Eleanor Clift: "Why the Democrats need to fight back against right-wing mob tactics -- quickly"

[steven johnson]

Eleanor Clift is pointing out that the Conservative descendents of the 'Brooks Brother's Riots' and 'Joe the Plumber' are manufacturing faux-grass roots protests out of nothing. She points out that the Democrats have to move the focus back to the real issues.

Aug 7, 2009
Newsweek

When Republican rallies began to get out of hand during the presidential race last year, responsible voices spoke up, including John McCain, whose running mate was egging on the fringe right. The grievances then centered on Barack Obama "palling around with terrorists" and wanting to tax poor Joe the Plumber. Now the conservative faithful are claiming that our president will heartlessly euthanize your grandmother, tax you up the kazoo, and take away your choice of doctor. And this time there are no responsible Republican voices calling for a halt to the mob tactics disrupting Democratic town meetings around the country.

There's plenty of evidence that the seemingly spontaneous eruptions are orchestrated by conservative interest groups in Washington, in the same way that the antitax tea parties were made to seem like a grassroots uprising earlier this year. The public relations and lobbying firms that specialize in generating the kind of public outcry we're seeing have a name for it; they call it AstroTurf. And it works, attracting media coverage disproportionate to the minority of a minority it represents and fooling Americans into thinking there's a full-scale revolt underway.

The right sees an opportunity during the August recess to take a hammer and really pound home their message. All manner of poison could be unleashed with media loudmouths like Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh encouraging race and class resentment. The few traditional Republicans left who want to build a more diverse party stay silent because the fanatically passionate are the GOP's foot soldiers; without them, the party would lose its base.



Time Running Out for Health Care

[Syrinx]

1. I like her

She fights the right-wing mob every week on the McLaughlin Group. (I assume she's still on there. I haven't seen it in a long time.)

[Enthusiast]

4. I can barely stand to watch

her bullied on that show. They simply shout her down. She might get a few words in but very few.

[DCKit]

9. Eleanor got her licks in today.

But the panel isn't generally friendly. That Republic mouthpiece/blond twit is a real piece of work. I can't express how much I detest people who lie so glibly.

[Enthusiast]

14. I'm certainly with you on that!

Blond twit. She appears on Faux, often. Anyone that appears on Faux with any regularity should not be considered objective TV journalism. That show is intolerable.

[opihimoimoi]

2. The sheer audacity and questionable tactics reveal a mega weakness in their GOP Party.

Their messages are low level and deperate...moot almost....they will buried with the whigs...

[Bobbieo]

3. All of their issues are bases on racism!!

[mwb970]

5. Oh behave.

Some of their issues are based on misogyny! Others are derived from corporate fascism. So it's not all about race.

[Doctor_J]

6. Shhhh! Don't tell that to all of the "Letting the terrorists alone is a win for us" folks

their bubble world is very comfortable for them

[yowzayowzayowza]

7. Waaay past time to be gettin' in these peoples face!!!

Unless Obama and his surrogates find the language to reassure the majority of Americans with health insurance that they will be better off under his reform plan, the Astroturf opposition we see playing out now on our TV screens could morph into the real thing.

[TwilightGardener]

8. Good article--I'm watching Steffy's show, and the roundtable is portraying

the town hall "angry mobs" as ordinary concerned citizens who will drive a stake through reform--just what Clift is warning about when she says the media focuses on these few disruptive plants way out of proportion to their actual representation of the general public. It's sickening, had to turn it off.

[burning rain]

10. Good piece.

There's another factor, though: Democrats need show strength, and some fight. We lose when we come off as weak and wimpish (think Dukakis). No-one respects a wimp.

[applegrove]

11. Democrats need a visual graphic of health care reform which shows

how public and private all links together and how costs will be brought down by such a system.

[snake in the grass]

12. The Democratic Party is...

...also infected with the corporate virus, albeit not as overt as the Republicans. The Democrats are the new Right. For progressives, a new party must arise out of the vacuum the Democrats left behind.

[proud patriot]

13. I battling the mobs on facebook poll threads

I was attacked earlier on the healthcare poll thread .
They were name calling also there is a dude in the rachel Maddow group posting that racist picture of obama , I alerted on it but
it's still there .

the teabaggin nuts are TOO comfotable on facebook .