Democracy and Discontent

In my first year of grad school, Ronald Reagan made an appearance on the campus of the Claremont Colleges. He was running for President. The night before his arrival campaign elves cleared a parking lot just off the Quad where Reagan was to speak, for his helicopter to land on. Then they built a long wooden ramp, with high walls on both sides, for Reagan to walk from the landing area to the podium. I arrived early and got a position just in front of the stage. A lot of sandalistas showed up at the same time and lined up along the wooden walkway. I don't know what they had planned, but I am guessing shaking hands with the former Governor of California was part of it.

And then the Helicopters landed. Reagan and his entourage didn't use the walk way, he went around by the street. The walk way wasn't intended for Reagan. It was intended to pull the adolescents away from the main action, which it did. I like to think of it as the little kids table. Anyway I got to hear a fine speech by a man whose organization had demonstrated that they were smarter than at least some of their enemies.

All during the speech, the sandalistas did everything they could to shout and sing Reagan down. They were too far from the main stage to have any real effect, though Reagan pointed out that they really couldn't sing all that well. God, but I loved that man.

Well, when people protested President Bush or the war in Iraq, that was always Democracy in action. But right now the shoe is on the other foot. Congressional Democrats are going back home to town hall meetings, and finding crowds that are loud and very grumpy. Here's how Errol Louis puts it:

From coast to coast, as members of Congress try to engage their constituents on the important matter of health care reform, many of them - mostly Democrats - are being shouted down by howling mobs.

Suddenly protesters aren't the people at all, they're mobs. Worse still, they are organized! By organizers! That's not genuine democracy, is it?

Well, the press wasn't so interested in who was organizing the anti-war rallies when Dubya was still in town. I was interested, and I posted on it. A key organizer of the big anti-war rallies in D.C. and elsewhere was an outfit called International Answer (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism). This was a front for the Worker's World Party, and outfit that supported the Soviet Invasion of Hungary, and is very fond of North Korea. I thought that was worthy of pointing out, but I also made it clear that it didn't all discredit the motives of the many participants. I wrote this in my 2005 post:

I am not suggesting anything about the thousands who attended the rally.  They were no doubt a very mixed bag.  I am certainly not suggesting that anyone who opposes the war is in any way tainted by the decidedly nasty history of International Answer.  As I have said repeatedly, there are many honest and intelligent people on both sides of the question.

Well, Paul Krugman writing in the New York Times has something to say about these mobs. He is surprisingly honest on one point:

While the organizers are as crass as they come, I haven't seen any evidence that the people disrupting those town halls are Florida-style rent-a-mobs. For the most part, the protesters appear to be genuinely angry. The question is, what are they angry about?

Well, might it be that they are angry because they disagree with the Democratic agenda on healthcare, and think it bad for them and bad for the country? Here Krugman's fairness drops off.

The driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that's behind the "birther" movement, which denies Mr. Obama's citizenship. Senator Dick Durbin has suggested that the birthers and the health care protesters are one and the same; we don't know how many of the protesters are birthers, but it wouldn't be surprising if it's a substantial fraction.

And cynical political operators are exploiting that anxiety to further the economic interests of their backers.

Does this sound familiar? It should: it's a strategy that has played a central role in American politics ever since Richard Nixon realized that he could advance Republican fortunes by appealing to the racial fears of working-class whites.

Well, that's sets it straight. We don't know how many of the "town hall mobs" (see how quickly protesters become mobs when they are protesting your favorite policies) are birthers (people who question whether Obama was really born in the U.S.). But that's no reason not to employ a little innuendo. And on the basis of no evidence whatsoever, Krugman brands the protesters as racists. Krugman is a weasel.

I think it is bad form to shout people down, and the town hall protesters should acquire some decorum. But it's worse form to imagine that everyone who disagrees with you must be doing so because of some deficiency of character. That turns conflict into contempt, and that is what Krugman is about.

Comments

[FascistSocialist]

Well if their tactics involved some form of genuine debate or display of some knowledge, but they don't.

"At a recent town hall meeting, a man stood up and told Representative Bob Inglis to “keep your government hands off my Medicare.” The congressman, a Republican from South Carolina, tried to explain that Medicare is already a government program — but the voter, Mr. Inglis said, “wasn’t having any of it.”"

From the article you're quoting. -
"There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Representative Gene Green, D-Tex. An activist turned to his fellow attendees and asked if they “oppose any form of socialized or government-run health care.” Nearly all did. Then Representative Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands."

The point is that, like the birther people, their arguments are not based on information but rather some gut reaction. The best way to counter these astroturf campaigns is information. But there are a lot of right-wing microphones like yours amplifying the disinformation making it hard to do. The service you render regarding the health care debate is very harmful.

[FascistSocialist]

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2009/08/06/birther_poll/index.html

http://www.pollster.com/blogs/us_obama_nationality_72730.php

A movement of willful ignorance that appears to encompasses a majority of republicans...

[FascistSocialist]

Since you don't seem to click my links I'll post the polling information here.

Do you believe that Barack Obama was born in the United States of America or not?
77% Yes, 11% No
Dems: 93 / 4
Reps: 42 / 28
inds: 83 / 8

[Paul]

It’s funny we hear Republicans say that they do not want “faceless bureaucrats” making medical decisions but they have no problem with “private sector” “faceless bureaucrats” daily declining medical coverage and financially ruining good hard working people. And who says that the “private sector” is always right, do we forget failures like Long-Term Capital, WorldCom, Global Crossing, Enron, Tyco, AIG and Lehman Brothers. Of course the federal government will destroy heathcare by getting involved, Oh but wait, Medicare and Medicaid and our military men and women and the Senate and Congress get the best heathcare in the world, and oh, that’s right, its run by our federal government. I can understand why some may think that the federal government will fail, if you look at the past eight years as a current history, with failures like the financial meltdown and Katrina but the facts is they can and if we support them they will succeed.

How does shouting down to stop the conversation of the healthcare debate at town hall meetings, endears them to anyone. Especially when the organizations that are telling them where to go and what to do and say are Republicans political operatives, not real grassroots. How does shouting someone down or chasing them out like a lynch mob advanced the debate, it does not. So I think the American people will see through all of this and know, like the teabagger, the birthers, these lynch mobs types are just the same, people who have to resort to these tactics because they have no leadership to articulate what they real want. It’s easy to pickup a bus load of people who hate, and that’s all I been seeing, they hate and can’t debate. Too bad.

[FascistSocialist]

Hear hear, Paul.

[lexrex]

paul, nobody is saying that the private sector is always right. i just prefer the freedom of people, even to be imperfect, over a government-controlled system, even if the government option is perfect.

you and your fascist friend are the anti-patrick-henrys. you hastily trade freedom for health care. go ahead. but i think you'll find, someday, that's a mistake. look no further than massachusetts to see how it all plays out.

[Paul]

It is very American to want to help our fellow countryman. I believe in my government especially our men and women in our military, firefighters and police. You, not so much. Lets face it the previous administration did nothing (except start two wars of choice that are bankrupting our country with all the “war profiteering” contracts to Halliburton) well you and I will just have to agree to not agree. I did not believe any of the Republican rhetoric before the last election and I do not believe them now. I do not believe that your sentiments are in line with the majority, but I did real enjoy your comments, good stuff.

[FascistSocialist]

Lexrex is saying here that he prefers anarchy.

[B. T. Marking]

Folks,

We're not debating the need for health care reform. We "mobsters" are just
pushing back against those in Congress who claim they have the wisdom to fix
the problems they created in the first place. Their record in that area is so enviable -- Ha!

Things would be going much smoother if the "Stimulus Bill" had been an evidence-based approach to job creation, instead of a collection of every pork project that could be thrown together overnight. With that fiasco as a backdrop, is
it any wonder some people are shouting?

None of us even knows what legislation we're supposed to debate. There are
still several versions in the works. Once we have a single proposal, perhaps
civil debate can begin. I'm hopeful. But unless TORT reform is Step 1, I'm
also very skeptical that our legislators are thinking clearly.