Return of the Right-Wing Rent-A-Mob (and Another Example of How FOX Plays Their Viewers For Fools)

Anyone with a decent memory of the ugly side of American politics will recall the manufactured mob during the recount of the 2000 presidential election. Essentially right-wing operatives were bussed in to act as normal citizens from the surrounding community who were demanding a halt to the recount.

Well it appears we are going to return to that over the next month as Democrats attempt to hold town hall meetings about healthcare during the August recess. Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks who created the tea parties have circulated a memo about how to interrupt and rattle Democrats. Here are some parts of it:

“Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive...The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist agenda of Washington. Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early...The goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions.”

After finding out about this I go to TheFOXNation.com and see the following story at the top of the page: “Town Hall’s Gone Wild!” With the following summary: "Screaming constituents, protesters dragged out by the cops, congressmen fearful for their safety — welcome to the new town-hall-style meeting, the once-staid forum that is rapidly turning into a house of horrors for members of Congress." Yep...just as spontaneous as the tea parties -- the right-wing is very coordinated and good about staying on message, and meanwhile they think their supporters are the biggest fools in the world.

http://carloz.newsvine.com/_news/2009/07/31/3100375-right-wing-harassment-strategy-against-dems-detailed-in-memo-yell-stand-up-and-shout-out-rattle-him

The Re-Direction and Deflection of America's Confused Anger

We all know there's an anger that has shown itself in various forms for the past year or so. It started when the economy went south -- people were angry at the big banks and the government for bailing them out. Meanwhile average people watched as the stock market made their 401k into a 101k. The AIG bonuses infuriated people, right-wingers eventually defended them. People openly criticized greed as a philosophy, especially when unregulated, and the public wanted government to act, they even trusted government. But the anger element was never very focused.

Then came the tea parties which FOX News essentially took over on tax day in April, but gave little mention to them this past July 4th. Keen observers saw that what was going on was a shifting of the general, confused anger out there away from the corporations and toward the government. Never was the message totally coherent; Obama is a socialist/fascist, Obama is raiding my child's piggy bank, a raise in taxes is equivalent to the end of America as we know it. There were conspiracy theories about Obama's birth certificate, the Federal Reserve, etc. But it didn't matter, so long as where blame was placed wasn't at the feet of corporations and unregulated capitalism.

Now as the economy slowly improves it appears that we will climb out of this recession without learning our lesson as we did during the 1930s. Some new rules will go into effect regarding leverage; some easily broken laws regarding CEO compensation will be instated. Bernie Madoff -- more a symbol than a man -- has been sent to prison; a total distraction if there ever was one.

I am talking more about social consciousness and consensus, and perhaps this hasn't been fully decided yet. It feels that there is a war going on about not who we ought to blame, but who we should be most angry toward. It's very possible we will only become more cynical about both government and business, something that will only help the regressive forces in society. Once people are cynical they will yet again vote based on petty nonsense rather than their own interests. The problem is, if the recession drags on Obama and the government will receive more pressure from the public who thinks the economic stimulus is failing -- but if we recover too quick we will have learned nothing from the experience and can expect it to revisit us later.