A Brief History of Fake Right-Wing Protests

A Brief History of Fake Right-Wing Protests

A Brief History of Fake Right-Wing Protests

The Nation‘s Chris Hayes on the not-so-new conservative strategy of disrupting town halls in order to hurt healthcare reform efforts.

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Chris Hayes, Washington editor of The Nation, joins Rachel
Maddow to talk about the latest Republican
strategy for stalling healthcare
reform
: astroturf, or fake grassroots, protests staged at town
hall meetings discussing healthcare. Hayes points out that the
strategy of these protests is essentially “shut it down”–make so much
noise and commotion that a discussion of all sides of the issue is
impossible. Hayes notes that the extremist nature of these protests
lends itself to what he calls Obama’s political judo, using the
excesses of the opponents against them.

On a fundamental level, though, Hayes notes, “The answer is to meet
organizing with more organizing. . . Democrats
have to organize their own forces
.”

Sarah Jaffe

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