Astroturf for me, but not for thee

I think that the Democrats are making a big mistake by demonizing people coming out to townhalls to protest against the Democrats' health care proposals. Robert Gibbs thinks that some of the emotion out there is being manufactured by the "Brooks Brothers Brigade." Apparently, Barbara Boxer is possessed of similar amazing powers of mind-reading because she knows that people sincerely opposed to the Democrats's plan wouldn't be well-dressed. If they were wearing T-shirts, would that make them sincere? Memo to astroturfers out there: be sure to tell your minions to dress down for the townhalls.

But what if people did come out to these meetings because they were being "astroturfed" by conservative groups or groups allied with the health insurance industry? What would be so illegitimate about that? Liberals have used similar techniques for their issues. What do you think a community organizer does? The whole idea of organizing a community is to energize and assist people to use their numbers and voices to achieve their goals.

And, by the way, the Democrats and their liberal allies are using those same supposedly despised astroturf techniques against members of their own party who are feared to be wavering on the leadership's health care plans. As the WSJ reports,

The news is how the political left and its lobbies are roughing up fellow Democrats who won’t get with President Obama’s government-run program. They’re treating the centrists who helped make them a majority as if they were Newt Gingrich without the social conscience.

On Friday, Democracy for America and the Progressive Change Campaign Committee put out a “rapid-response ad” against Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson, who is lukewarm about a government-run insurance scheme, the so-called public option. “Will Sen. Nelson choose the insurance interests who fund his campaigns to the tune of over $2 million dollars?” the ad declares. Democracy for America calls the ad “a warning shot to any Senator who tries to block President Obama’s public health insurance option.”

Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus is another target because he’s negotiating with Republicans. The same “progressive” outfits recently ran an ad attacking Mr. Baucus for “threatening” the public option and “taking” $3.9 million “from health and insurance interests.” The Montana Democrat was also rapped for trying to scale back the cost to under $900 billion. In case Mr. Baucus didn’t get the hint, fellow Senator Tom Harkin publicly noted last week that Democrats hold a secret ballot for committee chairmen every two years. Better hire a food taster, Max.

Over in the House, the Blue Dogs have received similar treatment since they raised doubts last months about the 5.4% surtax, among other problems in the House bill. The DNC immediately targeted the districts of 12 Democratic Members of Henry Waxman’s Energy and Commerce Committee with a “‘It’s time for reform” television ad. MoveOn.org also called out its troops to pressure Blue Dog Democrats not to miss “a once-in-a-generation chance to pass real health care reform.” The pressure seems to have worked because enough Blue Dogs fell in line to pass the bill with only token changes through committee last week.

....Even the Democratic National Committee is trashing Democrats, presumably with a green light from Mr. Obama and Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. Mr. Obama’s political arm, Organizing for America, which is officially a wing of the DNC, is running ads to press Democratic Senators in Arkansas, Indiana, Florida, Louisiana, North Dakota, Nebraska and Ohio. The outfit has also staged demonstrations outside Senator Bill Nelson’s Florida offices. The campaign is heavy-handed enough that even Majority Leader Harry Reid denounced it as “a waste of money.”

Many of these supposed Blue Dogs are Democrats who won in Republican-leaning districts by running as centrists and fiscal conservatives. What is going to happen to those Democrats in 2010 if they vote against the wishes of their constituents to fall in line for Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid?

If there’s a voter backlash in 2010, these Members will also be the first to be washed out to sea. Yet it’s becoming clearer by the day that Democratic leaders view these moderates as mere cannon-fodder footsoldiers in the great liberal revolution of 2009. And if you have to shoot a couple of them yourself to keep them all marching straight, so be it.

For a party that argued that we should get out of Iraq because that is what polls were telling us that the people wanted, they seem ready to ignore polls that are telling them that people don't want health care reform if it is going to expand the deficit or that people just don't support the Democrats' health care plans.

Marc Ambinder, not a member of any right-wing cabal, acknowledges that both sides use astroturf to generate political movement for programs they support or oppose. And he argues that astroturfing works only when there is legitimate anger or feeling to motivate people to come out in their free time to express that anger. If people aren't upset, they won't show up for an August meeting.

Democrats were able to defeat President Bush on Social Security because they found a way to capitalize on inherent skepticism about forcing that cherished institution to change. Make no mistake, the effort to defeat Social Security reform won because of a mix of organic anxiety, inorganic organizing, focus grouped-messaging and wealthy people and interests writing large checks. Today, we're at a similar juncture, except for the fact that the wealthy, organized/organic/inorganic protesters are on the other side of an issue. Democrats may have used different tactics -- protesting outside of places as opposed to inside of them -- but that's not terribly germane. It's true that health care reform in general is more popular than Social Security reform was, but that fact is not mutually exclusive with the fact that, because Democrats have to get to 60 votes in the Senate, there are meaningful and relevant anxieties too. The point is that, in terms of enthusiasm, on health care the right is capitalizing on a weak "pro" side and actual anxiety in the same way that the left capitalized on an weak "pro" side and actual anxiety on Social Security. Even if you think that the Dems have the right policy on both issues, the strategic analogy is, I think, valid. Social Security privatization failed because it was not popular, because Democrats out-gamed Republicans, and the because the Bush administration failed to find an effective argument that outgamed the gamers. And for a few other reasons too.

Astroturfing strikes us -- and me -- as dishonest because it masks real motivations, like the desire of industries to maintain the status quo. It allows powerful interests to magnify their voices at the expense of those without a megaphone. Be skeptical of Astrotufing. Totally. But technological change has very quickly shrunk the blade of grass, because it's much less expensive and much easier to start and sustain a movement. Sometimes, as in the case of health care, both sides Astroturf. What begats success? The Astroturfing? Or the underlying anxieties? I'll posit that Astroturfing tends to fail when there is nothing to sustain it, and it has a better chance of succeeding when the opposition can't figure out how to Astroturf their way into the same enthusiasm channel.

If Democrats are going to knock people who are sincerely angry by pooh-poohing their anger as being manufactured or are really just Birthers, they're going to risk ticking off a lot of people even more than they are already ticked. Nothing could be more irritating is being told that you don't feel what you dang well know that you feel.