Amazing Adventures in Astroturfing
On Sunday evening, I received a compelling email that I simply could not ignore calling me to action (click here to see a graphic of the full email):
All throughout August, our members of Congress are back in town. Insurance companies and partisan attack groups are stirring up fear with false rumors about the presidents plan, and its extremely important that folks like you speak up now.
So weve cooked up an easy, powerful way for you to make a big impression: Office Visits for Health Reform.
All this week, OFA members like you will be stopping by local congressional offices to show our support for insurance reform.
Sign up now to visit Rep. Jean Schmidts office in Cincinnati this week.
Well, as a bona fide, long-ago signed-up member of Organizing for Astroturfing, er, America, I could not turn down such an important request. (Never mind that the email refers to health reform and insurance reform, which, last time I checked, are different things.) So I went to the OFA website and found this sign-up form (red box at link added by me). It informed me of the 2nd District Republicans office hours, address, and phone number, and asked me to select a time to visit. Youll notice that the form also required me to provide my phone number, so that an organizer can follow up with you. How thoughtful.
Separately, in keeping with the spirit of the OFA email, I cooked up the idea of also visiting the office of 1st District Rep. Steve Driehaus, whose districts boundary is about ten miles away from the BizzyBlog bunker. Driehaus is, at least in theory, one of the on the fence Blue Dog Democrats. At an August 4 town hall meeting that made national news, he got an earful from those opposed to the plan and told those who attended that he hasnt decided how he will vote. Thus, Driehaus is a guy OFA should be targeting.
I made a commitment to visit Schmidts office at 4:00 p.m. on Monday, August 10, and to visit Driehaus at 3:00 p.m. In each case, I received a confirming email response that also directed me to a two-page Office Visits for Health Reform Guide (PDF).
As youll see, the guide has a few amazing claims, with no sourcing, about the cost of inaction in Ohio...I did my own sourcing and determined that the claims are either flat-out wrong or squishy deceptions....
Since Congressman Driehaus office is on the 30th floor of a downtown office building, most of his constituents cant come to see him unless they pay to park somewhere (as I did). Of all the sites he could have picked as his one and only First District office, he picked one at its furthest southeast end downtown. This doesnt seem like a guy whos a man of the peeps.
I got there at 3:25 p.m. You might think that I was worried about being late. After all, the rest of the 3:00 p.m. OFA crowd might have filled up the available meeting room and my precious activist voice might not be heard.
Not exactly.
Thats because I was the first and only visitor from Organizing for Astroturfing, er, America, that day. This either means that no one from OFA had committed to visit Driehaus office during any of the previous six hours or that, if they did, they didnt show up.
Because Driehaus was not available, the front-desk person located the congressmans community outreach/field representative, who told me that he had to be on a conference call shortly. He gave me his business card and said that he would be glad to meet with me at some other time to discuss ObamaCare. Since I didnt get a chance to do so during the visit, I separately spoke with that person on Wednesday and told him that I oppose ObamaCare and that the congressman, both as a representative and as a Catholic, should vote against it. Frankly (I didnt say this at the time, but should have), if alleged Catholic and Cincinnati Bishop Elder High School graduate Steve Driehaus doesnt understand how fundamentally immoral ObamaCares statist health care is, especially from a Catholic perspective — even if abortion is totally excised from it — hes beyond help.
Because my visit to Driehaus office was so brief, I was able to get to Congresswoman Jean Schmidts office 13 miles away on time to meet my 4:00 p.m. commitment. Ms. Schmidt was not there. The front-desk person at Ms. Schmidts office (which, by contrast, is located in a building where visitors can park for free), showed me that he had three earlier visitors who had dropped off their OFA fact sheets. One, who had written the word FREEDOM in large letters inside OFAs message box, used the opportunity to encourage Ms. Schmidt to continue to oppose ObamaCare. I did as well, without bothering to print anything out. The other two visitors to Schmidts office that day were ObamaCare supporters.
So lets recap: In 15 possible visiting hours on Monday, the two members of Congress had four OFA visitors — two for ObamaCare and two against. I have since followed up with the offices of Schmidt and Southwestern Ohios 8th District congressman, Republican John Boehner. They have reported slightly higher turnouts, but they were averaging nowhere near even one person per office per hour overall as of late Tuesday afternoon.
I doubt that readers are blown away by the grassroots support Organizing for Astroturfing, er, America, has been able to generate....
Posted by: Mike 2009-08-14 |