Why the Prefab Right-Wing Mobs Won't Work

[babylonsister]

http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_stash/archive/2009/08/08/why-the-prefab-right-wing-mobs-won-t-work.aspx

Why the Prefab Right-Wing Mobs Won't Work

I think this Times story illustrates the reason nicely:

That same day in Romulus, Mich., Representative John D. Dingell, a long-serving Democrat, was shouted down at a health care meeting by a rowdy crowd of foes of health care overhaul, many crying, “Shame on you!” A similar scene unfolded in Denver on Thursday when Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California visited a clinic for the homeless there.

In a statement Friday, Mr. Dingell, 83, deplored those trying to “demagogue the discussion,” but said he would not be deterred. “As long as I have a vote, I will not let shouting, intimidation or misinformation deter me from fighting for this cause,” he said.

Whenever a congressman gets roughed up at a townhall meeting full of ringers posing as concerned humble-folk, he almost always says what Dingell said: not going to deter me, I know they don't speak for my constituents, etc., etc. But, in the back of his mind, he can't dismiss the possibility that the opposition is organic. The uncertainty will weigh on him. And, spread out across a few hundred members, is likely to produce a couple dozen defectors.

But in this case it's so blindingly obvious that the mobs have been ginned up by right-wing groups and consist largely of GOP activists and insurance industry lackeys (see this footage, for example), that no congressman can honestly believe they represent majority opinion in his district. The mob-manufacturers have been poorly served by the lunatics doing their dirty work.

--Noam Scheiber

[NYC_SKP]

1. The whackier they are, the better it is for us.

And whoever unred'c this can bite me. :P

[babylonsister]

2. There are a whole lot of trolls trollin' around these parts.

I've noticed that going on often. Hopefully they'll get picked off soon.

[still_one]

3. You would hope so. Is that what the polls are indicating though? /nt

[NYC_SKP]

6. Don't know, but pretty sure it doesn't impact how Congress will vote.

How the MSM plays this impacts what the polls tell us.

Do they debunk the bullshit or perpetuate it?

[still_one]

9. They played the same game on the IWR and the Patriot Act, and we lost /nt

[TankLV]

7. Gee, that's what they said in Germany during the 20's & 30's...

didn't work out so well then, did it...

that tactic is not working out so well for us NOW either, is it...

[NYC_SKP]

8. Unless you're "one of them", we don't have the equivalent of Hitler. So, no, not the same. nt

[UTUSN]

4. I dunno: the Swiftbots worked. So, too,KKKarl, Roger STONE, & other winged monkeys n/t

[C_U_L8R]

5. Empty calories

like cheez curls or pork rinds.

but they can still kill you