California Conservative

With the various health care bills taking serious hits amongst Capitol Hill Democrats, it was inevitable that HCAN would organize another astroturf campaign aimed at changing politicians’ minds. Not surprisingly, their tactics isn’t aimed at changing the minds of We The People. It’s aimed solely at changing the minds of politicians:

But Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which is backed by a coalition of labor unions and liberal groups including ACORN and MoveOn.org, organized the protests to target insurance companies and drafted the plan, which describes the demonstrations as part of its “insurance enemies project.”

The document, a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Times, details specific talking points, tactics, props and strategies to stage the protests. It lists goals that include action that “mobilizes our base by animating existing anger about private insurers.”

The HCAN field plan dictates that each protest will include a minimum of 30 participants, target only health care insurers CIGNA, WellPoint and United Health Care and showcase what it calls “victims,” or people who have either lost insurance, can’t afford it or were denied coverage because of pre-existing medical conditions.

What a bunch of idiots. HCAN’s playing on heartstrings will certainly evoke some empathy for those individuals highlighted but it won’t move public opinion. After all these events, the American people will still oppose the Democrats’ plans for a multitude of reasons.

People will still oppose the Democrats’ health care plans because they’re too expensive, they’ll trigger a host of tax increases, because the plans won’t guarantee that there won’t be rationing and because each bill would cut hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicare.

What part of those plans will appeal to the American people?

HCAN insists on repeating its August mistakes. During August, HCAN, Speaker Pelosi and the Democrats insisted on villainizing the insurance companies. It failed miserably, not because people loved their insurance but because they didn’t trust government. Now they’re back for another bite of that rotten apple. I suspect that the taste of that apple will be just as sour as the first time.

HCAN’s astroturf campaign won’t talk about the Medicare cuts. Without addressing that, seniors will still be steadfastly opposed to the Democrats’ health care plans. Enough Democratic lawmakers understand that seniors are expected to comprise one-third of the voters in 2010. Upsetting them wouldn’t just end a few Democrats’ careers; it might turn Speaker Pelosi into Rep. Pelosi, too.

The protesters are instructed to confront top officials at the insurance companies and demand they sign a declaration titled, “Stop Denying Our Care.” The declaration pledges the company will not meddle in patients’ medical decisions, deny or drop coverage based on a pre-existing medical conditions, terminate any policy or reward employees for denying care or rejecting claims.

Doesn’t that sound like a tightly scripted plan? If it doesn’t, this does:

Tactics listed in the field plan include “large-scale rally or march to insurance company with victims leading delegation in to speak to CEO or other spokesperson.” It suggests materials or props including signs, pictures and “good stories that embody our key message.”

Despite these instuctions being included in the activists’ field manual, organizers still said this, presumably with a straight face:

“We built a campaign to win health care reform and that is exactly what we are working on,” said HCAN national spokeswoman Jacki Schechner, who authenticated the documents. But she asserted: “There is nothing top-down about this.”

Let’s see. There’s a list of HCAN-provided talking points. There’s a list of tactics that HCAN put together for these protests. The script is supposed to be used at every event across the country. The targets of these ’spontaneous’ events have been picked out in advance of the events by HCAN. Depsite all these ‘coincidences’, we’re told that this is a bottom-up, spontaneous uprising?

Forgive me if I don’t believe that. These events sound too much like a control freak’s version of grassroots activism which, of course, isn’t the definition of grassroots activism. Typical astroturf campaigns have a specific set of talking points generated by a central organization aimed at achieving a specific set of goals.

By contrast, true grassroots activism is spontaneous and unscripted. By putting out their list of talking points and their tactics, HCAN is admitting that its events aren’t based on grassroots activism, that it’s putting together an astroturf campaign aimed at persuading a tiny group of people.

At this point, it’s difficult picturing HCAN’s campaign working, mostly because it’s focused on issues that are peripheral at best. The Shiny Object Media might cover the events but their ability to move votes, either in House or Senate, is limited.

At the end of the day, HCAN will be taught that it’s difficult to sell a product that people don’t want and that it’s more difficult to sell something being sold by an organization that the American people don’t trust.

Technorati Tags: HCAN, Astroturf, Talking Points, Scripts, Insurance Companies, Villains, Democrats, Jackie Schechner, Villains, Grassroots Activism, TEA Parties

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 19th, 2009 at 11:36 am and is filed under Activism, Author: Gary Gross, Health Care, Liberals, Special Interests. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.