HCAN Prepares Pro-Health Care Reform Activists For Responding To Town Hall Disruptions, Plans To Disrupt The Disrupters
With a significant campaign of town hall disruptions underway, it seems pretty clear that health care reform activists will have their work cut out for them, at least for the time being. But that's why they're changing their own playbook.
A new strategy document, produced by the umbrella campaign Health Care for America Now, outlines the various ways reformers and activists can respond when town hall events with members of Congress are interrupted.
You can read the entire memo here. Below the fold, I've included the section of the document which advises activists on how to respond to an anti-reform disruption. Among other things, it suggests, "[i]nterrupt them when they get disruptive and refocus the meeting: Line up a number of people who feel comfortable interrupting and prepare them...prep people on our side to keep raising the questions that we want answered. Repetition is the key."
- 1. Do not debate on their "policy" points. Remember, they are seeking a platform to distort the truth about reform by making health care about abortion, rationing, euthanasia, etc. Rather than try to reply with the truth (which won't move them anyway) we should respond with our message and at every turn re-focus the agenda on communicating with the Member of Congress.
- Interrupt them when they get disruptive and refocus the meeting: Line up a number of people who feel comfortable interrupting and prepare them with statements like:
- "Excuse me, I came today to listen to Representative XXX explain how this bill is going to make health care more affordable for me and my family. We're being gouged by insurance companies that just want to make more profits while we struggle to keep up with premiums and co-pays. Representative, how are you going to fix that?"
- "I'm retired and can't afford my prescription drugs because I'm on a fixed income. Representative, how is this bill going to affect me?"
- I want to hear the Representative speak. He's the one voting on the bill. Representative, how will this bill help people who already have insurance at work?"
- "What I'm worried about is how we're going to keep the insurance companies from continuing to charge people more for being sick and keep them from taking away coverage when we need it most. What's the plan for that?"
- Don't get into a shouting match with them. Instead, prep people on our side to keep raising the questions that we want answered. Repetition is the key. We need to arm our side with questions that play to the strength of our message and make sure we keep bringing them up over and over so that the press recognizes those central themes. We should also phrase those questions strategically to help move the message.
- "Over the last XX years, insurance company profits have risen XXX %; in this bill you would regulate insurance companies so that they can no longer deny people with pre-existing conditions and would have to play by fair rules. Isn't that right, Representative XX?"
- "Isn't it true that this bill would guarantee everyone a choice of public health insurance option that will lower cost overall in the system?"
- Address the MOC directly with a positive message: Remember, these Members need cover and they are getting beaten up by right wing zealots in these meetings. We want to let the Member know that we appreciate his efforts to hear constituents and that we, the majority, agree with him.
- We should demonstrate that we are the majority by chanting: When the other side gets too loud, we should shut them down with chants that counter their message like "Health Care Can't Wait!" and "Health Care Delayed is Health Care Denied" and prep people to chant at key points when the other side gets most disruptive.
- Follow up with the Member one-on-one: This experience may have been trying for your MOC. Make sure that you thank him and that you let him know that the majority is with him. He needs to know that we will provide cover and support him at every turn for his leadership on this issue.
Josh
Matt
Eric
Brian
So, basically, a) the media now gets to claim that both sides are doing it and b) its now just a matter of time before one of these things breaks down in an open brawl and the media gets to blame both sides.
Brilliant.
August 5, 2009 12:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think we can maybe take away something positive from this memo.. After all no one on the reform side of the coin is infringing on the mob's right to be present and act a fool.
It was inevitable that someone would take the lead on pushback and at least this memo sticks to factual talking points and not mere distraction antics.
I'm sure you didn't expect the media to come out on the side of reformers anyway, after all they want to look as "fair and balanced" as possible, right?
August 5, 2009 12:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
This may happen, but politics gets tough on big issues. I one wants to win one must play ball, especially when it gets rough and difficult. Weakness loses.
August 5, 2009 12:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
yep, asking your Representative to respond to on-topic questions is harassment, while shouting down any questions is democracy.Got it.
August 5, 2009 12:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
Well yes, but then the media can follow up from the hospital treating those who got injured in the fray - a feature story on how their care would've been different with public health insurance.
August 5, 2009 12:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
The brawls are coming. It may be the only way to shut these ignorant bastadges up. I am not advocating violence but some of the anger and vile behavior on the right at these town halls will inevitably lead to some brawls. I am ready to fight for my country. Are you?
August 5, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yep, here we have another left-wing authoritarian ready to deny someone their Constitutional right to free speech. Kinda like Chavez shutting down all those radio stations. Tsk. Tsk. Tsk.
August 5, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
If someone is unruly and nasty to my face I will knock them the F out. They can be a liberal or a conservative. If someone is trying to engage an intelligent debate I welcome it.
August 5, 2009 3:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
I advocate meeting violence with violence.
I strongly believe in the freedom of speech, and yes, I do believe we should be willing to lay down our lives so that our political opponents have the right to speak.
But when the rethugs reject civilized discourse, ignoring it or trying to reason with them will NOT work.
You must meet thuggery with equal or greater force. If they want to speak, and have reasoned conversation : Great!
But if all they want is to disrupt and outshout people, we must do the same to them. If they intimidate, we MUST respond in kind.
August 5, 2009 1:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I don't see this as initiating a brawl. I do see this as refusing to sit back and allow Republicans -- yes, Republicans (the 46% who voted for Mac) -- claim that they are in the majority when Obama won with 54% of the vote.
What's needed are all of those who showed up in Grant Park, who attended the Inauguration, who were in Denver and who were in the many places Obama traveled en route to the nomination. We need thse folks to show up and support health care reform at Town Halls. If people act rudely -- if they shout down attendees, like we've seen -- reformers have to voice support for attendees that are there to support health care reform.
Another option, to your point, is simply to have law enforcement show up at every town hall. That would be fine with me.
August 5, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah except were right and they're wrong. That's gotta count for something.
August 5, 2009 2:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Why not read the policy sheet before jumping to conclusions.
the media is not your friend.
Stop believing that they will do the right thing if you act submissive and cower a lot.
August 6, 2009 12:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
HCAN? Playbook? I thought health care reform activists were a grassroots movement.
August 5, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
who ever said that?
August 5, 2009 1:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a hoot. Democrats are totally non-plussed by being the object of their own tactics, and as usual have no idea what to do, other than respond in kind.
What fun.
August 5, 2009 12:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
If that were true, the Democrats would have had these protestors penned up like sheep in "free-speech zones" several blocks away.
August 5, 2009 12:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Or arrested and sodomized in a brutal interrogation with Dick Cheney watching live in DC while getting off. then released with no charges
August 5, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
My rep. is Mr. #1 Just Say No Republican who wouldn't vote for anything favored by this administration. His idea of getting together with his constituents was to send a recorded telephone message inviting me to participate in a phone "town hall" - right that minute! Actually, I had a hard time hearing his message because the stir fry was in the wok and the fan was running, seeing as it was conventional dinner time.
What a peach. I feel so represented.
August 5, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
You live in NW Ohio too? Cause that sounds exactly like my non-Representative, although he never calls me to get in the call-meetings, just my sister.
August 5, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
I used to get calls like that (telephone town halls right NOW! at dinnertime!) from my former Rep, homophobe Marilyn Musgrave. Thankfully she got trounced in the last election, because everyone here got sick of her and her bullshit like that.
August 5, 2009 5:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
and what are these specific "tactics" that you refer to? The hippies and Vietnam war protests were 40 years ago. Get over it.
August 5, 2009 1:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
shooter 242, you don't seem to understand the meaning of the word "nonplussed." You see, the Democrats have just articulated their strategy, and it's not about shouting people down (like the Republicans do): it's about letting every voice be heard -- including our elected officials. Right wing hypocrites like yourself who defend manipulative intimidation as free speech make me sick.
August 5, 2009 1:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Where is law enforcement in the equation. If I ask a question and can't be heard, or if I ask a question and the answer from the MOC can't be heard, then my constitutional right to free speech is being violated as well as the rights of the MOC. Why can't we simply enforce our laws? We need to start these meetings with a civics lesson on appropriate parliamentary procedures for the meeting so that it is clear that shouting over someone when they are speaking will not be tolerated, and then enforce that rule. Leaving it to fearful participants to out-chant these people is not good at all.
August 5, 2009 12:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
My point exactly. In a functional democracy, the answer to a mob isn't "get a mob of your own." It is cops and courts. If we have to resort to vigilantism, it means democracy is already dead.
August 5, 2009 1:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ah, dawn on the Serengeti plain.
You have just opened the door a crack. Please, do look in.
August 5, 2009 1:54 PM | Reply | Permalink
My point exactly. These are not rallies - they are meetings and meetings have rules. Lay them out ahead of time. Provide the press with them. People protesting are welcome to go outside. People inside, duly registered and with nametags, will be expected to engage in civil dialogue - questions and answers. Anyone shouting or acting disrespectful of others will be asked to go outside and join the protesters. Have security ready and have the cameras rolling. Why is this so hard?
August 5, 2009 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Excellent! Not only is this the fair thing to do, it avoids the inevitable media story that "both sides are disrupting meetings" and it forces opponents of reform to ask questions (I started to say "reasonable" questions, but I'm not hoping for much there) or make relevant statements instead of just shouting and intimidating others. Three cheers for old fashioned civility!
August 7, 2009 12:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with this poster (moodpost) that law enforcement (the police) need to get involved. These are mass meetings (open to the public) which have the purpose of discussing health care with the member of congress and others. Under common law those attending with the intention of thwarting the legitimate objectives of the meeting can be ejected from the meeting and if they persist be arrested. Continual disruption, shouting and chanting is a non-starter in such a meeting. The best way to stop it is law enforcement because it is against the common law of meetings (and perhaps in some states against the written or positive law of meetings).
August 6, 2009 11:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
My concern about this is that based on the new CNN poll which says that "'nearly half' of reform opponents say they're likely to attend a health care meeting, while only 37% of supporters say the same" is that these guys can and will show up since most of them, my guess, don't work, are on fake social security disability claims, or are unemployed by virtue of their insanity, or are that same group of supposed old coot vets who probably really aren't, so the rest of us who work can't come. And a lot of these events are during the day so that leaves us out and allows the off their meds crowd to dominate these events. I would suggest that if representatives don't want to be overwhelmed by these losers they have these events in the evening. I notice my representative is having some and they're all like 2 in the afternoon about 1 1/2 hours from me mostly in the outlying areas that specialize in these types of people. The kind that want no govmint interference in the gun range they have next to their mobile home.
August 5, 2009 12:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
We shouldn't engage at that level, we should allow them to turn as many Town Hall events as possible into episodes of Girls Gone Wild. The notion that a vocal extreme right will move independents to their corner is ridiculous; that it will rally the base is true for this is the base. You never see a well informed opposition in Girls Gone Wild do you? Never interrupt your opposition when they're saying something stupid. Just sit back and enjoy the show.
August 5, 2009 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
As tempting as that seems, I think we do have to take back the town hall as a tool for democracy.
Allowing the thugs to win on this will only encourage them to try again and again to disrupt the flow of information. Information is the enemy to them, they want propaganda. If we can't diseminate information without interruption, then the people will only hear the Fox propaganda.
August 5, 2009 12:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
You might hit the link and read the four page strategy document from HCAN rather than assume from incomplete information what exactly the current strategy is...
and oh, by the way, it is working.
It makes one appear smarter to actually know something, rather than make it up.
August 6, 2009 9:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tell you what, you read it and write us up a one paragraph summary. Those of us with jobs and not living in our parent's basement don't have the time.
August 6, 2009 10:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
Sorry, I didn't realize that reading a four page sheet was such a hardship.
I guess it is better to be willfully ignorant,to order people to fetch and carry for you, and other wise pretend one is important....even though one is posting at work, that one doesn't have to actually know much of anything. Is that considered a great skill set in today's job market?
August 6, 2009 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
You nay sayers couldn't be more wrong.
Ignoring them and "not descending to their level" cedes them control of the conversation and feeds the corporate media just what it needs : a one-sided version of reality.
Already forgot the swift boat vets? Its the same thing.
This MUST be met, and met hard. Volunteers to repeat our questions, volunteers to outshout these wingnuts and yes, volunteers to show up with some bats for the inevitable "discussion" in the parking lot.
Lets visit some of their own thuggery right back at em, and make THEM fearful to come to these town halls only to be thugs.
Short version : Answer thugs with thugs. Period.
August 5, 2009 12:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
No- answer thugs with courageous people willing to tell the truth.
August 5, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
If you add "with bats", then I agree with you.
August 5, 2009 1:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
August 5, 2009 1:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Who said anything about clubbing anyone, especially grandmothers?! All right wingers like you know how to do is distort and destroy. No wonder the Republican ranks are shrinking so quickly, distilling the party down to the ignorant and intolerant!
August 5, 2009 1:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Left-wing authoritarians? If only there was such a thing.
I never said anything about batting down some grandmothers. I said meet thugs with thugs.
If someone is resorting to shouting over everyone, then he must be shouted down.
If someone is threatening violence in the parking lot, then I say -- threaten him with violence in the parking lot.
As for the gun lobby, if they take to using guns, then yes, I say use guns on them. Nothing would please me more than to stop a redstater from breeding.
August 5, 2009 1:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Other commenters have noted that we can actually try to follow civil rules of discussion to prevent disruptions of meetings and use police when violence is threatened. Bringing bats to counter bats starts to sound like Germany in the 30s or some banana republic. We can do better by being civil, and in the process we can win, by appealing to most people's abhorrence of shouters and extremists.
August 7, 2009 12:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
This discussion is largely between those of the revolutionary stripe and those of the reformist. It's the difference between Che Guevara and Martin Luther King.
In my mind, there comes a point at which non-violence ceases to be an option but I do not think we have reached that point yet.
August 5, 2009 2:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
You wouldn't know how or when to support your democratic country until it's taken away from you.
I can't stand the cowardice underlying your "suggestions" and "objections". You probably have a house and insurance - some "thing" to lose. Some of us really have nothing to lose.
August 6, 2009 4:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Has this being literal minded and inability to get a joke, or understand what people are talking about when they mention paradox or irony hurt you in real life?
Is your problem with understanding what a leftie tactic is...and not being able to make an accurate analogy a hurdle when you actually have to come up with an original thought, rather repeat the same thing over and over again, no matter how totally irrelevant that repetition is to the discussion?
Or is pissing off liberals something which one substitutes for the not being to get a free blow job?
August 6, 2009 10:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with the other commenters here. "Shout back"? That's the whole strategy? Don Briggs had a much better counter-strategy in a diary at DailyKos. Call 'em out, let everyone in the meeting know that anyone trying to disrupt the meeting will be revealing themselves as puppets of the insurance industry.
August 5, 2009 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm going to second your point to the DK diary, thegreenmiles. This other business sounds like a prescription for a melee and not much else.
It has occurred to me that Congressfolk could do closed circuit televised town halls. Questions could actually be asked and answered.
Re: the nonsense I keep seeing/hearing with a teabagger shout out re "you can't manage cash for clunkers, how will you do this? Anybody want to tell those wizards maybe we should shut down Medicare and the VA until the Congress can ramp up to snuff?
August 5, 2009 1:02 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. The DailyKos had a better plan. It keeps the focus on the bizarre behavior of the birther/teabagger crazies.
August 5, 2009 1:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
I think they'd be better served publishing a memo to the congresspeople on how to handle the disruptions:
1) Invite the noisiest one up to the podium.
2) Ask him if the current health care system is the best imaginable.
3) Ask him his ideas on how to improve the current system.
4) Ask him how much he pays for his current health care. If he says $200 a month, tell him at the current rate of increases, that means his children will be paying $1,600 a month in 30 years. Ask him if he thinks that's sustainable.
5) Ask him if he knows that VA care and Medicare are government run programs.
6) After letting him air his views, ask him if he minds letting others in the room have the same opportunity.
August 5, 2009 1:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
i like.
August 5, 2009 1:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yes.
August 6, 2009 7:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I would also suggest since this really is also a law enforcement issue, follow them to their gun rack pickups when they leave and take their license plate numbers. Let them know they are being kept track of. And if some of them go to a few different ones let that be known. If they actually cause violence at one, someone will have the ID on them.
August 5, 2009 1:29 PM | Reply | Permalink
A dream: A Town Hall. A senior nut job rails on against government run health care - the networks zoom in - the Rep. says, "I agree with you. Because of you I'm drafting a bill to end Social Security and Medicare." The tea-bagger goes ballistic, "You can't do that, how will I live..." Sigh. It's only a dream.
August 5, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
In HCAN's strategy point #1, above:
An unfortunate way of phrasing the point.
August 5, 2009 1:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do you find it productive attempting to dialogue with people who are shouting in your face...and whose idea of witty repartee is to go into chants?
Do you actually go out to these events, or do you worry and wring your hands because someone might not like the way you phrase something, and you don't want to offend people who go to Palin Rallys.
August 6, 2009 9:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
It's clear that these people are nothing more than hooligans, but so is the majority of the GOP when all they have to offer as an alternative is a $5,000 tax credit to purchase a $13,000 health care policy.
Read this article.
http://progressnotcongress.org/?p=2412
August 5, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Since the dumb Republican stooges and paid hecklers of Big Insurance and Pharma want to turn any town-hall into mini-Tiller the Baby Killer Clinic Riots it might be necessary to have a less disruptable format for discussion.
There are too many nutty, armed and bitter right wing nutjobs today for one to voluntarily be in their presence at an event that sends their hate levels off the scale.
August 5, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
-Some say we don't have faith in government, others say, we will be forced out.-
-No Tax, No Saving, That means No Way To Reform.-
What kind of music should this reform dance to ?
U.S. health care consumers are usually one step removed from the cost because they are covered by employer-provided insurance, which might operate as a formula for a slow pace of transfer, along with the code of mandate.
And I share the opinion that unlike the insurer-friendly, baseless senate plan by 'some' members, only a 'strong' public option by this new administration will be capable of getting the premium inflation under control and saving the U.S in turbulence.
To my knowledge, a dual system tends to deliver better results than a pure single payer system. Supposedly, to be or not to be might be up to the innovations like a pay for value program, otherwise, the forthcoming start-ups may fill the void with competitive deals. The competition based on 'fair' market value would be a beauty of true capitalism, not monopoly, an objective for anti-trust.
All free states as a nation / one body, and a fundamental human right, cover all their people. The debate about a human right, or public policy
in America is puzzling them now.
August 5, 2009 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
From Media Matters:
FLASHBACK: Fox News urged left-wing hecklers be "Tased" or "beaten to a pulp"
August 05, 2009 1:09 pm ET by Eric Boehlert
That sure doesn't sound like the Fox News of today which seems quite impressed by the GOP mini-mobs which have been formed expressly to heckler Democratic politicians who want to discuss health care reform with their constituents at town hall meetings.
Loudmouths = democracy in action! How dare anyone object?!
But back in 2007, when anti-war protesters who make up Code Pink, made headlines by disrupting an official event, the Fox News morning team was seriously pissed off:
During a discussion about a Code Pink member heckling Hillary Clinton at a recent event, Fox News host Brian Kilmead said that people who confront politicians are “threatening” and should be Tased or “beaten to a pulp,” as the establishment media continues to sell the idea that anyone who disagrees with authority should be brutally punished.
A segment on the Fox and Friends morning show yesterday turned into an opportunity for Kilmead to share his dictatorial fetish that dissenters be dealt with in the proper manner, as footage aired of Clinton’s heckler being removed from the event by security.
“They should Tase this guy,” Kilmead says. “At one point with security so high and tensions on edge, don’t you think they’re going to get at the very least Tased or beaten to a pulp by somebody? These people look threatening….
August 6, 2009 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Here's a simple plan . . .
Everyone who attends a town hall meeting should purchase a whoppie cushion and everytime time the wackos start shouting just keep squeezing the cushion until the laughter runs them all out of the hall...
Think I'm kidding? It worked against the Teamsters in San Francisco when they showed up at a meeting against the Vietnam war at the Maritime Hall.
Those damn hippies and pranksters really knew how to handle the thugs.
~OGD~
August 6, 2009 5:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Democrats were expelled from repub. town hall meetings just for having a tshirt or bumper sticker that opposed bush policies. I tried to get into one in NH and was told it was full, no room. Later saw pictures with hundreds of empty seats.
It's unfortunate these crazies can't be removed once they start disrupting.
Democrats need to stop taking sporks to a knife fight. geez
by the way, every time I try to edit my profile here, add a pic, I get a movable type error. Been going on for weeks. what's up with that?
August 6, 2009 11:17 AM | Reply | Permalink