Posted on 08/05/2009 8:51:31 AM PDT by Gopher Broke
Are the days of civil town hall meetings over?
They will be if a vocal group of right-wing activists, supported by some GOP leaders, have their way.
Speak out now -- congressional recess starts in just a few days. Tell members of Congress to say NO to the organized hijackings of town hall meetings before it's too late.
Dear XXXXXXX,
Remember those right-wing activists who organized Tax Day "tea parties" to protest the Obama administration? They're back, but this time, it's to disrupt town hall meetings being held by Democratic elected officials.1
These people are on the fringe, like the "Birthers" and the "Obama is a terrorist" protesters from last year's presidential campaign. They've already demonstrated their willingness to form menacing mobs, hanging one congressman in effigy outside of his office2 and forcing another to have to leave his meeting with a police escort for his safety.3 And a strategy memo they've circulated shows clearly that the goal of these actions is to "rattle" and intimidate the elected official, preventing an intelligent debate.4
Now, Republican congressional leaders, like National Republican Congressional Committee Chairman Pete Sessions and House Minority leader John Boehner, are endorsing this strategy!5
Please send a message to your U.S. representative and senators urging them all to reject these tactics and let town hall meetings serve their purpose.
Town hall meetings are ways for elected officials to interact directly with their constituents -- to take the time to explain important issues and to get constructive feedback from the people they were elected to represent. They give constituents access to their senators and representatives in a way that is very important to a functional representative democracy.
But these right-wing "tea baggers" have a game plan to derail these meetings by showing up in large numbers, inflating thos numbers by spreading out in the hall, and then shouting down the government officials every time they try to speak. It's fundamentally undemocratic to obstruct citizens' access to their elected officials in this way.
E-mail your members of Congress and say no to these tactics now.
It's critical that Americans are able to have a dialogue with members of Congress right now because Congress is in the middle of a humongous debate on health care reform and there is no shortage of misinformation filling the airwaves (especially from corporate interests and the Far Right).
Members of the Obama administration and Democratic members of Congress have already had several town hall meetings ruined and with the August congressional recess starting next week, there are many more planned in the coming weeks.
Please take action now by calling on your members of Congress to reject these tactics.
-- Michael B. Keegan, President
Sources:
1. "Teabaggers Try To Shout Down Health Care Reform At Town Halls," Talking Points Memo, August 3, 2009.
2. "Anti-health care protesters hang freshman Democrat in effigy." Think Progress, July 28, 2009.
3. "Town halls gone wild," Politico, July 31, 2009.
4. "Right-Wing Harassment Strategy Against Dems Detailed In Memo: 'Yell,' 'Stand Up And Shout Out,' 'Rattle Him'," Think Progress, July 31, 2009.
5. "Boehner's Office Cheers On Disruption Of House Dems' Town Hall Events," Talking Points Memo, August 3, 2009.
Where’s the link?
Are the days of civil town hall meetings over?
Then they turn around and have THIS as a source
"Teabaggers Try To Shout Down Health Care Reform At Town Halls," Talking Points Memo, August 3, 2009.
Poor widdow commies having their s**t thrown back in their face by Patriots.....its only just begun you little **ks!
Expect union and ACORN thugs to show up to give a hard time to protesters.
Apparently democrat socialists think free speech is only for “community organizers” such as ACORN...
We do not need compromise, cooperation or consensus. We need a rational process based on facts before any “Reform”:
“We go from great idea to mass production to failure. You can’t build a project that way. You can’t run a business that way.
“The government needs to follow the engineering process.
“You have a noble concept. You want to build the biggest skyscraper. You want to build the fastest airplane. You want to build the first satellite going into space. That’s the noble concept.
“From there, you look at all your options, come up with your initial drawings of how you would make this work. Eventually, after a lot of analysis, you come up with what you think really will work and you build a pilot model. You test it. You get all the problems out of it. Then you mass-produce it on the assembly line.
“And any concept or idea needs to be built so it can be changed as the conditions change. We come up with Medicare, put it into law and then freeze it and then wonder why it doesn’t work. That’s like making the Model T Ford and then saying, ‘Freeze it! That’s a car that works.’ That wouldn’t be a very good idea, would it?”
-Ross Perot quoted in Dallas Morning News 2008
IN OTHER WORDS, WHEN MASSACHUSETTS, OR ANY OTHER STATE, COUNTY OR VILLAGE, IS ABLE TO MAKE “UNIVERSAL CARE” MEET PROGRAM GOALS FOR ACCESS, QUALITY, AND COST, THEN AND ONLY THEN SHOULD THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONSIDER “MASS PRODUCTION” THROUGH NATIONAL REFORM, AND EVEN THEN ONLY IF EFFECTIVE COMPONENTS REQUIRING “CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT” ARE INCORPORATED. ANY EARLIER ACTION TO “REFORM” MEDICAL PRACTICE OR INSURANCE COVERAGE NATIONALLY THROUGH MANDATES, WILL PREDICTABLY INVITE AND YIELD NATIONAL DISASTER.
“Town hall meetings are ways for elected officials to interact directly with their constituents —”
“Interact” is a subjective term.
Let them try.
These criticisms are laughable, coming as they do from a party that has repeatedly endorsed interruption, interference, and intimidation as tools for changing the political landscape. From pro-homo nuts throwing condoms in churches to animal-rights freaks burning laboratories, the Left has never met “activism” it didn’t like.
Until now ...
The basic concept of twon hall meetings is to find out what your constituents have to say.
If you dont speak up , how will they know.If you do speak up you are disrupting.
Perhaps a black beret and billy-club to help make the point?
Well they all have plenty of time with unemployment hitting 17+ % in Michigan....Fools.
You know of course, that the liberal opinion is the only opinion one is allowed...
Mr. Keegan is a real estate investor and has worked in various capacities in the media and entertainment industries, at companies such as Columbia Pictures and at Act III Communications where he served as President of the 500-screen Act III Theatres Circuit.
Keegan said he is proud of the work that People For the American Way Foundation is doing to take on far-right threats to constitutional values by building on a long tradition of monitoring, exposing and challenging right-wing organizations and their political strategies.
Maybe in YOUR world. In the world of the Liberal, they are low masses. And "disruptors" are heretics.
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