portion of their tax dollars used to give health care to the poor?
It’s a mad mad mad mad mad mad world.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:10 pmYa, they are living a lie it seems.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:11 pmIt’s true: enraging and inflaming the thuggish chumps to savagery is easy and fun. Stopping them is problematic, even if the Corporations (Health and Media & others) wanted to, which they don’t.
But even if they are successful in keeping their control of our Government and stopping Public Health Care, they are going to fail in the long term.
In the longer term brains will win out over brawn. The Corporations are run by not-very-smart people, who have managed to acquire & keep their money & power mostly by being completely deceitful and corrupt, and corrupting nearly everyone and every system they come in contact with. Eventually their own stupidity and lack of foresight will be their ruin.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:14 pm.
Shorter Max Pappas:
After we spent all this Corporate money whipping up the (R)adical party, why stop now?
.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:16 pmWhen corrupt money is threatened blood is called for. Its an old, old story. Most of the people hurt at these corporate transportation/town hall meetings won’t be able to afford the medical cost incurred.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:16 pmRepublicans are trying to justify their involvement in the organization of these angry mobs by claiming that even if they are being organized with corporate and party money, the people who are showing up are real people and deserve to be heard the same as anybody. However, Republicans are traveling from district to district in order to disrupt these events. These disruptive carpet baggers are making it impossible for the actual citizens of a district to talk to their Congress person. It’s hard to conceive of something more un-American than disrupting our republic in this way.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:18 pmHealth care Insurance, the Media conglamorates, Banks, Brokerages, nearly all the Corporations controlling the USA have already crashed and burned, or they are about to do so.
They are maintaining the illusion of strength and power because currently the United States Federal Government is propping up these corporations and their corrupt managers.
But our Government is getting so little (taxes) in return, and is so preoccupied with the hundreds of calamities in the making, plus TWO impossible-to-win wars, I don’t think it can hold back the flood of chaos for much longer.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:22 pmI bet Max Pappas has an application on his I-phone for
August 7th, 2009 at 6:23 pmtalking points.
I think we have to let every one know in the political arena ,Republican or Democrat, that if they vote with the insurers that they are going to be voted out.The Blue Dogs can go . We cannot let corporate donations rule the day anymore. That is what the right wingers are successful at. We have to talk back to these people with factual information on our side. We must be determined and not back down,talk from different angles, and just be better prepared.Information is power and we can’t forget that.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:27 pmFreedomWorks VP Refuses To Try To ‘Calm Down’ Angry Protesters At Health Care Town Hall Meetings
– - On a flyer in Texas:
Wanted for TREASON … He has consistently appointed Anti-Christians to Federal Office. Upholds the Supreme Court in their Anti-Christian rulings.
It was distributed in Dallas in November 1963.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:37 pmWell, one thing is for sure….those who are viewing America as Europe sure are making it seem like Nazi Germany at the moment! Spit.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:38 pmPAPPAS: We don’t have the power to control how many people turn out or how they behave there. All we really do is facilitate their participation by letting people know when these town halls are and giving them information about the issues that are going to be discussed The passions are so deep about this issue that we can’t send out an email that says “calm down.”
Well that pretty much says it all there WE HAVE NO CONTROL over them>>>> mmmm what part of no control over them i am missing seeing they email them so they have direct contact.
shaking my head again >>> thinking they are scard as well seeing they amity they lit the fuse and now have no way of putting it out.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:38 pmStrategery and Tactics
http://www.truthout.org/080709H
August 7th, 2009 at 6:39 pmGlenn Beck yesterday on his radio show said right off the bat that his jackboot lickers need to start showing up at the homes of the Congress people to show their outrage. He then said (realizing he was inciting more violence), (paraphrasing), “Just make sure there are no children in the house!”, meaning, just in case you pull out a gun and kill the Congressperson, make sure his or her children are not around to see it because we are the party that looooooooooooooooooooves children!
August 7th, 2009 at 6:40 pmFound this comic on my Facebook page today:
http://whitenoiseinsanity.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/20090807publicoptionsucks.JPG
The conservatives are fighting for the red tape and the middlemen….all in the name of the Insurance Jesus!
August 7th, 2009 at 6:41 pmThese disruptive carpet baggers are making it impossible for the actual citizens of a district to talk to their Congress person. It’s hard to conceive of something more un-American than disrupting our republic in this way.
The corporate GOP has corrupted everything else in our democracy. Town Halls were all that was left to corrupt.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:44 pmpardon the long quote, but this is taken from The History place
The Rise of Hitler
Hitler and the Nazis hatched a plot in which they would kidnap the leaders of the Bavarian government and force them at gunpoint to accept Hitler as their leader. Then, according to their plan, with the aid of famous World War One General, Erich Ludendorff, they would win over the German Army, proclaim a nationwide revolt and bring down the German democratic government in Berlin.
They put this plan into action when they learned there was going to be a large gathering of businessmen in a Munich beer hall and the guests of honor were scheduled to be the Bavarian leaders they now wanted to kidnap.
On November 8, 1923, SA troops under the direction of Hermann Göring surrounded the place. At 8:30 p.m., Hitler and his storm troopers burst into the beer hall causing instant panic.
Hitler fired a pistol shot into the ceiling. “Silence!” he yelled at the stunned crowd.
Hitler and Göring forced their way to the podium as armed SA men continued to file into the hall. State Commissioner Gustav von Kahr, whose speech had been interrupted by all this, yielded the podium to Hitler.
“The National Revolution has begun!” Hitler shouted. “…No one may leave the hall. Unless there is immediate quiet I shall have a machine gun posted in the gallery. The Bavarian and Reich governments have been removed and a provisional national government formed. The barracks of the Reichswehr and police are occupied. The Army and the police are marching on the city under the swastika banner!”
None of that was true, but those in the beer hall could not know otherwise.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:51 pmKayInMaine says:
Glenn Beck yesterday on his radio show said right off the bat that his jackboot lickers need to start showing up at the homes of the Congress people to show their outrage. He then said (realizing he was inciting more violence), (paraphrasing), “Just make sure there are no children in the house!”, meaning, just in case you pull out a gun and kill the Congressperson, make sure his or her children are not around to see it because we are the party that looooooooooooooooooooves children!
Beck pours out the gasoline and then waits for some mentally, unbalanced loser to strike the match and then innocent people will be killed.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:56 pmWhat a despicable human being he is.
Ever since the Bush-GOP gangster regime got voted out of office in November, 2008 and since Senator Obama became President in late January 2009, many right-wing racist Republicans have been secretly seething. Now their hatred and fear is coming out into the open with the screaming mobs trying to disrupt and destroy public town hall meetings on health care reform. This is the Republican Party killing itself. Not a pretty sight, but it is probably a natural response to their supporting eight years of torture, treason and tyranny under the Bush gangsters. The other alternative for the GOP is to stand up and denounce the Bush regime, but they are too gutless to do that.
August 7th, 2009 at 6:57 pmI find it hard to believe that our govt can spy on my emails, phone calls, websites, sneak & peek at my own home, but cannot eavesdrop of these people, whose intent is not to truly disagree with their govt, but whose intent is to incite violence…WTF?
Not that I’m all for spying, but I do think it would be sweet justice for the reightwingers to be nabbed by the govt spying they vociferously defended when Bush was in office…
August 7th, 2009 at 7:07 pmHow many times have we heard these wingnuts claim to be the
party of Lincoln ?
Yeah, I’ll bet he’d be real proud of them, and so would the
August 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pmfounding fathers as well.
The dishonestly is mind boggling. Take this statement where Pappas claimed we “give them briefings on the health care reform plans”. No, they give them briefings on how to disrupt the discussions on the reform plans. If they were briefing them on the “reform plans” these people would not be shouting out to keep government out of Medicare. Frankly, this is probably one of the talking points they are coaching these people to make, not caring that they make these people look like complete idiots. We know they are capable, perhaps cherish, this level of dishonesty.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:08 pmThis is the Republican Party killing itself. Not a pretty sight, but it is probably a natural response to their supporting eight years of torture, treason and tyranny under the Bush gangsters. The other alternative for the GOP is to stand up and denounce the Bush regime, but they are too gutless to do that.
The year was 2000, Brooks Brothers riots…
What starts out wrong, ends wrong.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:23 pmHe sure does pour on and then tries to find a bucket of water to put the fire out. Today on his show, he said first thing (he obviously knew about the 9/12 Project Rejects getting violent last night in Tampa) that he doesn’t want anyone to get violent. He wants those attending the town hall meetings to be HUMBLE in their private revolutions.
Uh ha.
Then a few minutes later he almost made me crash my car into a tree when he played the new song by Muse called “Uprising”. As the song was playing he was reading the lyrics and said a couple of times more than what’s in the song…
“Interchanging mind control
Come let the revolution take its toll if you could
Flick the switch and open your third eye, you’d see that
We should never be afraid to die
(So come on!)”
LYRICS: http://cafelyrics.blogspot.com/2009/08/muse-uprising-lyrics-n-video.html
Uh, okay….first he says he wants his warriors to be humble and then a few minutes later he’s saying don’t be afraid to die for what you believe in!
Good gawd.
Beck also said this was his most favorite LIBERTARIAN PUNK BAND. Say wha? Libertarian punk band…..Muse? Bah hahahahahahahaha! OMG, too much. Not many see them as that. He said his daughter sent him this new song last night via email. Guaranteed that was the FIRST time Beck had ever listened to a Muse song!
Beck is a fraud and will be THE coward in the end when his monsters tear up the place. Trust me on this. “Mr. I Love My Libertarian Punk Band” will be a pussy.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:34 pmWe need all the town hall meetings surrounded by riot police with tazers, tear gas, water cannons, sound weapons, mace and Billy clubs with the nice black shields and helmets. The crowd deserves one warning and when they do not immediately obey, the riot police need to move in and establish order, none to gently.
We need to make sure all the people that are not from that particular district are charged with a felony and imprisoned for the maximum sentence possible.
When we lock up astroturfers, they will stop disrupting our democratic process.
It’s time for the fascists to get their fair share of abuse.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:36 pmLevi, remember when Americans wanted to protest George Bush and they had to be put in a cage miles away from him to do so? Can you imagine if the WATB conservatives had to do the same thing? Man! They would cry foul! Of course, these are the same arseholes saying to our Congresspeople, “You work for us!”, because that is honestly what they believe: THEY ONLY WORK FOR THEM AND NO ONE ELSE.
August 7th, 2009 at 7:38 pmYes Virginia, they are fascist:
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2009083205/fascist-america-are-we-there-yet
August 7th, 2009 at 7:54 pmThe only thing that needs to be done is to keep out the astroturfers that show up to these town halls in districts where they do not live. The police can handle this issue so that when a busload of these people show up, they will be politely told they cannot enter. The protesters on both sides can have their demonstration away from the entrances and kept apart by the police. Police readiness will dictate the outcome.
I would also note that the fact that these demonstrations are being orchestrated and that has been publicized, tends to defeat the whole reason for the astroturfing. The public understands that these are merely the loudest voices in the mob, but they don’t represent the whole of public opinion.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:00 pmHas anyone seen one of these “protesters” interviewed individually, outside the meetings?
I haven’t.
I’m still not convinced that the majority of these mobs aren’t being paid.
I’ve seen this coordinated patriotism before, when I opposed a proposed corporate private prison. All their well rehearsed stories are disturbingly alike, and their outraged unquestioning commitment seems bizarrely inappropiate.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:00 pmIt is abundantly clear that the Christian-Right Neocons in the GOP have no intention of conducting themselves civilly as the opposition party within the rules of our secular Democracy. Clearly, it is not legitimate dialog on the issues that they seek.
On the contrary, guns, God, blood and anarchy is the GOP’s new battle cry. Ask Dr. Tillers family about that. They know first hand. That is the only place that remains for the racists and opportunists who seek to place party and profits above all else. These Christian-Right Neocons want only one thing…Their version of what it means to “Win” and to hell with everything else.
The GOP’s, hideous agenda and the corporate elitists who fund and support them know no bounds and refuse to be held accountable for their Fox and Clear Channel sponsored rhetoric of hate. Its time for everyday citizens to accept this fact and no time to be complacent.
Facts don’t matter to the GOP. Laws don’t matter, either. Accountability doesn’t matter. Only mob rule matters. The end justifies the means. And its going to get worse before it gets better. Need more proof? Just ask any of the GOP thugs in any town hall meeting. That is what they’ll tell you.
August 7th, 2009 at 8:06 pm“Community Organizing” comes with a bit of responsibility doesn’t it? Every group with which I participated in protests required the protesters to attend a meeting in which we were instructed in non-violent resistance. It’s not hard. But, that’s not what these shitweasel shills want, is it?
August 7th, 2009 at 8:14 pmI guess you guys haven’t heard the dems speak who are at these meetings, its not just the right wing conservatives as you call them, people are mad as hell about the way this government is taking away our freedoms and obviously from what I’ve read on this blog you are as blind as bats. Open your eye’s people before its too late or we may be living in a country we don’t even recognize anymore.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:46 pmI’m planning to go to a town hall held in Sedro Woolley, WA with Rick Larsen on Sunday morning. I want to help, but I don’t know what to do.
I feel a frustrating lack of leadership on the part of the Democratic party in responding to the intimidation tactics of the Republicans. It’s not that I expect the Democrats to launch similar disgusting counterattacks. It’s just that, well, moral outrage is not working here. Our opponents aren’t interested in what’s moral or right.
Just doing an internet search about this town hall, I can already see that there will be plenty of hysterically shrieking right wing thugs in attendance. I can’t say I don’t feel some trepidation. But it seems important to show up and do what I can.
I just wish I knew what I could do.
Thanks.
August 8th, 2009 at 12:22 amIamomma says:
I guess you guys haven’t heard the dems speak who are at these meetings, its not just the right wing conservatives as you call them, people are mad as hell about the way this government is taking away our freedoms and obviously from what I’ve read on this blog you are as blind as bats. Open your eye’s people before its too late or we may be living in a country we don’t even recognize anymore.
a few years too late, don’t you think?
August 8th, 2009 at 1:15 amIamomma says:
Open your eye’s people before its too late or we may be living in a country we don’t even recognize anymore.
How frightening to find out that we may end up living in a true democracy.
August 8th, 2009 at 1:39 amWe survived the Bush years, we’ll survive these simple-minded tools.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:15 amAsshats like this guy, Beck, Rush, Hannity and Alex Jones won’t be happy until someone dies. This is what these people are hoping for. Shots to be fired, then they believe the second revolution will start. This is what many of their lunatic listeners are waiting for too.
It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if one of their own starts the shooting and the right wing spin machine quickly blames the so called “thugs” hired by pro-health care reform organizations.
It won’t take much for these wannabee patriotic idiots to start chaos. They are all like minded thinkers with collective IQ’s of just over 40. Don’t believe me? Just visit Alex Jones, conspiracy and paranoid site infowars and read the comments from these right wing whack jobs.
August 8th, 2009 at 7:55 amPsssst! Let the crazies implode!
August 8th, 2009 at 8:34 am#39- Bwah- HAHAHAHA!!!
August 8th, 2009 at 8:36 am“The hardest thing to cope with is not selfishness or vanity or deceitfulness, but sheer stupidity. One needs the talents of an animal trainer to deal with the stupid.” -Eric Hoffer, The Passionate State of Mind
August 8th, 2009 at 8:42 amIf anyone deserves angry citizens at their health care open house, it’s Mike Conaway (R-TX). The session will be held Tuesday at 8:30 am in Odessa, Texas. The host? A for-profit hospital.
http://stateofthedivision.blogspot.com/2009/08/rep-mike-conaways-odessa-open-house-on.html
August 8th, 2009 at 9:55 amIronic,,,,RATPUBLICANS, refuse to use tax-payer money to help with Health Care. But they have no problem using tax-payer money to pay for a WAR, not just a War, but to “INVADE” another Country, on a “TOTAL LIE”. How Christian of them..
August 8th, 2009 at 10:42 amIamomma says:
Stop being such a crybaby moron. You LOST the election. People voted for the guy overwhelmingly that campaigned on doing things you dont like. TOUGH. Win an election and we can talk till then its the lefts turn to try things. If you are so unpatriotic that you cant stand that then get the hell OUT Of our good country. This constant WWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH while kicking your feet like a petulant infant is getting old. You are nothing but a liar and a fool snivelling that you didnt get your way and regurgitating what Rush TOLD you to think. No one in their right mind CARES what you think. Feel free to get out of our good country if you dont LIKE it.
August 8th, 2009 at 11:43 amCouncil of Conservative Citizens, isn’t that a cover for the KKK?
August 8th, 2009 at 12:04 pmLet’s take a walk down memory lane, kids. Who said: “I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration somehow you’re not patriotic. We should stand up and say we are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration.” If you said Hilary Clinton, go to the front of the line. It’s amazing that the left just can’t take it when anyone steps forward to ask a question that might require thought or that might possibly indicate a flaw in the left’s grand plan for the nation. The chief community organizer (Obama) seems to have a problem with people organizing who are not thugs like SEIU and Acorn. There are serious questions that need to be asked and citizens deserve an answer from Congress. Unfortunately it’s easier for the left to demonize rather than engage in debate.
August 8th, 2009 at 2:16 pmWiz said:
Council of Conservative Citizens, isn’t that a cover for the KKK?
Bingo, Wiz! It’s the old White Citizens’ Council under another name. The Southern Poverty Law Center lists them as a hate group.
August 8th, 2009 at 3:43 pmBeethoven Rules says:
Hey STUPID. The problem isnt they are disagreeing. I encourage anyone to voice their disagreement. THAT is not what they are doing. They are DISRUPTING. They are shouting down the reps. They are causing disturbances and that is what they are TRYING to do. They are trying to STOP the dialogue not take part in it. Since you are apparantly too stupid to understand this BASIC difference you are too stupid to discuss this with MORON. Not only that you are a liar and a brainwashed fool
August 8th, 2009 at 4:27 pmPeople from Acorn and SEIU are not going to Republican town hall meetings and shouting people down.
August 8th, 2009 at 6:47 pmFor Eugene Debs: Check out this article.
“Protest is patriotic!” “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism!”
These battle-cries were heard often, in a simpler America of long ago — that is, before last November. Back then, protests — even if they were organized by the usual leftist apparatchik-groups like ANSWER or ACORN — were seen – at least in the media – as proof of popular discontent.
When handfuls of Code Pink ladies disrupted congressional hearings or speeches by Bush
administration officials, it was taken as evidence that the administration’s policies were unpopular, and that the thinking parts of the populace were rising up in true democratic fashion.
Even disruptive tactics aimed at blocking President Bush’s Social Security reform program were merely seen as evidence of boisterous high spirits and robust, wide-open debate. On May 23, 2005, the Savannah Morning News reported:
“By now, Jack Kingston is used to shouted questions, interruptions and boos. Republican congressmen expect such responses these days when they meet with constituents about President Bush’s proposal to overhaul Social Security.
“Tinkering with the system is always controversial. To make Bush’s plan even more so — political foes are sending people to Social Security forums armed with hostile questions.
By now, Kingston, a Savannah lawmaker and part of the GOP House leadership, has held 10 such sessions and plans at least seven more.”
On March 16, USA Today reported that Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum “was among dozens of members of Congress who ran gantlets of demonstrators and shouted over hecklers at Social Security events last month. Many who showed up to protest were alerted by e-mails and bused in by anti-Bush organizations such as MoveOn.org and USAction, a liberal advocacy group. They came with prepared questions and instructions on how to confront lawmakers.”
This was just good, boisterous politics: “Robust, wide-open debate.” But when it happens to Democrats, it’s something different: A threat to democracy, a sign of incipient fascism, and an opportunity to set up a (possibly illegal) White House “snitch line” where people are encouraged to report “fishy” statements to the authorities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls the “Tea Party” protesters Nazis, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman –forgetting the events above — claims that left-leaning groups never engaged in disruptive tactics against Social Security reform, and various other administration-supporting pundits are trying to spin the whole thing as a deadly move toward “mob rule” and – somewhat contradictorily — as a phony “astroturf” movement.
Remember: When lefties do it, it’s called “community organizing.” When conservatives and libertarians do it, it’s “astroturf.”
But some people are noticing the truth. As Mickey Kaus notes, “If an ‘astroturfing’ campaign gets real people to show up at events stating their real views, isn’t it … community organizing?” Why yes, yes it is.
As someone who’s been following the Tea Party campaign since the beginning, it seems to me to be the most genuine outbreak of grassroots popular involvement in my lifetime. People have been turning out, in the tens of thousands at times, because they feel that Obama pulled a bait-and-switch and is moving the country much farther to the left than he promised during the campaign.
More significantly, most of these people are turning out to protest for the first time in their lives, and they’re planning for future political involvement in years to come. Perhaps that’s what’s got the critics worried.
It’s true, of course, that conservative and libertarian organizations — ranging from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s American Solutions to FreedomWorks and Americans for Prosperity — are getting involved and providing advice and support, just as numerous lefty groups have always done with left-leaning movements.
But, as I noted in an April 15 column in The Wall Street Journal, those groups were playing catch-up to a movement that was already rolling on its own.
The truth is that for my adult lifetime, “protest” has been a kind of Kabuki engaged in by organized groups on the Left with help from the press — as in the recent bus tour of AIG executives that was organized and paid for by an ACORN affiliate and in which the protesters were heavily outnumbered by the media, who nonetheless generally treated it as an “authentic” expression of populist discontent.
Things like that tour led President Obama to warn bankers that he was the only thing standing between them and the pitchforks, one of a number of thuggish statements he’s made along these lines.
Funny how fast the worm — or maybe it’s the pitchfork — has turned. Now that we’re seeing genuine expressions of populist discontent, not put together by establishment packagers on behalf of an Officially Sanctioned Aggrieved Group, we’re suddenly hearing complaints of “mob rule” and demands for civility.
Civility is fine, but those who demand it should show it. The Obama administration — and its corps of willing supporters in the press and the punditry — has set the tone, and they are now in a poor position to complain.
Whether they like it or not — and the evidence increasingly tends toward “not” — President Obama and his handlers need to accept that this is a free country, one where expressions of popular discontent take place outside the electoral process, and always have. (Remember
Martin Luther King?)
What historians like Gordon Wood and Pauline Maier call “out-of-doors political activity” is an old American tradition, and in the past things have been far more “boisterous” than they are today.
Rather than demonizing today’s protesters, perhaps they might want to reflect on how flimflams and thuggishness have managed to squander Obama’s political capital in a few short months, and ponder what they might do to regain the trust of the millions of Americans who are no longer inclined to give the Obama administration the benefit of the doubt.
August 8th, 2009 at 8:21 pmCan’t for the life of me understand how these damn fools “screaming” for more corporate control (shilling and being used by the private, for-profit Health Care corporations) insisting that the corporations should have more control over their (and ours) lives (or deaths) can convince themselves that a corporate run government is NOT fascism…but a Democratically elected Government “by the people” IS…google the word “fascism” or look-up the definition of “fascism” in any Dictionary….there is also an alternative reality..”when presented with irrefutable facts and proof but still refuse to change ones mind, thats the definition of either a mental illness or a personality disorder”..that definition can also be found in any Dictionary
August 8th, 2009 at 8:41 pmBeethoven Rules says:
Protest IS patriotic. Disrupting public meetings is NOT patriotic. Code Pink got ARRESTED and rightly so. I hope they start arresting the idiots disrupting the townhall meetings I dont remember widespread support for what Code Pink did. Nor any disruptions of Bush public meetings on Social Security. I think the guy who wrote this article needs to back away from the crackpipe. He later claims they ’sent people armed with hostile questions’, THAT is not disrupting. Let these guys ask whatever questions they want THAT isnt what they are doing. They are TOLD to shout then sit down not let the speaker speak, NOT engage in intelligent debate THAT is what they are instructed to do. The article is BS and LIES. So I only read the first part. No there was NOT widespread support much LESS support from Dem Congressmen for what Code Pink did and NO there were NOT these kind of disruptions in Bushs SS meetings so the man is a liar and the article is Bullshite.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:11 pmI particularly like THIS bit of flat out lying with a baseless assertion verging on dementia
Rather than demonizing today’s protesters, perhaps they might want to reflect on how flimflams and thuggishness have managed to squander Obama’s political capital in a few short months, and ponder what they might do to regain the trust of the millions of Americans who are no longer inclined to give the Obama administration the benefit of the doubt.
This man is just a liar and a fool. They are NOT PROTESTING they are disrupting. It is NOT the same thing. They are NOT expressing themselves they are STOPPING discourse. What part of this is too complex for your simple mind to understand?
August 8th, 2009 at 9:14 pmEugeneDebs, one can only believe what one wants to believe. Obviously you would not know a fact if it bit you only your left wing butt.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:15 pmBeethoven Rules says:
Obviously you are stupid and CLEARLY is is YOU that doesnt know a FACT. There were no FACTS in that article there were delusions, lies and baseless assertions. No facts. YOU are a moron.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:17 pmEugeneDebs: Truth is for those who seek it. Name calling may make you happy but it only displays your immaturity. Hopefully you will grow up someday. Remember: Jesus loves you.
August 8th, 2009 at 9:31 pmBeethoven Rules says:
Truth is also for those who understand it rather than for brainwashed idiots. Like your stupid post 64 wasnt insulting. Why dont you snivel some more like the punk you are that I treat you the way you treat me. WWWWWWAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH is just SO you. You didnt tell or post any TRUTH. You posted lies, delusions and flat out stupidity. It isnt my fault you are too stupid to know the difference. I am not. You didnt look for any truth you looked for idiocy to bolster your delusional fantasies. You NEVER addressed the basic fact that you tried to blur the distinction between protesting and disrupting then posted an article where you didnt tell us who or where it came from that did the same thing. You are stupid BR. Your posts are stupid. I am sure Jesus loves both of us and is just ashamed of YOU while loving you anyway
August 8th, 2009 at 9:50 pmThere is a difference between protesting and astroturfing. The astroturfers are people who are at these meetings at the behest of Freedom Works and other organizations that are working for corporate interests. The protesters for Pink Ladies and Social Security are not there at the behest of any corporation. Further, some of the astroturfers are going to town halls in districts that they do not reside and are preventing the actual residents from talking to their congressman.
August 9th, 2009 at 12:34 am