ARMEY'S HOOLIGANS

Never in my life could I imagine this taking place in OUR country: hooligans disrupting town hall meetings, intimidating elected officials, shouting down citizens and driving them from the room … hands cupped over ears. What’s next? Fist fights? Violence in the streets?

We can blame these ugly brownshirt tactics on former GOP Majority Leader Dick Armey and Freedom Works for “astroturfing” these events. And we can blame corporate lobbyists for employing these thugs to protect their filthy franchises and ambush reform. If readers find this post uncharacteristically aggressive, lets just say I am feeling uncharacteristically livid. I have nothing more to say tonight, but I want to keep this topic on the front burner … and leave you with this reading list:

Inside The Tea Partiers Anti-Health Care Organizing Campaign

Coal Industry Behind Forged Letters to Congressman Asking Him Vote Against Climate Bill

Lobby Firm Sent Forged Climate Change Letter To Congressman

Behind The Forged Letters: Jack Bonner's "White-Collar Sweatshop"

Death, Dishonesty and the GOP

The 10 Dumbest Arguments Against Health-Care Reform

Orchestrated Hooliganism At Town Hall Meetings on Health Care Reform

HOW ASTROTURFING AND TOWN HALL HOOLIGANISM WILL DESTROY AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

What Rachel Maddow describes is called “astroturfing,” the subject of this hastily prepared post. I say “hasty” because this is an important topic deserving of immediate and sustained discussion in the blogosphere.

The goal of astroturfing is to create the illusion of public opposition to pending legislation or reform. Astroturfing is organized by professional public relations firms financed by corporations, their lobbyists, and trade associations to oppose any legislation that threatens corporate interests. Astroturfing creates the illusion of a popular and spontaneous uprising but, in fact, is a carefully orchestrated and covert operation that utilizes deception, disinformation, scare tactics, fear-mongering, and outright forgery to achieve its goals.

Examples of astroturfing are the recent Tea Bag protests; the “Death to Seniors” campaign designed to sabotage healthcare reform; and the “Birther” movement that seeks to undermine the legitimacy of an elected president.

Astroturfing is sometimes called “stealth” marketing, “viral” marketing, or “ambush” marketing. Cynical and unethical in the extreme, it is specifically banned in the Code of Ethics published by the Public Relations Society of America and the International Association of Business Communicators. However, ethics never bothered former House Majority Leader Dick Armey or the billionaire lobbyists who pay him to sabotage pending legislation and reform.

Recently, astroturfing has taken a more sinister form reminiscent of the violent street tactics that gave rise to the Third Reich. A rightwing organization called Right Principles has published a “political action” memo that shows supporters how to disrupt town hall meetings, harass and heckle members of congress, and shout down and drown the opposition:

"pack the hall... spread out" to make their numbers seem more significant, and to "rock-the-boat early in the Rep's presentation...to yell out and challenge the Rep's statements early ... to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda ... stand up and shout ... "

According to Rachel Maddow, this memo is a prescription for hooliganism and intimidation. Dick Armey’s client list includes major pharmaceutical firms such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, a trade group representing major insurance companies, a front company representing fossil fuel interests, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum (Prime Minister of the UAE), and Freedom Works (the tea bag protest organizers), among others. Astroturfing represents a threat to democracy because it serves the interests of corporations but NOT the interests of citizens and voters, thus undermining the meaning and purpose of elections.

This is my greatest fear: A rabble minority employs stealth and guile to thwart the will of the majority. Better to rule in Hell than serve in a democracy.

Sometimes when I lay awake at night, I think of how our culture pushes the boundaries of taste and decorum further into the wilderness, and wonder about the tipping point beyond which there is no return, like those who cross an abyss and sink forever into tyranny, the point where “the falcon can longer hear the falconer.”

When my daughters were growing up, I taught them this: Freedom and responsibility are two sides of the same coin. Responsibility earns freedom, not the reverse. I am afraid we are reaching a tipping point where we lose both.