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| Home Front: Politix |
| Amazing Adventures in Astroturfing |
| 2009-08-14 |
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 presidentÂ’s plan, and itÂ’s extremely important that folks like you speak up now. 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 RepublicanÂ’s office hours, address, and phone number, and asked me to select a time to visit. YouÂ’ll 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 districtÂ’s 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 hasnÂ’t decided how he will vote. Thus, Driehaus is a guy OFA should be targeting. I made a commitment to visit SchmidtÂ’s 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 youÂ’ll 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 DriehausÂ’ office is on the 30th floor of a downtown office building, most of his constituents canÂ’t 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 doesnÂ’t seem like a guy whoÂ’s 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. ThatÂ’s 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 DriehausÂ’ office during any of the previous six hours or that, if they did, they didnÂ’t show up. Because Driehaus was not available, the front-desk person located the congressmanÂ’s 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 didnÂ’t 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 didnÂ’t say this at the time, but should have), if alleged Catholic and Cincinnati Bishop Elder High School graduate Steve Driehaus doesnÂ’t understand how fundamentally immoral ObamaCareÂ’s statist health care is, especially from a Catholic perspective — even if abortion is totally excised from it — heÂ’s beyond help. Because my visit to DriehausÂ’ office was so brief, I was able to get to Congresswoman Jean SchmidtÂ’s 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. SchmidtÂ’s 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 OFAÂ’s 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 SchmidtÂ’s office that day were ObamaCare supporters. So letÂ’s 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 OhioÂ’s 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 |
| #1 Under the Obama administration, rent-a-crowds are now surprisingly affordable. |
| Posted by: WTF 2009-08-14 23:02 |
