Townhall meeting

I haven’t read it yet, but a reader recommends this as a great account of a townhall meeting in North Carolina.

However, could someone tell me what the heck “astroturf” means in reference to opposition to Obamacare? The last time I heard “astroturf” used in national politics, it had to do with President Clinton’s boast of his sexual escapades as a young man in the back of his pickup truck.

- end of initial entry -

Paul Nachman writes:

“Astroturf” means “phony grassroots” i.e. something that appears to be grassroots but was really engineered to look that way. The Left claims that the Wonderboy-care skeptics and opponents at townhalls show up only because Repub-associated and other conservative-associated groups organized this to happen. I think this is utter nonsense, and it’s the Left accusing the Right of what the left routinely does.

For example, I gather that the dueling demos at our airport on Wonderboy-day had all kinds of unique, hand-done signs by our side and uniform, printed signs by the loonies. And maybe some of the loonies came on a bus, too. Then, for another example, there was the black conservative selling “Don’t tread on me” flags at that event in St. Louis who got beat up by a couple of big thugs in SEIU shirts.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 03, 2009 07:16 PM | Send