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Seriously - what are the two year-olds crashing these town hall meetings actually achieving?

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Writer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:30 PM
Original message
Seriously - what are the two year-olds crashing these town hall meetings actually achieving?
Yes, they're shouting down reasonable conversation about health care, but who would have been paying attention to these town hall meetings in the first place?
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:30 PM
Response to Original message
1. (shrug) They've scared 1/2 of DU away from helping.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:36 PM
Response to Reply #1
3. Why do you say that? I've read several accounts of DUers
going to these town halls.
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BlooInBloo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:38 PM
Response to Reply #3
5. I guess that would be the other half.
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babylonsister Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:40 PM
Response to Reply #5
7. So why do you say 1/2 of DU is scared? Just your impression? nt
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lapfog_1 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:41 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Where do you come up with that?
I went to meet my congress person. She thwarted them by not having a "town hall" but allowing people to line up and meet her one on one in private. They were plenty pissed because they couldn't "shout down" what anyone else was telling her. They still tried to disrupt things but the rest of us weren't having any of it.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:35 PM
Response to Original message
2. Any news coverage becomes about THEM rather than about
the goals of health care reform.

Makes it easier for their masters to claim there was no public support for the public option, allowing them to kill it in congress next September.
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Writer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:37 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. Do you really think it's working?
Honestly, I don't see them developing the moral imperative in order to shut down the reform process. I don't know, but I think many independents see them as sort of loopy.
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Drunken Irishman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:42 PM
Response to Reply #2
9. But it's negative.
A good number of Americans don't like unruly mob-like atmosphere.

It turns them off and no one wants to associate with nutties.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:49 PM
Response to Reply #9
14. They don't care if it's negative - just so long as the TRUTH about
health care reform doesn't get published or discussed. That way, they republican PTB can continue to spin it any way they like. They can even claim it will KILL GRANDMA, and have nobody refute it.
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Drunken Irishman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:59 PM
Response to Reply #14
15. But I think it'll backfire...
It'll turn Americans against them and it'll only make our side look more sane.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 04:03 PM
Response to Reply #15
16. The point remains, by shutting down the discussion they keep people
from knowing what our side IS.

And THAT is the whole point of it.

Odd as it might seem to us, most of the country is NOT wired in, getting their news from the net. They get their news from the MSM, and the MSM is covering the protests, not what the protests are about.
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Drunken Irishman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 04:14 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. That's when we come in...
I honestly believe it shifts the dialogue and opens it to reasonable discussion.

Hopefully that comes of it.
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RaleighNCDUer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 10:54 PM
Response to Reply #17
18. Hopefully. The question is, HOW?
How do we reach those who get all their news through tainted MSM sources which REFUSE to tell them what is going on?
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Hansel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 11:49 AM
Response to Reply #15
25. Some smart Democrats are starting to take advantage of this too.
I'm seeing more and more interviews with congressmen and women who have been targeted by these "mobs". While video of the "crazies" are looped in the background, the rep is speaks calmly, confidently and clearly about what the issues are and what they are trying to provide for the American people. They acknowledge that they want to hear what everyone's concerns are, including the protesters, and would love to try to address them.

Seems like a win for the Democrats. They need to make sure that they continued to be interviewed on every TV and radio station of credibility. I'm pretty sure this is not what the GOP's plan was.
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SoCalDem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:39 PM
Response to Original message
6. many things
they have scared off many people who might have gone
they have scared some legislators from even having them
they have invigorated the looniest of their gruesome little cadre
they feel important and powerful, and will only want escalation
our idiotic media is turning them into folk-heros.

real discussion of and proposals has all but stopped
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Bluerthanblue Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:45 PM
Response to Original message
10. exactly what every 2yr old acting out wants- "ATTENTION"
and it works.

The problem is, they are NOT 2yr. olds, who can have their attention re-directed to other, more positive directions. And they are not looking for attention because they need it, as much as they are using the attention they get to bring the HCissue into the media in yet another 'negative' way.
(imo)

:shrug:
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slackmaster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:46 PM
Response to Original message
11. How misinformed and rude they are, and how poorly some town hall meetings are run
And many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse.
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Phx_Dem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:48 PM
Response to Original message
12. I can't believe anyone is stupid enough to bring children to
these hatefests. At some point, some asshole GOPer is going to pull out a gun and someone is going to get hurt or killed.
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CitizenLeft Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 08:36 AM
Response to Reply #12
22. I think the OP is calling the "protesters" 2-year-olds
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Bok_Tukalo Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Fri Aug-07-09 03:48 PM
Response to Original message
13. "People are angry" conversations on the boob tube
That's about it. Someone else upthread mentioned talking about the talk instead of the plan or the bill itself (or something like that). Everyone knows the Political Porn Media loves conflict and sells eyeballs through the marketing of political disagreement so get some grainy footage on Youtube and you too can be a star.

I think it was successful.
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DailyGrind51 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 08:16 AM
Response to Original message
19. The illusion that their's is the popular position
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IndianaGreen Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 08:22 AM
Response to Reply #19
20. Just as the MSM created the illusion that Bush beat Gore in Florida
this latter version Brown Shirts is providing the MSM with what it needs to create the illusion that grassroot Americans, and particularly the elderly and the impaired, will be harmed by Obama's lame health care proposal.
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Paladin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 11:25 AM
Response to Reply #19
23. Exactly So.

The 24/7 news cycle we're now subject to can't get enough of the spittle-flecked town hall loonies---it's great TV. The sort of public exposure they're getting gives them and their views a huge amount of unwarranted influence. Add in the malignant effect of all the right-wing talking heads, and we've got a very real problem on our hands, a problem that we haven't come close to dealing with, yet......
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leftofthedial Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 08:25 AM
Response to Original message
21. sowing confusion and delay
any more delay and health care reform is truly dead.

it is already pretty much gutted.
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TheKentuckian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sat Aug-08-09 11:37 AM
Response to Original message
24. Intimidation and general mucking up of the works.
Also, steering clear of any productive conversation or debate on the subject.
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Zavulon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-09-09 12:03 AM
Response to Original message
26. Exactly, which is why no attempt should be made to silence them.
Repugs are already accusing Obama of trying to stifle debate. Why not let these assholes rant until they're blue in the face and show their true colors?
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pinb1212 Donating Member (76 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-09-09 12:14 AM
Response to Reply #26
27. I agree...Let them rant!!!!!!
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Zavulon Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Aug-09-09 12:23 AM
Response to Reply #27
28. Welcome to DU :)
:hi:
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