The First Amendment: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
How did things come to such a pass that the Speaker of the House of Representatives of the United States feels comfortable calling people exercising their rights to free speech and assembly guaranteed by the First Amendment “Un-American?”
How It Started
–The unprecedented bailout and federal takeover of the financial sector
–The unprecedented bailout and federal takeover of automakers
–The rushed passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill
–The stealthy passage of cap and trade in the House during a late Friday night session, just after the addition of 300+ pages to the bill
–Proposed health care reform legislation that will nationalize 1/6th of the economy
–National debt over $11 trillion
These and other events in Washington led to the formation of the Tea Party Movement, a spontaneous gathering of people who have similar views about the massive expansion of federal government, the rapidly-increasing debt, and a sense that elected representatives are disconnected from ordinary voters. That’s how Northwest Indiana Patriots came into being.
Before organizations like Tea Parties and NWIP were formed, many people would write, email, fax and call their representatives with their views. They would sign petitions, and urge their families, friends and neighbors to do the same. They would write letters to their local newspapers, and call in to local radio talk shows. But mostly, people would complain to each other and shake their heads over the direction in which they saw their country going, feeling helpless to change it.
The Tea Party Movement changed all that. Folks came to the April 15 Tea Parties and left them with the feeling that they were not alone in their views. There was a way to get together with others and have an effect. The people in Tea Party organizations began to show up at local government meetings to question new taxes being proposed. They protested in front of Senators’ and Representatives’ offices to express their views about everything from proposed legislation to the income tax, sometimes to provide an alternative view to the ones expressed by MoveOn.org protesters who were there. NWIP participated in four protests, one at Senator Lugar’s Valparaiso office, two at Senator Bayh’s Hammond office, and one at Rep. Peter Visclosky’s Merrillville office. We have another planned at Rep. Visclosky’s office this Friday.
And they started showing up at town halls all over the country. NWIP went to a community meeting in Chesterton that Rep. Visclosky held, in cooperation with the Democratic Alliance and MoveOn.org, in Chesterton. Over 200 people came, the big majority of them opposed to HR 3200, the proposed Kennedy Health Care Reform bill that includes the “public option,” which equates to government-run health care. Our meeting went smoothly, with no violence, but voters did not placidly accept everything that the Representative told them without questioning it, sometimes loudly. That occurred all over the country, too.
That was not true for all town halls, though. In Tampa and St. Louis town halls turned violent, with Tea Party protesters being assaulted, and some people being arrested.
The White House and our elected representatives’ response
How have our elected officials responded to our exercise of First Amendment rights?
The White House blog called for people to report online criticisms of health care reform legislation by forwarding what they characterized as “fishy” emails to it. Readers of a certain age will recall President Nixon’s “enemies list.”
Senators were told to pack their town halls with supporters of healthcare reform, which the White House characterized as pushing back hard. Strangely, we had thought these events were meant to engage voters, not thwart them from expressing their views.
The White House set up a website called Health Insurance Reform Reality Check to disseminate what the Administration considers to be the “facts.”
The Democratic National Committee sent out an email entitled “5 facts about the anti-reform mobs.” Here’s what’s really driving the town hall protests, according to them:
1. These disruptions are being funded and organized by out-of-district special-interest groups and insurance companies who fear that health insurance reform could help Americans, but hurt their bottom line. A group run by the same folks who made the “Swiftboat” ads against John Kerry is compiling a list of congressional events in August to disrupt. An insurance company coalition has stationed employees in 30 states to track where local lawmakers hold town-hall meetings.
2. People are scared because they are being fed frightening lies. These crowds are being riled up by anti-reform lies being spread by industry front groups that invent smears to tarnish the President’s plan and scare voters. But as the President has repeatedly said, health insurance reform will create more health care choices for the American people, not reduce them. If you like your insurance or your doctor, you can keep them, and there is no “government takeover” in any part of any plan supported by the President or Congress.
3. Their actions are getting more extreme. Texas protesters brought signs displaying a tombstone for Rep. Lloyd Doggett and using the “SS” symbol to compare President Obama’s policies to Nazism. Maryland Rep. Frank Kratovil was hanged in effigy outside his district office. Rep. Tim Bishop of New York had to be escorted to his car by police after an angry few disrupted his town hall meeting — and more examples like this come in every day. And they have gone beyond just trying to derail the President’s health insurance reform plans, they are trying to “break” the President himself and ruin his Presidency.
4. Their goal is to disrupt and shut down legitimate conversation. Protesters have routinely shouted down representatives trying to engage in constructive dialogue with voters, and done everything they can to intimidate and silence regular people who just want more information. One attack group has even published a manual instructing protesters to “stand up and shout” and try to “rattle” lawmakers to prevent them from talking peacefully with their constituents.
5. Republican leadership is irresponsibly cheering on the thuggish crowds. Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner issued a statement applauding and promoting a video of the disruptions and looking forward to “a long, hot August for Democrats in Congress.”
It comes as a complete surprise to NWIP that special interests are funding our events. Also, we have come to the conclusions we have about HR 3200 and the Senate bill through researching them ourselves. Has anyone seen one swastika in all the media coverage of the town halls? Do you seriously think that picture wouldn’t have been on the front page of every newspaper and led the news programs if there had been one? As for trying to ruin the Presidency, we say it’s about the country and its future, not one man. With all the participation by unions and MoveOn.org to promote Obamacare at these events, we consider that we are the “regular people” they refer to.
All we can say is, “Where’s the beef?” Produce some proof of these accusations, DNC, or retract them.
Congressmen have cancelled town halls or have chosen to hold them by video conferencing. One Congresswoman turned her town hall into a “prayer vigil” to restrict her constituents’ freedom of speech.
One Senator is soliciting union help to counter his constituents. “Sen. Cardin’s office has been notified that the ‘teabaggers’ and ‘birthers’ will be holding a rally outside the concert hall at 5:30 PM,” Riley warned. “They will then file into the Town Hall Meeting.”
Accusations of “astroturfing” have been directed at citizens engaging in free speech. Astroturfing means that the people participating in these protests are fakes, ringers who are there only to provide numbers, with no conviction or passion driving them. That accusation was implied about NWIP and the other people opposed to Obamacare at Rep. Visclosky’s town hall. The co-chairman of the organization running the event, Don Briggs, used that event as a primer for running future town halls on a big lefty website.
To see real astroturfing, check out the Obama Administration and Democratic Party’s handiwork involving a town hall for Senator Shaneen.
This is the flyer that the DNC wants “regular people” to hold as they outshout anyone else in the room. Notice the bottom of the flyer.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Steny Hoyer wrote an article calling a lot of people unpatriotic. Un-American’ attacks can’t derail health care debate
This is what Speaker Pelosi finds to be unpatriotic:
These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves. Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American. Drowning out the facts is how we failed at this task for decades.
On the other hand, there is a memo from SEIU Local 2001 issued this week in preparation for Rep. Jim Himes’ town hall in Stamford, Conn.
Action: Opponents of reform are organizing counter-demonstrators to speak at this and several congressional town halls on the issue to defend the status quo. It is critical that our members with real, personal stories about the need for access to quality, affordable care come out in strong numbers to drown out their voices.
The SEIU has updated its website to ask supporters to “counter” other voices.
Want to be an Obamacare astroturfer and make money, too? Go to Craigslist.
Friends of big government
Organizations connected with the Democratic Party are getting into the act. Health Care for America Now (HCAN), a coalition group supporting President Obama’s recommended plans, is providing bodies and voices to outnumber and drown out concerned citizens.
Bloggers at DailyKos, one of the most-trafficked “Progressive” sites, are busy thinking up ways to neutralize us. Organize Methods To Counter Anti Health Care Teabaggers
MoveOn.org sent this out: ” We’ve got a plan to fight back against these radical right-wingers. We’ve hired skilled grassroots organizers who are working with thousands of local volunteers to show Congress that ordinary Americans continue to support President Obama’s agenda for change. And we’re building new online tools to track events across the country and make sure MoveOn members turn out at each one.”
The Michigan AFL-CIO President is calling for members to attend town halls to “counter disruptive protesters.”
AFL-CIO President John Sweeney has called on his members to “to defend lawmakers’ health care reform town hall meetings from “corporate…mob rule” in recent days.
The violence at a town hall in St. Louis mentioned above? The SEIU attacked protesters there.
The media response
During the April 15 Tea Parties, what little national coverage there was, was hostile. One CNN reporter lost her job over it.
Now they are going about slanting their coverage in other, more subtle ways, framing their stories to put the best light on proponents of government run health care by omitting context and sometimes actually changing them after they’ve been published online.
They write stories with headlines like Angry Americans disrupt town-hall healthcare talks
Pushback
Fox Cable News and alternative media are leading the way in getting facts out to the country. Pajamas Media TV has a channel devoted to health care town hall coverage.
Videos of these events are all over the internet, so people can see what is really happening. Here’s one:
Blogs like Instapundit, Michelle Malkin and Hot Air work tirelessly to counter main stream media’s disinformation.
Facebook and other groups like The Peoples’ Mob are springing up online.
What do we do?
NWIP’s events have been energetic, enthusiastic, and loud. The attendance continues to increase at every one of them. We have tremendous momentum going right now. Let’s be sure to keep it building by continuing to act in ways that promote the movement and do not break any laws or incite violence. We will be respectful of other opinions. We will win by debating in a civilized manner and by being informed on the issues and ideas. That has been the basis of our democracy since its founding. It is the response of the White House, Congressmen, media, the Democratic National Committee and groups associated with them who have have chosen an un-American path.
Tags: Bill of Rights, Congress, First Amendment, Healthcare Reform, media, Moveon.org, Obama, Pelosi
When the people are more informed than those they elected suggests a troubling scenario. Chuck Norris wrote an op ed piece on Townhall.com and revealed he read the entire bill. He questioned why the federal government needs to go into the homes to coach parents on how to raise their children.
For movie fans and we baby boomers, maybe Soylent Green, is not that far off.
I expected the left to get down and dirty…thats what they do best. Our voices need to be louder yet
peaceful. It’s not the time to back down…pray…and go forward for our country.
I’m no ringer for anybody. Nobody called me or put me up to this. I’m doing this of my own free will based upon what I read and hear in the news, based upon my personal experience, based upon my observation of human nature and politics for nearly 40 years, based upon my study of history for nearly that long, based upon the US Constitution, and based upon the Bible. We are tired of being marginalized and ignored by the people who are supposed to represent us and uphold the Constitution of the United States of America. We’re fed up with government fraud, with socalist/communist/fascist anti-American and unConstitutional policies, we’re tired of having our wages confiscated and our money debased, only to be given away to foreigners, globalists, and anti-American/anti-Christian ’social engineers’. We want a free republic, not a socialist gulag. We want a culture of life, not death. We want a government, under God, of the people, by the people, and for the people, not some godless monstrosity of, by, and for the elite, and some globalist anti-American elite at that.