Is Obama’s Vaunted Political Operation Getting Outworked By Tea-Baggers?
That’s the question right now, in the wake of all the reports yesterday of rage and heckling directed at House Dems at health care town hall meetings around the country.
There’s mounting evidence that these “spontaneous” displays of opposition to reform are being organized by Tea Baggers and other groups on the right bankrolled by the health care industry. Josh Marshall wonders why Democrats are MIA: “Where’s the other team?”
The other team, of course, is supposed to be Organizing for America, Obama’s much-vaunted reconstituted campaign and political operation run out of the DNC.
Remember, OFA has been regularly announcing new initiatives throwing its weight into the push for reform. It recently announced events in all 50 states and has regularly been calling for shows of spontaneous pushback against GOP obstructionism.
In other words, OFA is supposed to be doing exactly what the right is now doing: Staging very visible displays of passionate support for their side’s goal — i.e., health care reform.
I don’t know if OFA is succeeding or not. If so, its successes are decidedly less visible than what we’re seeing from the anti-reform forces, though this could reflect the fact that OFA events don’t emply the raucus agitprop we’re seeing from anti-reform crowds.
But OFA’s activities, and those of the Democratic Party in general, are suddenly are much more important, now that there appears to be a very deliberate right-wing effort under way to create the impression of populist opposition to reform. It’s yet another reminder that health care is the ultimate test of whether Obama’s vaunted campaign operation can drive Obama’s legislative agenda and achieve real results.
Will Obama’s much-vaunted campaign operation be outworked by the Tea Baggers?
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It just might be. But OFA is and wasn’t designed to ambush town hall settings. If anything OFA was designed to organize the very meetings Tea Baggers are crashing. OFA just isn’t designed to thug-out meetings. I don’t think Obama needs an equivalent to the Tea Baggers. There’s no sense in stooping to that level.
So how do you offset Tea Baggers aimed at shutting down meetings? You don’t. Instead you go to the airwaves with your message including one that accurately identifies the Tea Baggers for what they are– defeatists. What’s been missing over the last month or so is Axelrod there to correct pundits when they try to spin this as genuinely concerned Americans only expressing their views. During the campaign I thought he was excellent at politely slapping down the media.
Other than that, I see no reason to outwork Tea Baggers. They’ve already been outworked in terms of elections. Which is why taking the month of August off to let health care simmer is completely stupid.
I agree. If OFA showed up at town meetings where there are Tea Baggers, you’d just see physical confrontations. I also think calling out the media to identify these “tea baggers” would be helpful. How many of them travel by bus from event to event? How many are paid “volunteers”? Sure some of them are originals and completely misinformed, but until the astro turfing is recognized by the press and labeled as such, they are going to get by with it. Where are the enterprising journalists? We surely don’t need another Bush/Gore 2000 recount scenario.
Maybe it’s because Organizing for America isn’t a brown shirt organization designed to disrupt and intimidate it’s political opposition through mob action and I’m afriad soon mob violence.
Also, we’ve seen footage played over and over from 3 or 4 town hall meetings. Do we know how many town halls were held since last Friday and how many aren’t disrupted? Or is the media only going to play the disruptions because it helps sell a story?
The OFA tactics aren’t designed the same way the Insurance Lobby’s are. Their astroturf is designed to make headlines, designed to try and be as loud and abnoxious as possible. OFA is about community building.
Remember all the organizing was going on during the election campaign? It wasn’t as “visible” then, either…but it got the job done.
The question is whether the traditional media will be stupid enough to be fooled into thinking these morons disrupting the townhalls are “grassroots” instead of the astroturfed insurance company pawns they are.
I think we all know the answer to that question already…
The important thing to remember is not to be intimidated by these thugs. The best Democratic counterpunch would be to send people to these teabagger crowds and record them yelling other things other than “socialism!” Catch them spouting racist or extremist rhetoric. Let them burn up YouTube and work their way into the news media coverage, much like the videos of the McCain supporters did. I think this kind of behavior is what ultimately turns off moderates, and when one side keeps wanting to talk and have a serious discussion, and the other side is violently angry and childish, I think more folks will get on the calm side, especially in a time of tumult.
Of course, the Democrats have to be prepared for this. I truly hope this weekend and yesterday were a wakeup call. One thing is for sure: You do not want violence breaking out between both sides.
Greg I think you are framing this in the wrong way. OFa has been very active but the purpose of OFA is not to disrupt or intimidate it is to promote and clarify and play by democratic rule which the other side is not doing. What needs to be done here is more akin to what happened during the campaign last year which is to reveal the ugliness of the other side, the real purpose because these guys only triumph if the media treats as legitimate, as they all have, and not like astro turf.Also Obama can control OFA but each member of congress also has to be able to play ball and these guys don’t seem to be with it.
Here, Greg. From the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia. and Thesaurus.com some synonyms for you to use in place of “vaunted”:
adjective: boasted about, flaunted, paraded, shown off, made much of, bragged about, crowed about, exulted in, made a display of, browbeat, bulldoze, gloat, hector, rant, rave, ride the high horse, roar, roister, shoot off one’s mouth, show off, storm, strut, swagger, swell, talk big, vapor, boast, crow*, exult, gasconade, gloat, grandstand, hotdog, jive, mouth*, pat oneself on the back, prate, ****-a-doodle-doo, cry, flourish, gas, gloat, glory in, gurgle, jubilate, mouth, prate, puff, rodomontade, squawk, strut, swagger, triumph,bluster, brag, bully, crow, gloat, glory, revel, show off, take delight in, break out, broadcast, declare, disclose, display, disport, divulge, expose, fan it, flash, flash about, flourish, show and tell, showcase, smack with, sport, spring on, streak, throw weight around, trot out, vaunt, wave around, shake, sweep, swing, swish, twirl, declare, demonstrate, disclose, display, disport, divulge, exhibit, expose, flash, flaunt, march in review, felicitate, flatter oneself, gasconade, glory in, hold head high, overbear, pique*, plume, prance, preen, presume, puff up, revel in, strut, swagger, swell
Just to be helpful.
Greg,
Please check out this link:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/8/4/761608/-Tea-Baggers-FAIL-to-disrupt-Health-Care-meeting,-lessons-shared.
I struggle with the responses I’m seeing here. On the one hand, I agree; this should be handled in a way that is more dignified than what the Tea Party people are doing. On the other hand, we might just dignify ourselves right out of health care reform. There’s got to be a way that OFA can be more hard hitting without getting into fist fights with people at town hall meetings (although I have to admit, there is a side of me that would like to kick a little teabagger ***). I don’t know what the answer is, but I don’t think any of these posts have provided it and I don’t think OFA is either.
Or Maybe OFA isn’t winning because they are understaffed and underfunded and are getting yelled out when they try to do things to target democrats
@Greg
You really, really need to check out this update from TPM.
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2009/08/shut_it_down_1.php?ref=fpblg
“The precedent on the anti-health care protests isn’t Bush’s Social Security town hall meetings. The real precedent is the “Brooks Brothers riot” during the 2000 recount. The point is to create disorder, but get the media to cast blame on the underlying issue and NOT the protesters.”
Totally and completely spot on. This is the goal. This is the strategy. Any other inturpretation of this astroturf “movement” is just plain wrong.
Any media personality that doesn’t point this fact out doesn’t deserve respect or credibility…so I’m sure we won’t hear anything about it from 95% of the TV talking heads.
You leftwing pussies are pretty brave using that teabagger term from behind your monitor.
I’m confused – I thought it was police policy to arrest obnoxious people shooting their mouths off? Or is that only in Cambridge, and not real America?
The teabaggers got the best of a meeting in Green Bay last night:
http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20090804/GPG0101/908040543/1978
What a disgrace.
Why isn’t someone disrupting a meeting removed from the premises? Maybe what’s needed are Free Speech Zones setup down the road and around the corner. Seriously, toss the disrupters out.
You leftwing pussies are pretty brave using that teabagger term from behind your monitor.
Brave words, “Jonny Amplesack.” Brave, anonymous words.
“You leftwing pussies are pretty brave using that teabagger term from behind your monitor.”
What are you going to do about it?
@TR & @JM:
People like that don’t deserve to be responded to. Just leave the gutter trash where it belongs, in the gutter.
funny this conversation is so much like August last year–a ton of bloggers and progressives were arguing Obama would lose the election because he did not fight hard enough. They wanted blood and now we see exactly the same argument being made. One does not have to scream and yell to win the health care argument.I can’t swear by it because who knows but I am sure community organizing tactics have ways of dealing with these and those who have worked with OFA may be gearing up to answer this in the correct way. But the crucial thing here is to get the media to cover this the right way. and film the ugliness of the other side and put it in YouTube.
It’s always harder to get a crowd out to support something as opposed to getting a crowd out to oppose something. At least that’s my experience as a “community organizer.”
Why are progressives, and Democrats in general, getting outhustled (if they are)?
Easy. Obama and the congressional Democrats aren’t giving us anything that deserves hustling for.
Read what’s become of HB 3200 since going through the Energy and Commerce Committee – the best the House can do, apparently, even before they have to negotiate with the Senate – and you’ll see a bill that exempts 86% of small businesses from having to provide health care to their workers, but still requires individuals to give money to insurers. It cuts subsidies so that the middle class will still be forced to pay exorbitant sums to those same insurers. And you’ll see a bill that doesn’t take effect until 2013. There’s good stuff in there, and there’s still a remote chance that the public option that still exists will create the sort of competition we need, but this isn’t even what we were fighting for in 1993 when we still got rolled.
“The best lack all conviction while the worst are full of passionate intensity.” That’s what we’re seeing – Obama has set up the political equivalent of the Maginot line, and he’s expecting his allies to hold it against – well, the worst.
Really. When Reid, Pelosi, and Obama come out and start explaining specifically what’s worth shouting about – in a bill whose particulars they’re prepared to twist arms over – progressives might get excited. Until then a lot of us think we’ll be wasting our summer weekends to give the Blue Dogs and Max Baucus everything they want.
And to add to an already too-long comment: OFA people are probably scratching their heads over what, exactly Obama wants. Again, once he commits to particulars, they’ll get more motivated. Until then his people have nowhere to go and nothing to fight for.
Lumpen partisans with little interest in studying the issue making a mockery of the idea of citizen activism and political engagement. Base anti-Obama impulses dressed up in “anti-socialism” notions. Pathetic. I relish the idea of democratic congressmen imposing their will despite the sad snarling of these bored and helplessly uninformed wannabes.
We’re seeing the realization of what Republican Rep. Pete Sessions called for last February: a Republican “insurgency” strategy. Any advantage the right wing is getting right now from these tactics is a combination of an incompetent political press and the comparative ease of disrupting events.
Congratulations, Mr. Sessions. You got your wish.
http://hotlineoncall.nationaljournal.com/archives/2009/02/sessions_gop_in.php
From my brief time working in a congressional office, my experience was that legislators pay more attention to the calls and letters they receive from their constituents. Being shouted down at a town hall by people who probably don’t live in your district and if they do, wouldn’t vote for you anyway is not going to move the needle as much as the volume of calls and mail to the office. My suggestion would be to call and write your representatives, if you haven’t already done so, and encourage friends and family to do the same.
anecdotally, after watching the OFA site for the past few weeks, I’ve seen no signs of adjustment/responsiveness to facts/events on the ground, as if their plans/choreography/schedule were cast in cement. as noted above, that works great in an 18 month campaign, but not so much in a 3 week battle royale
If you don’t stop them with a forceful response, you will be called out as wusses, and that will have a worse effect.
Don’t rely on the media, they get their funding from the very same sources as the tea-baggers. They are two parts of the same reactionary finance-insurance industry.
If you are speaking,
If they are in a minority – pick out the least telegenic, wackiest tea bagger and speak to them as if they represent the entire group.
If they are in the majority – leave. There is no point being there.
If you are an attendee:
Don’t wait for a call from the podium for decorum. The call for free discussion must come from the public, or it will be seen as an attempt to shut people up.
If you are in front of a tea bagger who is disruptive, turn around and yell something like “Stop spitting on me!” Use your imagination.
“funny this conversation is so much like August last year–a ton of bloggers and progressives were arguing Obama would lose the election because he did not fight hard enough. They wanted blood and now we see exactly the same argument being made.”
I would not want our side, the side of reform, to stoop to the level of these thugs. But the difference between what OFA can do now v. what they did during the election campaign is the target audience. During the election, OFA could go directly to the voters because that was who was going to decide the election. The target audience now are Democrats in Congress. If a Dem congressman holds a town hall and 70 supporters of reform show up but are drowned out by 30 rabble rouser wingnuts scattered strategically throughout the crowd, that Dem congressman will likely walk away from the event scared…and that could affect his vote in the Fall. OFA needs to make sure people organize and attend these events by the WH needs to make sure the Dems in congress know that most of this rabble rousing is astroturf BS and doesn’t represent the majority opinion among their constituents. They can do this with polling and by pointing out the protestors ties to large, GOP/insurance industry connected organizations. And it wouldn’t hurt if these Congressfolks pointed out some of this at these meetings – asking folks if they are from the district, asking them what they would prefer…make the rabble rousers present their case. If they can’t – and most will not be able to – then they’ll look like a bunch of bitter folks yelling and screaming just for the sake of yelling and screaming. As for the supporters at these meetings, they also need to engage the rabble rousers in debate – make them look stupid, make them look radical and reactionary. When given an opportunity to question the congressperson, take part of that time to refute one of the wingnut talking points brought up by one of the rabble rousers. (my guess is that OFA folks can probably do a better job of shooting down these arguments than the politicians hosting the events) And they need to proudly voice their support for healthcare reform to these Congress folks. I watched the video of the Specter event. It was just a clip so I don’t know what went on during the entire meeting, but in the brief moment I saw, the rabble rousers were indeed loud but when the camera panned to the crowd you could see that they were few in number – a small group of wackjobs surrounded by a much larger group of folks sitting quietly and politely. You have to think that a lot of those folks sitting quietly actually support reform – or could get on board if they hear a convincing case. I don’t advocate that they get into a shouting match, but they can call for the protestors to let the person at the dais answer…and they can get in line to ask their questions and voice their support. Don’t just sit there and say, “Wow, those folks are crazy!”, because if you’re quiet, the media isn’t going to assume you support reform efforts, they’re just going to focus on the loud and obnoxious wingers. Don’t act crazy but do act…force the media to report on both the opponents and supporters….make them note that while the opponents were loud and angry, the supporters were greater in number and better informed. (of course, that would have to be the case…which is why supporters need to attend these meetings and be well educated on the issues)
Again, this is a tougher one for OFA because it’s a lot easier to get to the voters and get them on your side than it is to get the support of fraidy cat Dem members of congress who shudder the moment one wingnut raises his/her voice at a meeting.
Self-named Jonny “Amplesack” is a Teabagger. Since Republicans are Nuts, we know what that means.
fbacon2,
Sessions shouldn’t get all the credit. These problems for the Caucus should be laid squarely at the feet of Hoyer and Emmanuel who gave the Blue Dogs everything they wanted – including this August window for the crazies.
Or what antifa said in much fewer words than me.
Does anyone else think that these “disruptors” may actually back fire with the people who they seems to want to influence the most?
What I mean is, that people don’t like to be bullied, especially people who feel that as elected officials, they should be the ones with the power, or at the least they should be respected, especially when they are putting themselves out there to answer questions from “constituents” and instead are being shouting down, and in one case damn near chased to there cars.
I wouldn’t be surprised if these “tea-baggers” cause some of the officials to actually decide to support the legislation.
I disagree with those who counsel doing nothing, from within a wall of “we’re better than them” upturned noses. This was the same attitude that let the Nazis overrun Germany (not to say that these people are anywhere near that scary yet). But we ARE being tested and we have to meet that test.
No, I don’t think we want to get in fistfights with them. That would be counterproductive. Nor do we want to be like them. But we can’t let them destroy our meetings and our democracy. And we don’t want scenes of them being dragged out screaming by cops either. But the tactics used in Northern Indiana for a SUCCESSFUL town-hall meeting are well worth emulating. We cannot let democracy be overrun by thugs.
Another thing that might have value would be for someone to video the thugs at their thuggish worst. U-tube these videos and make them viral. If the media won’t cover it properly, don’t just complain, get it out there the way you can. The mere act of taping them might also get them to tone it down.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if these “tea-baggers” cause some of the officials to actually decide to support the legislation.”
The lack of courage displayed by numerous Dem members of Congress over the last 8+ years doesn’t give me confidence that this will happen. More likely, I think they’ll get scared and jittery if a bunch of angry white guys shout them down at their town hall meetings. They’ll think that these few rabble rousers are representative of their district as a whole, even when they aren’t. In addition to the suggestions that supporters more actively engage in the discussion at these events, I think Ed’s suggest to call or write your congressperson is a good one…you know the wackos are already flooding their offices with angry calls and emails.
Well, I know FreedomWorks is planning a 9/12 teabagging party in downtown D.C. because of some bozo lady that called into WMAL, the DC right winger station. The lady started out saying this is a non political group headed by Dick Armey. lololol
I’m tempted to dress up like a complete idiot and act as if I’m part of them to grab some news time for myself. Does anyone have some of those false missing tooth gags I could borrow? Those, some osh kosh b-gosh’s, barefoot and some Obama is the anti-Christ signs should get a fair bit of attention.
Town Hall discussion leaders should have large signs at the ready. In the event of rude disruption they could hold up a sign for the cameras. It would read:
IF YOU FEAR
DISCUSSION
YOU YELL
If you’re in the Chicagoland area, you can show the teabaggers what a real grassroots movement looks like by coming to the HCAN Rally in the Federal Plaza (8/4, 4:30p-6p).
Well, I guess you could also ask where they were to counter the Tea Parties on Tax Day, too. The air has come out of that organization. The opposition is all ginned-up from race-baiting and calls of socialism/nazism/communism and is attacking.
Just because OFA is delinquent does not mean the rest of us sit around waving our hands.
So Obama and the Democrats politely go through the motions but put no real effort behind it. Surprise! Surprise! Surprise! How many times are you people going to buy that one?
This is OUR healthcare; it is OUR movement; it is OUR responsibility – and right – to demand it. That means we organize ourselves – thank you and by every legal means forcefully and vigorously take it.
Much like what we saw at the McCain/Palin rallies, I think these tea-baggers ultimately work against themselves. My husband is and has always been an Independent. Regrettably, he voted for Bush twice. But he voted for Obama last year and now thinks the Republicans are “nuttier than squirrel turds” as he puts it. People with sense don’t want to be associated with this kind of behavior.
Let the media focus on it and watch it come back and bite the tea-baggers on the ***.
forget 9/12/09
there is to be a National day of protest 8/22/09 – teabaggers will show up at all district offices, whether the Rep is there or not.
thank dog we don’t have a lazy, incurious media or the crazies would get all kinds of ink for this action
To be honest, I like the idea of fiesty town hall debates if an honest debate is going on. I get a kick out of how British Parliament gets loud. Our form of Govn’t is too civilized tbh. I imagine our town halls of past being a place where passionate voters voiced their opinions and not necessarily in any organized fashion at times.
The problem with what is going on now is the goal is to completely disrupt the town hall and not have a debate.
It is ALL about disrupting the message of the messenger imho. Nothing more, nothing less.
It’s the same as when McCain would rather talk about Obama being a celebrity than have Obama focused on his message he’s trying to stay focused on.
It’s the same as when a disruptive blogger purposely comes onto a site and tries to derail every conversation or discussion related to the article.
When has throwing temper tantrums and drowning out the voices of real constituents ever proven to be a winning strategy? They have been exposed, along with their emails detailing the disruptive techniques they hope to employ. The southern, white, corporation loving, rich wanna bee’s that make up the Republican party are showing their true colors. It’s all they have. They are stuck in junior high.
I’d love to see some enterprising reporting team pick one of these teabagger buses and follow it for a couple of weeks as it goes from meeting to meeting, documenting the activities of the passengers — especially with whom they meet en route.
I think the biggest thing that Obama can do is commit to the particulars of what he wants. That and trample Max Baucus and his sick bunch of public soaking conspirators into the ground with some sort of admonishment of how empty the idea of a “co-op” really is along with their other “compromises” that are supposed to somehow stop the rise of health care costs while not changing the status quo.
I said this back when Freedomworks organized the first round of ‘Turf Parties: This is the new GOP ground game, and it’s terrifying. They believe deeply and are willing to argue publicly that “grass-tops” (aka Astroturf) is just as valid a show of support as Grass Roots, and it has proven to be even more effective in the past 8 years.
I hate to say it, but this is some pretty smart (albeit easy) organizing on the part of the teabaggers …. and OFA is going to have to get creative in a hurry if they don’t want the teabagger movement to get the better of them.
I agree with the many posters who said that OFA simply isn’t designed to disrupt and protest. The OFA organizers (and I was an Obama organizer, I love these folks) cut their teeth practicing traditional vote maximization / GOTV strategies, and they are sticking with what they know best.
Problem is, we aren’t trying to win an election right now – we are trying to win the votes of elected officials, who are extremely susceptible to public pressure real or perceived and cannot really be educated out of a position – they must be PUSHED. Individual “votes”, which during the electoral cycle were obviously gold, are now only worth the weight of the amount of noise they are willing to make, through letters, phone calls, and yes, protests and visibility events.
The media, for better or worse, acts as a megaphone here. Anything that gets the kind of media attention these protests are getting is amplified to a hundred times the strength of the original act. A letter to the editor runs only once. A message left with your congressman’s receptionist might not even go that far. But every time these protests are replayed and our elected officials see it or hear about it, they insert themselves deeper into those officials psyches.
Also… as crude as it might seem to those with delicate sensibilities, humiliation (or fear thereof) is an extremely effective psychological weapon when you’re trying to get someone to do what you want. Reading about Kagan in Green Bay was painful for me … you know that had to be frustrating and embarrassing for him and I’m quite sure he would rather it not happen to him again. Moreover, I’m sure there are plenty of other electeds out there who are watching the footage of these protests and shaking their heads and thinking, damn, I really don’t want that to happen to me the next time I have a town hall. And if it happens enough times, and the threat becomes real enough, its going to make that elected defensive about his position on health care. Perhaps defensive enough to alter it in a way the Democrats and OFA don’t want to see. And thats where we lose the war.
This is where the “means and ends” argument so often gets the better of the Democrats. Maybe its a little distasteful to be rowdy in our lobbying of our electeds. Is it MORE distasteful than leaving millions of Americans without adequate health care options???
We – Obama voters, organizers, volunteers etc. – have to rediscover the passion that had us out knocking doors in the rain on Sunday mornings and we need to apply it to this issue, in ways that would most effectively lobby for this issue. I don’t know that we need to disrupt town hall meetings. But we need to make some serious noise. Maybe we should bum-rush insurance company HQs or clog the waiting rooms of hospitals or just stand strike-style outside our elected officials offices until we get the commitment we need… I don’t know. But we have to get noisy, and quickly. This bills opponents are not concerned with means and ends. They are angry that they have been stripped of power and fearful that they will never get it back and desperate to make a stand and shift the balance any way they can. And if we let them simply because we aren’t willing to use the power we have, we WILL lose some of that power, and in the process do the people who voted for this President a disservice. Its us or them. Lets not let it be us.
REALLY good discussion, just one comment. There are probably some “wet” Dems (the guy from Green Bay?) who WANT to be intimidated–i.e., the want to be able to say that they had a meeting and, gee, it sure looked like a majority favor the status quo. Anyone else ought to have the smarts to counter this stuff.
OK, a second comment. BRING POSTER CHILDREN–people who’ve been screwed up by the system. Make sure they get to talk first, if possible.
I second the idea that unless there is “robust public option” I don’t have much to fight for. I don’t feel like going out to support the blue dog’s need to feel important.
The problem for the Republicans is they are not in control of the teabaggers, and they will turn their anger on the Republicans at their townhall meetings; watch specifically for them to go after McCain because he is running against an extremist. And I think we should start asking in the liberal media if it is official, has the GOP now become the Teabagger Party?
It would be nice of Greg to acknowledge that the media is as likely to cover a peaceful, instructive meeting about health care as they are my 6-year-old’s birthday party.
It’s the media, the media, the media. They are rubbing their hands with glee at the prospect of health reform failing, and they are doing everything they can short of directly advocating against it on their nightly news programs.
What we are seeing is a nascent American style group of storm troopers beginning to form on the right and a bunch of liberals on the left who think they are trying to win a debating match. The right in America is learning to behave like the right in all the other nations on earth. What they cannot get because they lack a majority they will get by use of intimidation and coercion. This stage will inevitably lead to physical intimidation and violence by locally organized groups of thugs under the banner of patriotism and order. The response of the left, as is typical elsewhere, is totally inadequate and ineffective because they are going by the usual rules and failing to recognize the right has decided the rules do not apply to them. These thugs need to be put in their place. That can be achieved by having the President and not his sad little organization being run out of the DNC call for mass demonstrations nationwude to show the nation who has the people behind them. But the President sadly isn’t going to do that because he is safe in his little cocoon in DC with all his insiders comfortably losing the battle for health care and everything else because they fail to recognize the opposition is not honorable nor is it worthy of the sort of respect they pay it not to mention the obeisance they show for it.
I found the following link to a dailykos diary at firedoglake.com and see that someone has already posted it above in comments. It’s a good account of how they ran an orderly meeting yesterday in Indiana. Read it! This was easier than cracking heads.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/8/4/761608/-Tea-Baggers-FAIL-to-disrupt-Health-Care-meeting,-lessons-shared.
to careys: i agree about kicking some teabaggers butt. unfortunately, the gop is a racist, fear mongering, manipulative, corporate owned party who continues to outsmart the democrats every time. it also doesn’t help that the msm can now be called the gop/media complex where those like the gop, drudge, fox and limbaugh drive the media agenda.
so what can we do? continue encouraging everyone to write, email and call their representatives (unless of course they only represent their corporate campaign donors.) the second thing is work hard to “get out the vote” for all upcoming primaries – young, old, white, black and brown – the primaries are where an election is decided.
Did you hear that team? Coach Greag and Coach Josh don’t think you have it in you. And look what they put up on the bulletin board. Great motivators those two.
Too bad when it comes to healthcare most people would rather listen to “the Brooks Brothers” mob. By the way, who brought that meme back? Most of the people I saw were in short pants. Why don’t you stop dancing around it and just come out and say why you hate those a-holes: because they have paying jobs.
And Chris, if OFA wasn’t designed to take over townhalls, why is every other question at an Obama townhall from an OFA member? Why were they intimidating all the little old Hillary caucus-goers around? Not designed to take over meeting, were they supposed to be a think tank or something? In that case FAIL.
“Did you hear that team? Coach Greag and Coach Josh don’t think you have it in you.
Look at that: A party of “no” co-signer, a member of a party bankrupt of ideas and a soul – is here trying to exactly what the brooks brother mob is doing. Basically making a lot of noise and not saying anything. Baby Hugo is a proverbial pair of tits.
“Too bad when it comes to healthcare most people would rather listen to “the Brooks Brothers” mob.”
Too bad that particular statement was born out of the diseased recesses of your buttcrack. Your mother should have let the rest of you slide down her leg.
So Greg, What you’re suggesting is that OFA, behave as thugs just like tea-baggers, is that it ? As for your claim about “Will Obama’s much-vaunted campaign operation be outworked by the Tea Baggers?”, is that a secret wish ?
Just a note – people used to accuse the unions of having a mob mentality. Nowadays, it’s the union busting corporations and the libertarians who are taking a page out of the Alinsky playbook and screaming for more corporate welfare. Tax cuts? We can’t afford them. We’re $11.5 trillion in debt. Tea party’s over.
I agree with those who say that OFA just isn’t designed to be a brown-shirt type of organization…
This is political discourse Rush Limbaugh-style… Given how much animus we as progressives, thinkers, and well, humans, have for El Rushbo, getting this far bown in the mud is a bit of a stretch…
It seems likely that this is less about content and more about getting as much negative coverage for Dems and the possible healthcare bill in the media. It will ALWAYS be the case that TV news and (these days) print news will cover the entertaining “townhall disrupted” story rather than a detailed discussion of healthcare reform. OFA isn’t really designed for riot detail. But lately, I notice a HUGE number of short–talkingpoints only–interviews with people like Kyl, Cantor, Boehner, etc., flogging the anti-healthcare reform talkingpoints. IF a Pelosi or Schumer is covered, they talk actual reform info which is not phrased in talkingpoints, so the media slashes those interviews into 2 sentences or starts framing the questions to get some “controversial” point covered (like a public plan or euthanasia for old people or …). The Dems have to get a decent set of pro-talkingpoints and repeat them over and over, just like the Republicans. With the media doing such a terrible job of equitable coverage, the Republicans are again controlling the message. Why aren’t people like Rockefeller, Schumer, Dean, etc., out there blanketing the airwaves with Dem pro-healthcare, anti-insurance industry talkingpoints? Sure, it’s a stupid approach, but at least there would be some rebuttals aired on TV/radio. Where are the ads with specific human beings (rather than vague generalities and statistics) who have been victims of rescission and purging by the health insurance industry? Why aren’t the ads all ready to go that attack the health insurance industry and that link up $$$ and anti-healthcare reform activities?
Right-wing brown-shirt thuggery succeeds only to the extent it are covered in the media. Articles like this lend credence to their cause and methods.
CDW | August 4th, 2009 at 01:21 pm
You CANNOT be serious!
You are really equating Greg’s discussion of this phenomenon with the Main Stream media’s shameless presentation of it as authentically grass roots?
We cannot ignore this and hope it goes away. The town hall meetings over the recess are an important opportunity for the Dems to counter GOP lies and fearmongering, as well as to pressure the Dems to stand firm. To advocate avoiding this sphere and giving it over to the Teabaggers is tantamount to surrender.
And no, I’m not talking about engaging in fistfights with them or sinking to their level. I am talking about mobilizing ourselves to get out there and not let the teabaggers get away with this.
If the Democrats had passed card check it’d be pretty simple to end these disruptions. Whatever Democrat who was having a town hall could simply call the local Block layers, Labor or 49er union hall and ask that a group of their members attend. Said union members would line up face to face with Tea Baggers. Preferably very closely face to face. But since the Dems have decided that the election is over and there is no need to help out the Unions, I suspect the Unions see no need to help the Dems.
@stivo
Yes, I’m serious. Compare Steve Benen’s post on the same subject to this one. See any difference?
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http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2009_08/019355.php
For stivo – Here’s a huffpo article on the same subject.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/04/obama-and-dnc-try-turning_n_250890.html
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Greg’s article was clearly making the Democrats, and Obama in particular, sound weak and helpless with the onslaught of thuggery. That’s a biased view and tends to make weakness and helplessness a fact in the minds of many if it’s repeated often enough by the media.
@Henk: Well said.
Where I’m at the OFA crowd is a bunch of soft Obama-only Kool-Aid drinkers who think they invented the very idea of electoral success and who think rank-and-file Democratic party members are a bunch of “old guard” failures. But, it was the old guard who fought in the trenches to keep the party alive during the dark days after the last health care debacle. At least Clinton tried to pass progressive legislation BEFORE he sold out to “centrism.” Obama’s got the order backward.
Naw. Look, if I’m kicking their *** and they’re already getting ready to do what I want them to do anyway, fine, I’ll be a happy camper. They should be trying to use this as an opportunity. But they don’t have much time and I’m not sure they are. We have to have a bounce coming out of the recess.
I want to see news reports of undisrupted Town Halls where disrupters are stopped in their tracks as in the one in Northern Indiana.
My best friend’s wife was a HUGE OFA organizer, and her astonishment that it can no longer lobby Democrats now that it has become an official arm of the DNC disgusts her no end. After almost two years of all-Obama, all-the-time, she has turned her back on the OFA, since it can’t work to mobilize progressives to cajole Blue Dogs and other conservative Dems in Congress to support the president, whose coattails many of them rode to office.
If she is any indicator of the long-time OFA membership, we’re f***ed.
Oh, yeah!
YOU ARE F***ED. No doubt about it…
I find it interesting that simply because you are told “all there people are working for big insurance” – you believe it. I understand that this is how leftists organize – fake “victims” MoveOn generated scripts, bus trips from site to site.. so it is understandable that you are unable to recognize a real grassroots movement when you see it. I intrigues me that your complaint is not that you think these people are being paid to “rabble rouse”, but that your own “vaunted” OFA is not well staffed or funded enough to pay enough of your own “rabble rousers” to make it look like you have a numerical advantage. So then you are reduced to name calling and hate mongering, all the while congratulating yourselves for your “civil discourse”. Like it or not folks, MOST of America does want to improve our health care system – and MOST of America can see that a Government controlled system is NOT the way to make that happen. Just the facts – read ‘em and weep.
I am a patriot and no one pays me to stand up for my beliefs. I believe that I am free to make my own choices on health care. I believe that the government has no right to tell me that I have to have health care or be fined. I believe that I should not have my tax dollars used to give health care to illegal aliens. I believe that my tax dollars should not be used for abortions in Africa. I believe that I should choose what charities I wish to contribute to. I believe that the government has no right to force me into government run health care.
Now the facts…government is growing and unemployment is growing due to the mismanagement of the government. The government is spending money they don’t have and the taxpayer base is shrinking…how do all of these new programs get paid for? We can’t afford national health care.
Quick question – if healthcare reform is the goal, and it is so urgent that we must pass it THIS year or we will all die from H1N1, why then does the bill in question not go into effect until 2013? Seems I recall the last time we had to be like FedEx and “absolutely positively get it there overnight” we got a pork dream list disguised as a stimulus bill that to this point has only stimulated the Government. Why are we treating such an important aspect of our economy and our lives like some kind of Chinese fire drill? Things that make you go hmmm…
Greetings! I have read the above comments and found them very interesting. You have a passion and belief in your position and that is wonderful and that is what makes America great. It is the melting pot of ideas and ideals, based on our wonderful Constitution and Bill of Rights that makes us a beacon in the World and will get us through thick and thin. I believe in America and I believe in our wonderful people. For example, if someone declared War on America and attacked us, none of us would say: “I don’t want to fight beside him or her because I am a Progressive and he is a Conservative.” That would mean nothing if our nation was under attack and your Nation called upon us. We would be just Americans. That is what we are.
There are a few misconceptions I would like to address in the above. The first one I would like to broach is the people in the Tea Party Patriots movement. I have been to several group events and what I found were more elderly people and more white people. Does that make them raciest or out of touch because of their age? I head on the news that night that the people were a bunch of tea baggers (gay term for one man sexually active with another mans balls – use your imagination.) Wow, I thought holding up s sign and expressing my concerns, for the first time in my life, by-the-way, was patriotic and what we do in America – vs. many other nations. I guess it is only OK for Progressives to march, or give speeches, or gather in the park or on the sidewalk they paid for, but not someone that is right of center. They just suck balls. We are better than this.
I noticed the people around me were wearing hats where they served their nation and fought in wars for because they were asked to. They didn’t run and hide; they did what their nation asked of them. Some served back as far as World War II. They represented all the wars except World War I. I wondered what horrors of war they may have seen or still thought about and realized that they of all people had a right to hold up their sign saying they could not afford any more taxes (TEA = Taxed Enough Already) – not tea baggers CNN. They were respectful and not one piece of paper was left on the sidewalk when they left. We splurged in the local shops we stood in front of before leaving so they would receive our support, at the end of the event. They found out on nation news they were just a bunch of Obama haters. Always you will get someone carrying a sign that you wished wasn’t there – but I bet you have the same problem. We do ask people to be respectful to the President after watching what George Bush went through. I guess it was just OK for just him – not President Obama. We must stop with the race thing if someone doesn’t agree with him. We are better than that.
We all want health care reform. The concern is that if the Government becomes a health care provider they will be in the same place as Medicare someday. The reason that D.C. wants to get the Medicare monkey off their back is because their system is so ineffective the government is going to go broke. That is why they keep saying it is going to bankrupt the country. Also, what employer would stay with a private plan if the Government was subsidizing a plan with our tax dollars and keeping the price below the private plans? Employers will tell the insurance companies to get lost. The insurance companies are lining up to be the administrators – the Government cant’ run a wet paper bag without fraud and waste – - except our exceptional military to keep us safe and we must make sure we don’t dumb it down and wear it out. Also, we don’t have the worst health care system in the world, as we keep hearing out of D.C. That is simple to prove if you do any basic research. Many of the children born that die in this nation die because their mothers were hard core drug addicts. That is a different problem that contributes heavily to our health care cost. Another is that people are eating out of a can of chemicals, sugar and salts, vs out of a garden like our grandparents had to. To counter that, expensive drugs and procedures keep unhealthy people alive much longer. It is OK for the other guy to die, but when it is you on the operating table, you want one available this year, and you want the best surgeon you can find.
My Grandson and I found out from MSNBC later in the week that we are raciest because we attended the April 15th Tea Party in Palm Springs. My grandson is black, I am white. I personally like President Obama, I just don’t agree with his policies and I don’t care if he is Red, Yellow, Green, Brown, Black or White. I care about his policies and we can agree if wealth redistribution is good or bad. I think it is Socialism, you may consider it stealing from the rich to pay the poor. Truth is that it all filters down in the price we pay. The poorest will always be hit the hardest, otherwise there would be no reason to get off our asses and do anything. The Government will take care of us and take from you to give me.
Lastly, though I have many other thoughts I could share: I want to know who those insurance companies are that are paying the Tea Party Patriots. I know about 5,000 through our Blog and we just laugh when we here these kinds of comments. We don’t get a dime from anyone. No one pays for buses. We have to go online and spend our own money and then take donations from the other riders to pay for the bus. Each person pays their own way. If you know where I can get some money – please send me the email but also print it here! Don’t make false statements that make you look like you are just a lip service site to the Progressive cause. We are truly a grassroots effort. We communicate everyday and have conference calls to our own members who just got together online. We are growing in the thousands now because we are organizing at the city level. All the while we read other Progressive site blogs and think “They don’t have a clue what is happening in America!” You just keep believing that Dick Army – I don’t even know what organization he is with – controls everything. If he is giving out money – please, please post the email where I can reach him hear. I have never been reimbursed for anything by anybody.
Also, I live in Palm Springs, CA. The politician that we are most active in kicking out of office is Mary Bono Mack. She is voting against Health Care, by-the-way. We actually want to clean house and senate because I, and many others, believe that politicians go to Washington D.C. and they place goes to their head. Who could resist being drunk on power and becoming addicted? The longer they stay the more power they get and the more money they take from others to move to their district. (I read once where an Ohio congressman got a line in a bill to keep building engines for a military vehicle – for millions of dollars. Only problem was that the vehicle was not made anymore. Didn’t matter. They just wanted to keep the people working. Sounds like something our of Russia, doesn’t it. My point is that our system is broken and now people are circling each other to get power. We better start coming together and solving our problems and stop the name calling. Sure people are angry, but what you truly fail to understand is that they are also very, very afraid. The fastest growing political group in the nation is Independents. Both Democrats and Republicans are now a smaller group. I think that is a great idea, and I think it will be even bigger by the next election.
Let’s work together. Let’s not get to the point that we stoop to lying by yelling: “Hey! Quite Sptting On Me!” Is that what we in America have become? If so, I feel great sorrow for our nation. We have lost something great. I believe we are better than that and we can elect people to serve our interest without living at the outer edges of the right or left. I hope you believe the same or we are a doomed nation that will fail.
Now it’s time to start working on picketing Mary Bono Mack’s ( R ) office. It’s time her butt is kicked out of office
Keith
Keith – you sir are a patriot! Semper Fi!
All I can say is KaARMA’s a *****, ain’t it! These were all the tactics of Moveon.org, ACORN, SEIU, and anti-bush, anti-Iraq War groups. Conservative speakers were shouted down on college campus’s, but funny I never heard about THAT hindering of free speech as being a bad thing…ACORN and SEIU bussed in groups to intimidate AIG families–going to their homes–ACORN intimidated banks and loan offices to get funding for homeowners who could not afford their homes–yet all you lefties can say is “Mom, he’s not fighting fair!” I have never seen such a bunch of whiners. Oh, and just a quick note–just because Obambi has to pay his organizers to go to town meetings, doens’t mean that tea baggers need to–we pay our own way…a concept that I know you find hard to believe–as judged by your comments here.
I have to thank you though–we “tea-baggers” have paid attention to your tactics, and we are using them now. As your president told you to “get in their faces”–we are doing the same thing. Keep on drinking the Koolaide and thinking we are a “corporate” movement, instead of the grassroots movement that we really have become…and we are learning how to be “community organizers” ourselves!
I am an American citizen, and as such have a right to be at any town hall meeting. I have a right to confront my congressperson who is not doing what I am paying them for–all I ask is that they READ THE BILL!
Come on folks, the media and the White House have lied to you yet again. I am a Tea Party Patriot. I have been to many meetings. Gee, the old people there in their walkers, and the veterans who lost parts of their bodies in wars defending this country and the concerned citizens who simply want what is best for America didn’t seem like thugs to me. I heard no shouts. I heard patriotic songs, and many people being so kind to one another, it was awesome! I saw flags, I saw the Patriots saluting the flags, I saw the Patriots saluting the military as they passed by. I saw golf carts decorated in red, white, and blue. I saw heads bowed in prayers, and heads not bowed. I saw signs like “how are we going to pay for all this?” My own sign was “We need a hero”. We meet in builds that are free, and no one offered to pay for my gas, or poster, much less my time. We have many events planned, mostly we are reading the bills, watching the voting records, and searching for good representation in government. For this we are called thugs, and referred to by gay terminology, why?
How DARE people use the vulgar and disgusting perjorative “tea bagger” to describe those who have dissenting voices and would be heard in this so-called “debate”. It is appalling that you have to resort to sexually offensive terms to reinforce your self-serving superiority.
Libtards are funny!
There is no way that there won`t be riots in washington/ The obama thugs will be there along with black panthers and more. Be prepared!!!!!