If you want to dismiss any sort of protest, you do the following:
- First off, play down the numbers. Both in absolute terms and as a percentage of the population. The participants never ever hold a majority popular opinion.
- Find the wing-nuts in the crowd, and give them the most attention, misspelled protest signs a plus.
- Make sure that you point out any involvement of any organized group or prominent individual to imply a shadowy conspiracy directing the activity; call it “AstroTurf” as opposed to “grass-roots.”
- And of course, dismiss the participants as ignorant fools who have no idea what they’re actually protesting.
Works for anything, really, from a Million Man march to a WTO protest.
Seen the above a lot today, especially with Mr. Marc Cooper of the LA Times who makes himself look like a desperately frightened little twit shoving his fingers in his ears going “LALALALALALALA.”
Shall we talk of Mr. Cooper?
The Web is buzzing with information about how to throw an anti-Obama Taxpayer Tea Party, something organizers hope will be held today from Santa Monica to South Carolina. But no need to burn up your bandwidth reading complicated instructions. Here’s a simpler recipe:
Go to a hobby store. Buy a scale model of a U.N. One-World-Government Black Helicopter and a tube of glue. Toss the model kit. Sniff the entire tube of glue. You’re all set for the party.
Two paragraphs hit each bullet point in the Karl Rove playbook. “Anti-Obama” downplays the populism by placing the tea-party thing in direct opposition to Obama, the lone part of the Federal government that has a greater than 50% approval rating. Can’t be anti-Congress rallies, cause everyone’s against that hive of villainy and corruption. (To quote some movie.) Throw in the black helicopter reference, does as good a job as interviewing the guy holding the “NO BLOOD FOR OIL” sign and screaming how Dick Chaney gave the order for 9/11. Of course this web-based initiative has shadowy “organizers” because real people can’t figure out how to use Facebook. Cast the participants as glue-sniffing dolts, and there you go. Of course it goes on, but let me just hit the highlights:
I can recall only a few outbreaks of such collective insanity as these tea parties … Whip out your Lipton and don your tinfoil hat … what’s the beef behind today’s protests? … organized not only by the pseudo-journalists at Fox News (with Glenn Beck, Neil Cavuto and Sean Hannity actively stoking the flames) … because they are outraged, simply infuriated, by the marginal tax rate rising 3% for millionaires? … Nobody I know is very pleased with the billions ladled out to teetering banks and corporations. Yet a clear majority of Americans are sophisticated enough to know that these bailouts are a necessary evil … a rather garish display of a Republican right that seems to have lost not only the national elections but also any semblance of political bearings.
Wow. I’ve never been called an idiot in such a completely disingenuous way. Apparently because I do not accept the Kensyan kool-aid of wild government spending, or the evil “necessity” of nationalizing banks and auto manufacturers I must be a candidate for the tinfoil hat brigade. But maybe Mr. Cooper is right, and it is a perfectly reasonable expectation that trillion dollar deficits will never raise tax rates, just like that real estate market will never go bust, and the stock market will always go up.
Mr. Cooper has his head so far up his backside I can’t call him an asshat. More of an ass-necktie.
Of course Mr. Cooper is not the only one with a bucket of fail to cart for the traditional media. Again, we have the LA times with a more (can I call it this?) “fair and balanced” screed by James Rainey who I believe is trying to be even handed by pimp-slapping both Fox and MSNBC, but ends up going the dismissive unpopulist wingnut route by claiming:
Organizers set today’s protests to coincide with the April 15 income tax deadline. The cable-TV-driven movement found its inspiration in, yes, a cable TV moment.
That came last month, when CNBC reporter Rick Santelli fumed on-air about government bailouts, angry that money would go to “losers” who couldn’t pay their mortgages. He suggested a “tea party” protest, mimicking American patriots who tossed English tea into Boston Harbor prior to the Revolutionary War.
Apparently the LA times can not conceive this movement happening without the intervention of FOX cable news. I guess this means the Wall Street Journal just made this up:
There is no political party behind these rallies, no grand right-wing conspiracy, not even a 501(c) group like MoveOn.org … So who’s behind the Tax Day tea parties? Ordinary folks who are using the power of the Internet to organize … The protests began with bloggers in Seattle, Wash., who organized a demonstration on Feb. 16. As word of this spread, rallies in Denver and Mesa, Ariz., were quickly organized for the next day. Then came CNBC talker Rick Santelli’s Feb. 19 “rant heard round the world” in which he called for a “Chicago tea party” on July Fourth. The tea-party moniker stuck, but angry taxpayers weren’t willing to wait until July.
Wait, don’t you see, Rick Santelli called for a Tea Party, and they’re calling them Tea Parties! He must be using FOX news to control the masses. . . from CNBC. . .
6 Comments
DekoPuma · April 16, 2009 at 10:44 am
What exactly are all these protests about? The only information I’ve really seen is reports like those you quoted. It’s obvious that people are upset by something, but what exactly is it that they’re trying to accomplish? Is there a goal or just a general voicing of dissatisfaction?
S Andrew Swann · April 16, 2009 at 11:04 am
The protests are, almost universally, about the hemorrhaging of money from Congress and the Fed in what the protesters believe is a terribly misguided attempt to “fix” the economy. The “anti-tax” moniker is actually a misnomer glommed onto by those who really don’t want to believe that a majority of people actually don’t think all this Federal largess is manna from heaven. These are people who don’t want their grandkids to pay for a two-trillion dollar hole this Congress is digging.
Secondary issue; People don’t like the Federal Government taking over major corporations, either directly, or by proxy (well we gave you the money, now you have to get rid of your CEO, and revise your salary structure. . .)
David · April 18, 2009 at 3:05 am
You know what annoys me about these particular protesters, even though I agree with their complaint? Why didn’t they speak out against Republican spendthriftness, too? Where was the bipartisan protest of Democrat/Republican deficits over the last 50-odd years, or the failure to pass a balanced-budget amendment? Now that it appears that the bill we kept putting off and putting off and putting off may actually come due, to the tune of $100,000+ for every man, woman and child, NOW they finally start protesting? To quote another movie line (about Johnnie-come-latlies): “Welcome to the party, pal!”
S Andrew Swann · April 18, 2009 at 8:10 am
David, while I feel your frustration, I can’t help but point out that if we always measure the validity of evil’s opposition based on the point in time the opposition started you can invalidate opposition to just about anything. (Where were you when they passed the Income Tax, huh? I didn’t see you protesting then?) More importantly, how do you expect any movement to grow if your response to folks coming to a cause is “where the hell were you when I was voting for Ross Perot?” When things get so ugly and blatant that someone finally comes around to agree with you, be grateful, cause that means something might get done.
Michelle · April 20, 2009 at 11:38 am
David – we all have our epiphanies at different times. For me it came with the passing of the Patriot Act and then TARP 1. So, yes, I was frustrated during Bush’s presidency, too. If someone would have organized protests about it in my area, I would have gone. But I am even more frustrated now, as time goes on, as this administration is passing trillions in spending without even reading the bills! In addition to TARP 1 and TARP 2, we also have the omnibus and the budget. Additionally, now I’m considered a domestic terrorist simply because I disagree with the administration.
I feel like I was screwed by the Republicans and Democrats, alike. They are 2 branches of the same tree. I’m probably more frustrated with the Republicans, because I expected better from them and they grew our government and debt more than any in the past. But it takes time to get angry enough to mobilize. The tea parties grew from a slow-building frustration and the realization that both parties are screwing the people in order to keep the power for themselves. What I found interesting at the tea party I went to was that of all the people I met, NONE had ever protested before. We were all protest virgins.
Genrewonk » On the nature of astroturf. . . · July 22, 2009 at 8:06 am
[…] know I posted about this line of thought earlier: Apparently because I do not accept the Kensyan kool-aid of wild government spending, or the evil […]
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