quote:

ORIGINAL: Musicmystery

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata


~FR~

Americans are showing up at town halls to voice their discontent, and Republicans should learn from the Democrats’ mistakes. It’s beginning to look a lot like August 2009 in reverse.

In that summer of the Tea Party, conservative activists packed the town-hall meetings of Democratic congressmen and peppered them with hostile questions. It was an early sign of the abiding opposition that Obamacare would encounter, and the prelude to Democratic defeats in 2010, 2014, and 2016. Now, progressive activists are tearing a page from that playbook.

The scenes are highly reminiscent of 2009, with Republican officeholders struggling to control unruly forums and leaving their town-hall meetings early or not holding them in the first place. The partisan temptation in this circumstance is always to dismiss the passion of the other side, which is what Democrats did to their detriment in 2009 and Republicans are doing now.

What was true in 2009 is true today: In the normal course of things, it’s not easy even for a well-funded and -organized group to get people to spend an evening at a school auditorium hooting at their congressman. If these demonstrations are happening in districts around the country, attention must be paid....

Democrats deluded themselves in 2009 by disregarding the early signs of fierce resistance to their agenda, and paid the price over and over again for their heedless high-handedness. Republicans shouldn’t make the same mistake.

Source: National Review

K.

I attended an interesting talk by a Washington lawyer who previously worked on Al Frankton's staff. He shared that many Republicans on the Hill actually believe, as apparently do the "alt-right" posters here, that town hall attendees are paid.

Given that, it seems the lesson is likely to soar over their heads, as they dismiss the movement as not really existing.

I would add that, in 2001-2006, Republicans blew much of their control of federal government on trying to establish permanent one-party rule, only to find out abruptly in Nov. 2006 what was wrong with that plan.

It doesn't appear they learned much from that either.

But it's all just speculation. We'll see.

quote:

ORIGINAL: BoscoX

TEA protests were organic

These, are leftists trying to emulate those heady TEA party days with paid, nationally organized from the top, bused in rent-a-mobs

Trump was barely in office when this movement began, and was focusing on those things that he had campaigned on

TEA protests were over specific radical legislation, using the power of the IRS to force citizens to patronize Big Insurance

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ORIGINAL: Kirata

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ORIGINAL: MasterJaguar01

Except the TEA protests were anything BUT organic. They were funded and organized by Freedomworks and "Americans for Prosperity" (ironically named). Yes there were some organic protesters as well, but to categorize the TEA party protest as organic is just simply being ignorant of the facts.

That may be true in part, but the Democrat's subsequent losses suggest more than just a small loud bunch of paid agitators.

K.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Kirata

But trying to shout people down to prevent them from speaking, and others from hearing what they have to say, is another matter entirely. Whether or not the latter was the case with the Tea Party I don't know, but it seems to have become standard operating procedure these days.
K.[/font]

quote:

ORIGINAL: BoscoX

TEA protests were organic