Townhall Forums Unmask Dark Side of American Culture

The right may have gotten more
than they bargained for this time.

Whatever opponents to Obama's
healthcare plan had in mind for the Democrats' town hall meetings
this summer, one thing is crystal clear: Those turning up at the forums
across the nation are upset about a lot more than healthcare. Whether
or not they've been duped by right wing talk radio hosts or, as one
article posted at CommonDreams asserts, they are little more than "useful
idiots," what is apparent is that by exploiting the most reactionary
elements of the far right to mobilize their base, the Republican opposition
has managed to unleash a far more sinister force than "anger over
Obama's healthcare plan" (that benign phrase so faithfully being
echoed in the mainstream media). In fact, if William Kostric, who showed
up on August 11 at one such meeting in New Hampshire with a loaded 9
mm pistol strapped to his right hip is any indication, the already-feeling-marginalized
classes who attended the meetings en masse are not only mad as hell,
but they're ready to do something about it.

Despite conservatives' dismissive
- and in some cases disdainful - attitude toward the left's charges
of, among other things, racism, it was pretty obvious on August 11 that
protestors who showed up at the New Hampshire town meeting had their
own agenda. Emboldened by instructions posted on right wing message
boards by the same lobbyist-run groups who orchestrated the anti-Obama
tea parties earlier this year, some felt free to blurt out epithets
that most Americans thought - or at least hoped - had long since vanished
from the American lexicon. And notwithstanding FreedomWorks' Max Pappas
insistence on the talk show circuit that his and other groups like them
are 'grassroots,' a leaked internal memo reportedly put out by pro-industry
groups Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks and subsequently posted
at Governor Howard Dean's website is revealing. The memo, titled "Rocking
the Town Halls - Best Practices" spells out in no uncertain terms
how members should be infiltrating town halls and harassing Democratic
members of Congress:

"We here in Fairfield County
Connecticut conducted an action at Congressman Jim Himes' Town Hall
meeting in May 2009," the memo begins. "We believe there are some
best practices which emerged from the event and our experience which
could be useful to activists in just about any district where their
Congressperson has supported the socialist agenda of the Democrat leadership
in Washington." Among the memo's instructions:

• Artificially Inflate
  Your Numbers: "Spread out in the hall and try to be in the front half.
  The objective is to put the Rep on the defensive with your questions
  and follow-up. The Rep should be made to feel that a majority, and if
  not, a significant portion of at least the audience, opposes the socialist
  agenda of Washington."
  

• Be Disruptive Early And Often: "You need to rock-the-boat early
  in the Rep's presentation, Watch for an opportunity to yell out and
  challenge the Rep's statements early."
  
• Try To "Rattle Him," Not Have An Intelligent Debate: "The
  goal is to rattle him, get him off his prepared script and agenda. If
  he says something outrageous, stand up and shout out and sit right back
  down. Look for these opportunities before he even takes questions."

Thomas Jefferson, Meet William
Kostric

Such explicit instructions
go a long way toward explaining why the right wing, pistol-toting Kostric
felt just fine about attending a town hall forum with his 9 mm on display
for the whole world to see. It also explains why another white, middle-aged
male felt perfectly safe spewing ugly hate speech through a megaphone.
"Why are we bankrupting this country for 21 million illegals who should
be sent on the first bus one way back from wherever they came from,"
he frothed. "Send them home with a bullet in their head the second
time. Read what Jefferson said about the tree of liberty. It's coming
baby."

The vitriol doesn't end there.
The Hill reported that still another protestor in Hagerstown, Maryland
on August 12, where Senator Ben Cardin (D-Md.) was attempting without
much apparent success to sell the Democrats' healthcare plan, was
spotted holding up a handwritten sign with the words, "Death to Obama"
scrawled on it. It's worth noting also that slave-owner president
Thomas Jefferson, who back in 1787 penned the words, "The tree of
liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of tyrants
and patriots," is very popular with this crowd. The quote apparently
worked for Kostric, who, along with his 9mm, carried a self-styled placard
bearing the words, "It's time to water the tree of liberty."

The socialist-branding of Obama
by his opponents has further stoked the hate. "Throughout the first
six months of his administration, President Obama - perhaps one of the
most politically cautious leaders in contemporary history - has been
routinely portrayed as a radical by his opponents on the far-right,"
observes anti-racist activist and writer Tim Wise in an article posted
at CounterPunch.

Wise, who garnered my un-ending
respect back in the 1990's during a series of live on-air phone interviews
during my days as a radio news producer, writes, "Reducing all government
action other than war-making to part of a larger socialist conspiracy,
the right contends that health care reform is socialist, capping greenhouse
gas emissions is socialist, even providing incentives for driving fuel
efficient cars is socialist. That the right insists upon Obama's radical-left
credentials, even as they push an Obama=Hitler meme ... only speaks
to the special brand of crazy currently in vogue among the nation's
reactionary forces.

"It is not," he explains,
"a simple belief in smaller government or lower taxes that animates
the near-hysterical cries from the right about wanting 'their country
back,' from those who have presumably hijacked it: you know, those
known lefties like Tim Geithner and Rahm Emanuel."

An Unharmonic Convergence

Wise believes that what differentiates
Obama from any of the other big spenders who have occupied the White
House is "principally one thing - his color." And, says Wise, "it
is his color that makes the bandying about of the 'socialist' label
especially effective and dangerous. Indeed, I would suggest that at
the present moment, socialism is little more than racist code for the
longstanding white fear that black folks will steal from them, and covet
everything they have ... the current round of red-baiting is based on
implicit (and perhaps even explicit) appeals to white racial resentment
... Unless this is understood, left-progressive responses to the tactic
will likely fall flat. After all, pointing out the absurdity of calling
Obama a socialist, given his real policy agenda, will mean little if
the people issuing the charge were never using the term in the literal
sense, but rather, as a symbol for something else entirely."

Americans would do well to
consider Wise's words carefully as the health care fiasco all but
consumes the first African American president. Properly managed by the
left, conservatives' tactics could just backfire - big time. Assuming
no one gets gunned down in coming months - and that's assuming a
lot - it just might turn out to be a good thing that the right and their
talk show poison-pushers have managed, by exploiting the simmering anger
at the party base, to change the subject.

Despite the ongoing denial
seemingly from every corner of the political spectrum, America's history,
as it turns out, still demands to be reckoned with. For better or worse,
the 'healthcare debate' has unmasked the darkest corners and least
explored aspects of American culture. And, shameful as they are, we
will have to deal with them. Racism and violence are proving yet again
to be powerful forces - and Americans can't simply wish them away.
They were only posing as a conversation about healthcare reform.