Town Hall Health Care Propaganda Devices At Work

Dear Reader and Friend,

Thank you for joining me today! I know it’s been quite a while since we last spoke.

Today we are going to discuss something interesting. Something current. Something that if this country keeps going the way it is and this gets posted in a few years I would end up in a gulag (or prison on a military base for civilians). Let’s hope it doesn’t get that far.

Anyway, today we are going to look at the Health Care Town Hall Meetings. How the Citizenry are rising up, and how the Democrats and their allies (AARP, the Unions, the Big Media — TV news, newspapers, news magazines, etc. who have given up objective reporting and now specialize in puff pieces, and attacking the Democrats foes) are countering.

Remember, as the New York Times itself back in the days when it was more objective — said in an editorial, September 1, 1937 said

“ What is truly vicious, is not propaganda but a monopoly of it.’

The now defunct Institute for Propaganda Analysis followed with “This monopoly is seen most clearly in totalitarian states where all channels of communication are controlled by the government. The extent to which the propaganda machinery of a country has been brought under the control of one organization or a group of related organizations is a useful measure of the degree to which absolutism dominates it, of the extent to which democracy has been eliminated.”

For a while you saw almost exclusively grey haired grandmothers and grandfathers expressing their outrage at the proposed health care changes. They &liquor;Had it up to here!” You saw well dressed business men and business women, mothers and fathers all showing up at the Town Hall Meetings making their voices heard. And their numbers felt. It was not organized protests, in the sense that a particular party or group called all their members and gave “marching orders” to go and protest. Far from it.

The Senators and Representatives home from Washington figured they would talk to some friendly audiences and then say “Well, my constituents didn’t protest much so I can feel safe about voting for the President’s Health Care Bill, and I will still be re-elected… I’ll have the excuse that since they didn’t let me know they were against it, I thought they were for it.”

A Shot Heard Round The Country

Then the first meeting took place. The representative ran out of the Town Hall meeting completely flustered at the resistance to the Health Care Plan he was holding the Town Hall meeting on. Immediately, the media friendly to the Democrats came on TV stating something about how the “Independents” and “Middle America” (both Glittering Generalities) would see these protesters as “wacko”s” (name calling), and become irritated. Editors Note… Here we see the start of a Propaganda Device. The Device is Name Calling. It also is subtlety combined with Bandwagon, and Glittering Generality, and a big dose of Card Stacking (of the name calling and glittering generalities).

You had some people who took video cameras with them and posted the videos — of the protests and the Washington politician running away — on the web. Soon people from other cities who had the same belief saw it was OK to protest. And protest loudly. Editors Note: the effect of putting the protests on the web and making them available to others is also a propaganda device of Bandwagon. As in “See, we are doing it. Everyone is doing it. Come join.” And so the common people flocked to the Town Halls.

Soon the Big Media talking heads started criticizing the people demonstrating, and speaking their minds. Shortly thereafter, the Big Media talking heads started looking for something… anything they could find to show these demonstrators at the Town Halls linked to insurance companies, the republican party, or anything else they cold intimate was controlling the protesters as if they were puppets. But alas for Big Media, they could not find anything solid to pin their claims to.

Then it came time for the embattled Democrats to start firing their propaganda weapons.

First they started with the Propaganda device and tactics of Card Stacking of Name Calling with Glittering Generalities.

Here is a sampling:

Dear Reader and Friend, these are in no particular order (Chronological or otherwise)

Let’ start with Senator Arlen Spector (D-PA)

as reported http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_protests
Sen. Arlen Specter said he thinks people who have been angrily disrupting town hall meetings on overhauling the health care system are “not necessarily representative of America,”

Angrily disrupting — what picture does that conjure up in your mind?

“representative of America” a nice glittering generality. What is representative of America? And then add the words “not necessarily“ meaning they are not.

Taken together he is saying the protesters are not American in their behavior or attitudes.

Claire McCaskill (D-MO)

as reported http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090812/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_protests
“Representative Claire McCaskill admonished the rowdy crowd, saying ‘I don’t understand this rudeness. I honestly don’ get it.’”

“rowdy crowd” Once again we see a good example of name calling by the press

And according to McCaskill Protesters who are voicing their complaints are now (Name Calling)“Rude”

Let’s move on to Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)

as he said in an MSNBC interview “Well, the last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it,… At that time, we had a lot of Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble.”

Let‘s see “last time I had to confront something like this was when I voted for the civil rights bill” Propaganda tactic/device of Transfer — Dingell is attempting to transfer the authority of the Civil Rights Bill (a glittering Generality in the sense “Civil Rights” is hard to define because it means so many things to different people). But he is attempting to transfer the authority and good feeling of Civil Rights to the Democrat proposed Health Care Bill.

“I voted for the civil rights bill and my opponent voted against it” So Dingell is implying if you are against the Democrat Health Card Bill you are against Civil Rights… Looks like card stacking in one sentence, and a bit of Name Calling too

Then Dingell really get‘s into the Name Calling device “Ku Klux Klan folks and white supremacists and folks in white sheets and other things running around causing trouble.”

Comparing the Town Hall protesters he represents to KKK and White Supremacists. Meaning if you are against President Obama’s and the Democrats plan you are racist because Obama happens to be Black. And you sure don’t want to be (Name Calling) Racist, or a (Name Calling) “White Supremacist” so you better go along with the plan. And not speak out.

This fits in nicely with the portrait of US Citizen protesters Speaker of the House of Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) chimed in with

as reported by
“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has accused attendees at health care town hall meetings of carrying swastikas – and the Democratic National Committee is now featuring photos of protesters with swastikas in its new video, claiming (Name Calling) ‘angry mobs” are (Glittering Generality) ‘seeking to destroy Obama.’”

Pelosi was asked if she thought it’s legitimate grass roots opposition
She responded, “I think they are (Name Calling)Astroturf … you be the judge,” Pelosi answered. “They’re carrying (Name Calling) swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”

And amazingly enough… shortly after this quote a Georgia Representatives office was defaced with a Swastika and gleefully reported on by the Big Media. Is it possible there was some sort of Hitler trick going on. You know, when he went to far as to have his Socialist Party cronies blow up the Reichstag and blame it on Communists.

Another Elected Democrat attack on the protesters… this one by Rep. Brian Baird (D-WA)

As reported http://www.thenewstribune.com/callaghan/story/841056.html
Rep. Brian Baird (Tacoma WA) is the poster child, breaking with his tradition of holding frequent meetings with constituents (300 since 1999), because “it’s a lynch mob mentality out there.” He even told his hometown Vancouver Columbian that reform opponents are using “Brown Shirt tactics.”

So the people protesting have “a lynch mob mentality” — nice bit of Name Calling and Glittering Generality

And the people protesting… his constituents protesting… the people he represents… he says because they are protesting they are “Brown Shirt tactics” good bit of name calling. Referencing Hitler the Nazi‘s (the National Socialist German Worker’s Party)

Then to truly drive her name calling points home Pelosi then teamed up with Representative Steny Hoyer of MD as reported in the Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/washingtondc/la-na-pelosi-hoyer-health11-2009aug11,0,5370363.story
By Mark Silva
5:05 AM PDT, August 10, 2009
Reporting from Washington — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, insisting at the start of a long and politically heated summer congressional recess that health-care reform can be achieved this fall, today are calling the disruption of town-hall meetings by vocal protesters “simply un-American.” (Name Calling)

“We believe it is healthy for such a historic effort (Glittering Generality) to be subject to so much scrutiny and debate,“ Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Hoyer (D-Md.) wrote in a USA Today opinion piece published today.
“However, it is now evident that an ugly campaign(Name Calling) is underway not merely to misrepresent (Name Calling) the health insurance reform (Glittering Generality) legislation, but to disrupt public meetings and prevent members of Congress and constituents from conducting a civil dialogue (Name Calling combined with Glittering Generality and Card Stacking),” the two leaders wrote. “These disruptions are occurring because opponents are afraid (Name Calling) not just of differing views — but of the facts themselves (Glittering Generality). Drowning out opposing views is simply un-American.”(Name Calling)

And we will wrap up this segment with Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) spoke up attacking the protesters in his district.

As reported http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090806/ap_on_go_co/us_health_care_overhaul
WASHINGTON – The Senate’s most powerful Democrat on Thursday scolded health care protesters dogging his party’s lawmakers at local meetings, arguing that some critics on the political right have run out of ideas — and ditched their civic manners. Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada accused the protesters of trying to “sabotage” the democratic process.

Here we see the combined tactics of Name calling, Card Stacking, Glittering Generality, when Senate Majority Leader Reid says “some critics on the political right have run out of ideas — and ditched their civic manners.”

Dear Reader and Friend, I have to say… these tactics the Democrat politicians are using smack of the Nazi propaganda template. Take a bit of name calling, and combine that with glittering generality, than add in a big heap of card stacking to try and drown them out.

Name Calling Falls On Deaf Ears… What‘s Next Device/Tactic?

As the Democrat Elected Politicians insults of their protesting constituents started having no effect. The Democrat leadership decided to move to another method.

In the next post, we will go into some other tactics being used.

To paraphrase the words of Elmer Fudd “da da, da da, da dat‘s all for today folks!”

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