Disrupting Town Hall Meetings

The BBQ Pit
1

I see the Houston Tea Party Society has published the town hall meeting times for Gene Green (D) and are inviting members to come to the town halls with
these instructions:

"Wouldn’t it be a nice surprise if he were to hear from
conservatives in his district? For too long, conservatives
in CD-29 have written off any chance of getting one of their
own elected. But…what if? What if conservatives started
questioning his support of legislation that will destroy the
Houston economy? Or his support for health care reform that
reduces the quality of health care?

If you do attend and have the opportunity to ask a
question, it is important to state your name and address.
Elected officials always pay more attention to voters that
live in their districts. But even if you don’t live in
their district, letting them know your feelings,
passionately but respectfully, is a very good thing because
fundraising isn’t limited to their districts." http://houstontps.org/

This combined with this leaked memo from the groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks (as reported by
Politico and Crooks and Liars) that instructs followers to…:

" – 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.” " Teabaggers Want A Voice In Health-care Forums -- One That Disrupts, Attacks, And Distracts | Crooks and Liars

…And added to news reports of Democrat only disrupted town hall meetings in other states leads one to believe that some people are intent on eliminating intelligent discussion and acess to lawmakers.

I find this all very distasteful and almost fascist in flavor.

2

It’s all they’ve got. The only people left in the Republican party are the stupid and the stubborn. And I’m pretty sure there’s overlap. :smiley:

3

“I see the Houston Tea Party Society”

I almost stopped reading there. Anything with “Tea Party” in the name reminds me of people I know who were big Bush supporters and now are trying to distance themselves by claiming they never supported the previous administrations policies and now all they care about is “what’s good for the country”.

As to the topic at hand, I have no problem when individuals feel that they need to speak up on their own so they can be heard (even if it interrupts the proceedings). But I find this sort of planned disruption despicable.

Well played pitting, IMO.

4

Well, nothing wrong with encouraging people to go to open forums to express their desent. The last bullet point is the only one that seems over-the-line, yelling out out of turn and attempting to disrupt seems pretty dickish. As a liberal, I always get annoyed by people “on my side” like Code Pink and whatnot who think that randomly popping up and yelling like an idiot during political events is going to help convince anyone of anything. That the Right seems to be trying to copy the least effective and most obnoxious tactics of the Left with this Tea-bagging crap is rather bizarre.

5

Unfortunately, while this level of organization and pre-planning is unusual, this type of intentional disruption, for no other reason than to interrupt and harass the speaker, is a pretty common tactic at all sorts of public speaking engagements.

I went to a speech by Ann Coulter a few years ago at my grad school. I think she’s a fucking loon, nutty as a very large nut bar, but i was also interested in hearing what she actually says at speeches like this, so i went along. There was a small but committed section of the audience whose only purpose in being there was clearly to shout her down at every opportunity. Each time someone did it, campus security would remove them from the hall, the speech would resume, and then another person would yell out.

I’m pretty much a free speech absolutist, and i’m always ambivalent about what should be done in cases where disruptions like this are unproductive and clearly done only for the purpose of preventing the speaker from speaking. While the shouting itself is expression, and might on occasion even be coherent enough to be understood, i think that trying to drown out someone in this manner is a contradiction of the principles of free speech and open dialog. If your purpose is not merely to disagree with someone’s policies and criticize their ideas, but to actually prevent them from being heard, then you don’t deserve to be part of the debate.

6

Are these the same people that were calling themselves “teabaggers”, or am I confusing this with a local news story? [On preview, I see that Simplicio confirmed this.]

That’s pretty much how they work…look at all the controversy surrounding sex ed, or the teaching of evolution.

7

Various anti-racist and Coexist Foundation types heckled Daniel Pipes when he came to speak to my school (deservedly, I might add).

Fun fact: I got to be on CNN for asking him a clever question: whether the name “War on Terror” should be replaced with something less douchey, though not in quite those words.

8

This is why Sarah Palin is so popular.

It’s not what you know, it’s whether you support the troops, Creationism and waterboarding. :smack:

9

What do you mean “deservedly”?

I mean, if they heckled him while he was walking around the campus or just standing around with other people, that’s one thing. But if they heckled him at an organized event where he had been asked to deliver a prepared speech, i think that’s douchebag behavior no matter what the politics of the speaker or the audience.

The best way to counter bad ideas is not to shout them down; it’s to hear them and then subject them to intelligent critique.

10

Pals and gals, there is nothing, but nothing, that Big Money won’t do to protect itself. Its August, and the Congresscritters are out taking the pulse. And this shit will work.

Why? Because a determined minority trumps an apathetic majority. If pro-health people become disgusted and abandon these meetings? The liberal tedia will report widespread public revulsion with ObamaMammaCare, and that will be the message!

Plus, the signal to noise ratio doesn’t count. If they can get enough people to say, over and over, health care reform will kill your granny, they will be believed.

11

Asking antagonistic questions is a good way to protest someones views. If the teabaggers just show up and ask a bunch of pointed questions then it will be an effective tactic. But it sounds like they just plan on showing up and trying to disrupt things, which just makes it look like they’re loons with little in the way of actual points.

Probably the best political protest of the Bush years was the one guy who sat behind Alberto Gonzales at his Congressional testimony and marked down everytime he answered with an “I don’t know” on a whiteboard that was visable to cameras. Smart, devastating, and rather then making it harder for Alberto to say his piece, it just let his words (or lack of therefor) speak for themselves.

12

That’s interesting. I wonder what tactic like that would be effective if I were to attend a town hall. Suggestions?

13

Ironic, that you should say this, given your stated views in certain other threads.

14

If we’re gonna snark could we be more specific? I’d like some outrage here.

15

Because he’s a sort of anti-Palestinian McCarthyist. He’s the guy behind CampusWatch, an organization that publishes “blacklists” of college professors who teach Middle Eastern politics or history in a manner that doesn’t confirm to neocon ideals.

Incidentally, he was only sort of invited- he asked the university if he could speak, and they said yes. They also didn’t really “heckle”- they just held up signs and chanted for about 10 seconds while he walked to the podium.

16

I’m well aware of who he is. He’s a grade-A asshole. My question was related to when and how they heckled, not what his beliefs are.

Well, if that’s it, no problem. As i said earlier, it’s people who keep trying to shout the speaker down that i have a problem with.

17

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Seriously, I do.

18

Ahhh… an idealist.

Some day we’re all going to just get along, too. :slight_smile:

19

You too? Oh my god, so do I!!!

20

Until that happy day comes along, the cops need to do their job and bust a few winger heads.
That’ll settle the hooligans down big time.