Don’t Be Fooled by Orchestrated Protests

Ah, Democracy! It’s inspiring to see it in action, when it works: informed citizens, gathering in town meetings to discuss and debate the issues in a responsible manner.

But, oh, Democracy! How ugly it gets when it’s manipulated and manufactured instead. Which is exactly what’s happening with today’s so-called “spontaneous” protests against healthcare reform.

The truth is, there’s nothing spontaneous about them at all. They are all staged protests, paid for by Washington lobbyists, trying to kill any healthcare reform legislation this year.

And they’re orchestrated by the same people who put together those Tea Bag Parties a few months ago. In fact, Bob MacGuffie, a leader of the so-called “Tea Party Patriots,” published on the Internet a list of upcoming congressional town halls, together with a memo on how to cause the most disturbance — and therefore end up on YouTube. Among his directions:

• Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half.
• You need to rock the boat early.
• The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script, stand up and shout out.

Clearly, these demonstrations are aimed, not to discuss or debate the issues, but to disrupt or prevent any reasonable debate. As such, I believe that they’re so ugly and so clearly manufactured, they will backfire.

In fact, the tea bag town meetings are such a turn-off that, were I a Republican congressman, I’d encourage them to stay home. Were I a Democrat, I’d pay them to show up.

Visit Mr. Press’s website at billpressshow.com.