Dems Fear Town Hall Meetings

[Danno 1,228]

Dems Fear Town Hall Meetings

by Allen West (more by this author)

Posted 08/07/2009 ET

We are witnessing something really disturbing in America. Our Congressional members -- coming home to enjoy their taxpayer funded recess -- are facing angry constituents at town meetings. These people -- most of whom are voicing concerns we all feel about the economy and what the Democrats are doing to it -- want the congress to rein itself in.

But instead of listening and understanding the constituents’ concerns, some congressmen and the Obama White House are condemning the voters and saying that they’re just shills for Republican groups.

On Wednesday Congressman Ron Klein -- whom I will oppose in 2010 -- and his staff invited constituents to a townhall forum on healthcare issues forum in Lighthouse Point Florida. An email from his office stated that constituents could present Congressman Klein with their questions on healthcare. Some 200 people showed up, but Klein didn’t.

What was he afraid of?

What is of concern is not the reaction of concerned American citizens but rather the response from the liberal media and the DNC. It seems they are resorting to their normal Saul Alinsky “Rules for Radicals” tactics; Rule #5, Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.

The Democrats are again lowering themselves to calling Americans a mob and trying to depict concerned Americans as sore losers. We have a Constitution which affords its citizens rights such as free speech, freedom of expression, and freedom to petition the government.

What they fail to realize is that in America we live in a Republic where we respect rule of law, not being ruled.

It is amazing to me that when the opposition to President Obama’s very socialist policies expresses their dissent they are castigated as “tea baggin’ rednecks”, racists, or dumb. What the liberal socialists had best recognize is that their venom is no longer effective, we are anesthetized to their bite. Seems we found anti-venom and we all have been injected to produce anti-bodies.

As well, the DNC is running insidious advertisements and the White House has launched its “Great American Snitch” program at flag@whitehouse.com.

It’s almost comical that the same folks who brought you the professional community organizer president are attacking citizens organizing. We have seen anti-war protests by Code Pink, PETA tossing blood on individuals, enviro-terrorist groups attacking SUV dealerships, ACORN and SEIU protests, and even voter intimidation at polling stations. Yet, concerned American citizens are called extremists.

President George W Bush was constantly attacked from his inauguration in Jan 2001 to the day he departed office Jan 20, 2009. (And some still criticize him if they can’t think of anything else to say or write.) But dare you speak of the anointed one and you are a racist.

Left wing blogs attack Governor Sarah Palin and made allegations that her young Son Trig is not hers.

Left wing news media attacked former First Lady Laura Bush reference a traffic accident when she was a teenager. No one is questioning the law license inactive status of First Lady Michele Obama. And what is up with twenty-two staffers for the First Lady Michele?

The Bush twins were regularly part of media attacks, dare no one speak of the Obama daughters who attend wonderful -- and very expensive -- Sidwell Friends private school. A school that is not available to other children in DC, who are just as qualified but whose families are less fortunate and unable to pay for them to attend.

What is happening is that some of us read the book “Rules for Radicals” and we are turning the table on the liberals. Here are some examples;

Rule 1: “Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have”

Rule 3: “Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat”

Rule 4: “Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules. You can kill them with this……”

Rule 8: “Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions……”

Rule 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself”

Rule 11: “If you push a negative hard enough and deep enough it will break through into its counterside”

Rule 13: “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it”

It seems to me that the liberals are great at dishing it out but intolerant of taking a punch.

I will say what may not be politically correct but the future and legacy of our Country is at stake. Get out there and go to the townhalls. Tell your congressman and senators -- respectfully but firmly -- that you will work hard to defeat them next year if they continue on the liberal path of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid.

As a 22 year US Army combat veteran I can tell you when I smell fear, and the left wing liberal socialists are stinking up the place.

My admonition is to be like a shark which senses blood in the water and attack. They truly felt that since they won, we would lie down and not fight back against their dangerous agenda. They are wrong, and August is the month to prove that fact all over our great land.

[mendeleev 69]

Now, Danno, Saul Alinsky did not tell radicals they short go to political assemblies and get violent. As I posted yesterday, that's what I saw two people wearing Patients First t-shirts do at an event held by a local member of Congress yesterday.

The author of Mein Kampf did support the sort of behavior I observed, though.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

Playing FOX News here for a second - to keep it fair and balanced and all...

THE TOWN HALL MOB

By Paul Krugman

There's a famous Norman Rockwell painting titled "Freedom of Speech," depicting an idealized American town meeting. The painting, part of a series illustrating FDR's "Four Freedoms," shows an ordinary citizen expressing an unpopular opinion. His neighbors obviously don't like what he's saying, but they're letting him speak his mind.

That's a far cry from what has been happening at recent town halls, where angry protesters — some of them, with no apparent sense of irony, shouting "This is America!" — have been drowning out, and in some cases threatening, members of Congress trying to talk about health care reform.

Some commentators have tried to play down the mob aspect of these scenes, likening the campaign against health reform to the campaign against Social Security privatization back in 2005. But there's no comparison. I've gone through many news reports from 2005, and while anti-privatization activists were sometimes raucous and rude, I can't find any examples of members of Congress being shouted down, hanged in effigy, or surrounded and followed by taunting crowds.

And I can't find any counterpart to the death threats at least one congressman has received.

So this is something new and ugly. What's behind it?

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, has compared the scenes at health care town halls to the "Brooks Brothers riot" in 2000 — the demonstration that disrupted the vote count in Miami and arguably helped send George W. Bush to the White House. Portrayed at the time as local protesters, many of the rioters were actually GOP staffers flown in from Washington.

But Gibbs is probably only half right. Yes, well-heeled interest groups are helping to organize the town hall mobs. Key organizers include two AstroTurf (fake grass-roots) organizations: FreedomWorks, run by the former House Majority Leader ####### Armey, and a new organization called Conservatives for Patients' Rights.

The latter group, by the way, is run by Rick Scott, the former head of Columbia/HCA, a for-profit hospital chain. Scott was forced out of that job amid a fraud investigation; the company eventually pleaded guilty to charges of overbilling state and federal health plans, paying $1.7 billion — yes, that's "billion" — in fines. You can't make this stuff up.

But 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?

There was a telling incident at a town hall held by Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas. 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 Green asked how many of those present were on Medicare. Almost half raised their hands.

Now, people who don't know that Medicare is a government program probably aren't reacting to what President Barack Obama is actually proposing. They may believe some of the disinformation opponents of health care reform are spreading, like the claim that the Obama plan will lead to euthanasia for the elderly. (That particular claim is coming straight from House Republican leaders.) But they're probably reacting less to what Obama is doing, or even to what they've heard about what he's doing, than to who he is.

That is, the driving force behind the town hall mobs is probably the same cultural and racial anxiety that's behind the "birther" movement, which denies Obama's citizenship. Sen. ####### 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.

Many people hoped that last year's election would mark the end of the "angry white voter" era in America. Indeed, voters who can be swayed by appeals to cultural and racial fear are a declining share of the electorate.

But right now Obama's backers seem to lack all conviction, perhaps because the prosaic reality of his administration isn't living up to their dreams of transformation. Meanwhile, the angry right is filled with a passionate intensity.

And if Obama can't recapture some of the passion of 2008, can't inspire his supporters to stand up and be heard, health care reform may well fail.

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

Krugman is a Alinski tactician. He just doesnt like it much when his party is victimized by it.

[mendeleev 69]

Interesting on how Danno and Rogue both like to comment on news articles but not on eye-witness accounts of other VJ members.

Based on what I saw myself yesterday at one of these events, I think reasonable people have grounds to be concerned about wing-nut inspired & perpetrated violence at health care townmeetings.

Here's a link to what I saw -- interesting that none of the opponents of reform who post so prolifically here commented on that eyewitness account

Edited August 9, 2009 by novotul

[Danno 1,228]

Interesting on how Danno and Rogue both like to comment on news articles but not on eye-witness accounts of other VJ members.

Based on what I saw myself yesterday at one of these events, I think reasonable people have grounds to be concerned about wing-nut inspired & perpetrated violence at health care townmeetings.

Here's a link to what I saw -- interesting that none of the opponents of reform who post so prolifically here commented on that eyewitness account

This is the first time I have read your account of what you saw.

I seriously doubt that the majority of people on either side find assault acceptable.

This type of action sets a goal back, not forward.

We might one day come to blows or violence ... that happens when it is seen as the only option, but we are not there yet and I am sure the two guys you mentioned were flying solo with those tactics.

[mendeleev 69]

Here a former member of the Religious Right talks about how leader on the conservative side of things incite violence, although we can be sure they will disavow it when it comes.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Here a former member of the Religious Right talks about how leader on the conservative side of things incite violence, although we can be sure they will disavow it when it comes.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

[natty bumppo 297]

Interesting on how Danno and Rogue both like to comment on news articles but not on eye-witness accounts of other VJ members.

Based on what I saw myself yesterday at one of these events, I think reasonable people have grounds to be concerned about wing-nut inspired & perpetrated violence at health care townmeetings.

Here's a link to what I saw -- interesting that none of the opponents of reform who post so prolifically here commented on that eyewitness account

you saw it ... so it must be true everywhere?

[Danno 1,228]

Here a former member of the Religious Right talks about how leader on the conservative side of things incite violence, although we can be sure they will disavow it when it comes.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Boy this guy hit so many talking points I know you lefties had to chuckle too.

-Angry white men

-Abortion

-Gun control

-First black president

-Rush Limbaugh

-####### Cheney

-Brown shirts

-Martin Luther King

-sore looser

-dupes on the right

-Glen Beck

-Coded messages

-Racism

-Fox News

-Fake grassroots movements

-foment

It's so over the top it is laughable.

If just half of what this guy says is true I guess the claim that Obama was going to be a "Healer" and "bring people together" never got out of the starting blocks.

In fact, it would be fair to say.... he has divided this country more in 6 months that Ole Bush did in 8 years.

Well, I for one DONT think Obama is a Hitler (damn I though Bush owned that title?), bit I knew he was a far left loon from the start and almost everything he has done,,, has proved it to be so.

[natty bumppo 297]

Here a former member of the Religious Right talks about how leader on the conservative side of things incite violence, although we can be sure they will disavow it when it comes.

Very interesting. Thanks for posting.

Boy this guy hit so many talking points I know you lefties had to chuckle too.

-Angry white men

-Abortion

-Gun control

-First black president

-Rush Limbaugh

-####### Cheney

-Brown shirts

-Martin Luther King

-sore looser

-dupes on the right

-Glen Beck

-Coded messages

-Racism

-Fox News

-Fake grassroots movements

-foment

It's so over the top it is laughable.

If just half of what this guy says is true I guess the claim that Obama was going to be a "Healer" and "bring people together" never got out of the starting blocks.

In fact, it would be fair to say.... he has divided this country more in 6 months that Ole Bush did in 8 years.

Well, I for one DONT think Obama is a Hitler (damn I though Bush owned that title?), bit I knew he was a far left loon from the start and almost everything he has done,,, has proved it to be so.

you forgot:

black helicopters

jack booted thugs

conspiracy theorists

.......

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

The only thing I saw were some union thugs beatin he!! outta some black guy for sellin "dont tread on me" t-shirts. Thats okay as long as they are violent libruls doin it.

Novotel: Why dont you do a you tube search on accorn protests and get back to me. Then show me the posts youve made objections to them?

[ready4ONE 5,400]

[endoftheroad 1]

...

No attribution = fake.

Nothing to say

Interesting on how Danno and Rogue both like to comment on news articles but not on eye-witness accounts of other VJ members.Here's a link to what I saw -- interesting that none of the opponents of reform who post so prolifically here commented on that eyewitness account

Dummo and Rigged have nothing to say except NOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[endoftheroad 1]