One of the points that has received the least attention during these town hall meetings about health care reform is the nature of the protests behind it.  Many people simply don’t understand the difference between astroturfing and a real grassroots movement.  The town hall mobs are a perfect example of an corporate engineered public outcry, known as astroturfing.

ASTROTURFING VS. GRASSROOTS

“ASTROTURFING is political, advertising, or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous “grassroots” behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass, AstroTurf. The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity — a politician, political group, product, service, or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt (“outreach”, “awareness”, etc.) and covert (disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations. Very often the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in opposition research.“

Contrast this with real, genuine grassroots organizing:

“A GRASSROOTS movement (often referenced in the context of a political movement) is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it is natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures. Often, grassroots movements are at the local level, as many volunteers in the community give their time to support the local party, which can lead to helping the national party. For instance, a grassroots movement can lead to significant voter registration for a political party, which in turn helps the state and national parties.”

In essence, either can be organized from the top down from an umbrella organization, but only if it is sponsored from the people within that organization and only if those people are not being manipulated from an ulterior motive.

ASTROTURFING FOR THE TEA PARTIES

The Tea Parties are a perfect example of astroturfing in action.   Despite genuine grassroots libertarian roots, after Obama was elected they suddenly became organized by such notorious neocon organizations as FreedomWorks and Progress for America (both names must be ironic).  The Tea Parties transformed into a platform to mobilize the same conservatives who were huge supporters of Bush, a partisan event to attack Obama, the Democrats, and the movement for change and reform in this country that began to take shape in 2006.

When corporate funded groups initiate the organizing behind such events, they are not grassroots, they are astroturfing, and FreedomWorks in particular has a long history of this.   Other examples would include the conservative lobbying group Bonner and Ass. sending out forged letters, supposedly from the NAACP to oppose the climate bill.

This doesn’t mean most of those who showed up to demonstrate at these Tea Parties were in direct contact with these neocon front groups, only that the groups layed the groundwork with how to obtain permits, what type of tactics to employ, sign suggestions, setting up web domains to allow people in the community to just take it over, email lists, etc.  Most of the people that arrived had real concerns about certain issues, particularly the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  That doesn’t mean the circus didn’t have a master.

Now contrast this with the Iraq War protests in the Bush years.  There was no corporate group behind it, no hidden agenda, no concerted effort to blend into pro-war meetings and suddenly erupt in furious blather and stifle discussion.  Of course, every pro-war rally was usually heavily screened, you had to be a regular at the local GOP office or a trusted friend to get in, and any questions were pre-arranged.  People did flock to groups like MoveOn.org, A.N.S.W.E.R. coalition, and United for Peace and Justice, who did some top down organizing, but the central difference is that this was an upswell of homegrown outrage which coalesced into a national movement.  Astroturfing means to mimic a grassroots movement, with the powerful lobbyists behind the movement hiding their agenda by pretending to be individuals voicing their opinions.  See the difference?

TOWN HALL ASTROTURFING

When it became clear that congress was not going to be able to get a health care reform package passed before the summer recess, the same groups that orchestrated the Tea Parties started working diligently to organize disruptions of town hall meetings planned for Democratic congressman.  Their tactics were leaked in a memo and contain such instructions as “Yell, Stand Up And Shout Out, Rattle Him“:

– Artificially Inflate Your Numbers: “Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half. The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions and follow-up. 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.”

– Be Disruptive Early And Often: “You need to rock-the-boat early in the Rep’s presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and challenge the Rep’s statements early.”

– Try To “Rattle Him,” Not Have An Intelligent Debate: “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.”

Well, not too surprisingly, people showed up early to sit in front, spread themselves out, and proceeded to shout down both the speakers and other audience members.  These disruptions were recorded and are available at many locations.    What the videos make clear is that there is a concerted effort to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation.

THOSE BEING ASTROTURFED DON’T KNOW IT

This is not to say that these protesters even know that’s what they’re doing.  Many of them honestly believe that health care reform is some diabolical plot to socialize medicine, ration health care, and euthanize the elderly.   These irrational fears have been fed from conservative talk radio, Fox News, websites, and even Republican politicians such as Sarah Palin, Virginia Foxx, and Newt Gingrich.  These ludicrous claims are pretty easily debunked on a number of websites, including the recently launched one on Whitehouse.gov.

Muddying the waters between fact and fiction is a goal central to this 1.4 million dollar a day campaign by big health insurance corporations  who simply don’t want the situation to change.  Why would they, under increasingly consolidated markets their profits have spiked over 400% while average premiums have nearly doubled under Bush.

This doesn’t make the emotions of these angry folks incorrect, only their understanding of the facts.  Face it, when someone shouts, “Keep Your Goddamn Government Hands Off My Medicare!“,  they don’t really have a a firm grasp on what’s really going on.  Princeton professor Melissa Harris-Lacewell explained in an interview with Keith Olberman that research has shown that in times of change, people’s anxiety about that change can be channeled into “racial, moral, and political intolerance.”  This rage is all too apparent in these town hall meetings.

These fears of change are purposefully being exploited by the very corporations that will benefit from the status quo in the health care system of America, the most expensive and least effective one in the developed world.  The worst part is, these protesters are working against their own best interest, because a strong public option would actually cause quality to get better and premiums to decrease.

So to recap, the criteria of why these protests are astroturfing has been clearly established.  Corporate front groups have organized this effort.  Their goal to disguise the efforts of a their role has been moderately successful, at least in mainstream media, as an outpouring of independent public reaction.  The irrational fears of these folks were a part of a deliberate campaign in misinformation and fear mongering that have no basis in reality.  This is the very definition of astroturfing.