Just Who Is Astroturfing Who?

One of the charges one hears made most often about the uprising of angry Americans against Obamacare is that it is funded and coordinated by the GOP or health insurance lobbyists. You see it in the various blogs, forums, newspapers, and so on. And it is, if course, the Democrats making such charges. But why is it something that they do on a pretty regular basis entirely off limits for those on the Right?

In Denver it became quite evident the “bought and paid for” protesters weren't from the Right, but from the Left.

The anti-Obamacare protesters arrived by car, public transit, or shank's mare. The counter-protesters arrived by chartered bus.

The anti-Obamacare protesters made their own signs.

The counter-protesters carried professionally designed and printed signs and banners.

The anti-Obamacare protesters were there because they had a stake in health care reform and showed up on their own time. Some even took time off from their jobs to be there. The counter-protesters were there because they were paid to be there.

The anti-Obamacare protesters understood what they were protesting against and what they were for. The many of the counter-protesters didn't even know what the signs and banners they carried said because they didn't speak a word of English.

This clinic [outside which the protest was taking place] is adjacent to Denver’s day laborer pickup street, Park Avenue. Being fluent in Spanish, El Marco asked these guys “¿hablan ingles?” “casi nada” was the reply from our amigo on the left. I asked him if he could tell me what the signs said. “¿Quien sabe?” (who knows?) was all he said to me, with a big grin. I’m kicking myself for not asking them how much they were getting paid to support the grassroots.

The irony of their lack of comprehension of the signs they were holding was heightened by the fact that they were the most elaborate and detailed signs of either group.

This is yet another example of the double-standard being applied to moderates and conservatives.

(H/T Doug Ross)