A post by Pat
Ordinary people who may or may not have joined recently formed grassroots groups to get together in opposition to the healthcare takeover are being belittled and dismissed. Aside from the “unruly mobs” smear, it is the simple fact of any kind of organization that supposedly undermines the credibility of these people. As though all those protests we’ve been seeing over the last 50 years from the Left were spontaneous with individuals suddenly impelled by unseen forces to go to the same street corner with the same signs.
The people are criticized for organizing while the Democrats plot this kind of meticulously organized onslaught.
Strategic Communications Plan for August: Health Insurance Reform
To: Democratic Members of Congress From: House Democratic Leadership
Date: Friday, July 31, 2009
Re: Strategic Communications Plan for August: Health Insurance Reform
Over the last few months, we have made great progress to advance a strong health insurance reform bill through the House, and are closer than we have ever been to taking this historic step for our country. As we prepare for the five-week-long August District Work Period, we must recognize the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in what may be the most consequential DWP we have ever faced.
Winning the health reform debate in August requires nothing less than an aggressive, multi-front effort to control the message and keep the momentum moving forward. The continued focus and effort of every Member is critical to ensuring our success. The following memo outlines the strategic plan for Member action, earned media, and rapid response for August that will enable us to use this month to build support and momentum so we can return in September well-positioned to pass a health reform bill in the House.Our message is simple. It is in sync with the White House. And it counters the Republican “government takeover” message. Hold the insurance companies accountable. Remove them from between you and your doctor. No discrimination for pre-existing conditions. No dropping your coverage because you get sick. No more job or life decisions made based on loss of coverage. No need to change doctors or plans. No co-pays for preventive care. No excessive out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles, or co-pays. No yearly or lifetime cost caps on what insurance companies cover.
SHOWING MOMENTUM & DRIVING THE DEBATE
District Health Care Events Members have already held more than 550 health care events in their districts this year, but we must do more. The Democratic Leadership has prepared a list of suggested district events and materials to help you organize and conduct successful events during the month of August. Press will be notified each week of a sampling of the events occurring around the country to demonstrate that Democrats are using the August District Work Period to advance the health reform conversation and build support for this critical effort. Members are advised to put a “human face” on health reform by incorporating personal stories into events and communications.
The memo continues with additional coordinated strategies.
Telephone Town Hall
Radio/TV Booking for Members
An aggressive effort to book Members for national and local radio and TV interviews will ensure our message will be delivered to both large and targeted audiences.
Print Press Outreach
[…] State and regional delegations are encouraged to organize conference calls with regional media. In addition, communications staff will be working hard to push the human-interest stories that highlight why reform is necessary and how it will benefit the average American. An aggressive effort will also be underway to ensure our message on reform is targeted and tailored to specific audiences.
Hispanic Media
RAPID RESPONSE
Tracking Key Members for message delivery on any day of recess.
INFORMATION & REGULAR UPDATES
COORDINATION
The Leadership is working in close coordination with the White House and outside groups (including but not limited to HCAN, Families USA, AFSCME, SEIU, AARPetc.) to ensure complementary efforts during August. The President, Secretary Sebelius and other principals in the reform debate will be working throughout the month to hold events, promote the message in the press and move the reform effort forward. We are also working closely with supportive organizations to ensure they are implementing comprehensive plans for August that include grassroots efforts, media strategies and anything else that can add to the momentum. In addition, a list of groups supporting health reform has been provided to your offices with information on ways you can partner with them in your districts.
WINNING ON THE WEB
Delicious
Blog
You Tube
Online Chats
“Hidden Tax” Clock
A democracy does not work by the government monopolizing communication while the people sit home eating mashed potatoes.
As someone who participates and helps w/ the organizing behind some local protests, I am more motivated than ever to get in the faces of these fascists. It is so very important for ALL of us to stand up to this together. Yes, it’s sometimes inconvenient because we would just like to be left alone to live our lives and many of us still have jobs, but we don’t have the luxury of being comfortable any longer. Those days are gone, you guys! If we want future generations to be able to enjoy their right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, we have to make the choice to fight – REALLY fight!
YOU and YOUR FAMILY are under attack right now. Ultimately, the goal of Hellcare Reform is not to make healthcare more accessible or affordable – it’s to take control of you in the most gripping and personal way. Are we going to take this sitting down? You better not! Be out at every opportunity to protest or meet your congressional thug face to face.
I love what we’re doing in Tucson (so if you’re a snitch reading this, Yes – I am in Tucson. Come and get me if you have the guts! I DARE YOU!). Our challenger to Reprehensible Gabby Giffords is having a healthcare debate w/ Giffords in two weeks. Her district guy received the info – it was hand delivered (yes, I know this). Now, her office claims they don’t know ANYTHING about the debate! Her one and only townhall this August will be in Douglas, AZ. Somehow, I get the feeling she’s afraid to be in Tucson – or maybe Douglas is more convenient since it’s closer to Houston… Maybe she heard about the 500+ that showed up in front of her office on July 17 against Hellcare. I hope she’s not avoiding us. She will be at the debate though – I requested a cardboard cut out be present in her absence. That would look great on youtube!
The reason the Left are accusing us of being ‘unruly mobs’ or being paid off is because they are skeerd. Very skeerd! And their paranoid delusional state sends them into a frenzy. Unfortunately, we have to deal w/ their illness and have our lives interrupted because they are certifiable and hold places of power! They call us ‘unruly mobs’ because that’s what they gather when they protest. They are unruly in their positions as well. They accuse us of doing what THEY do! They can’t relate to genuine passion and concern, so the idea that people are thoroughly committed to an idea or passionate about this nation is beyond their narrow view of the world. Their own hypocrisy comes shining through in the memo Pat posted. They are the ones constantly organizing and trying to control the message. We’re just saying ‘We don’t like the Hellcare. We don’t want it and we’re not your subjects! Back the hell off!’ Scary stuff!
We are dealing with people who have had a chip on their shoulder from birth and surrounded themselves w/ ‘yes men’ throughout their adult lives. They are the narrow minded snobs who tell us how we need to be diverse, yet they have never lived among us millions or gone to our schools, malls or diners. They wouldn’t be caught dead in a drive thru at Dairy Queen or having sweat upon their brow from a hard day of work. They don’t even raise their own children. But they expect us to behave like trained poodles because somewhere in their unfulfilled and pathetic lives, they got the idea they were above the rest of us. I love the rude awakening they are receiving!
Don’t let their plans deter you! Let it make you more determined to fight it and stick to what you know is right. Sure, they will make an example of some of us – but remember: we outnumber them – BY THE MILLIONS! They also need us more than we need them – they count on us going to work to feed their gluttonous appetite for ‘change’ (I’m thinking a Nat’l Day of Screw U DC where we all stay home from work for a day is in order). Lastly, we have EVERYTHING to lose if we do not fight and win this!
August is going to be a long month: Go forth and fight like mad!
Well said ArtGal.
The press needs to be hounded too. Letters to the editor and online comments reminding them the American people have every right to organize in protest against their government.
It’s getting harder and harder to be surprised by what the Democrats and the media come out with, but this one really gets to me. Even if the protesters at the townhalls were contacted by a group, they chose to join and to be notified by those groups out of the same motivation that made them attend the meetings. Those clean cut people at the townhall meetings are a far cry from the leftist rent-a-mobs—unions and radical goon squads like ACORN–who don’t even know what they’re protesting half the time.
It baffles my mind how disagreement = disinformation. Our liberty is at stake. “Let’s put the patient in control, with the doctor as trusted adviser. Let’s not lose the liberty that is our right as Americans. “— Dr. Donald Palmisano, M.D., July 22, 2009, National Press Club in Washington, D.C.
“There can be no such thing as a ‘right’ to products or services created by the effort of others, and this most definitely includes medical products and services,†explained Yaron Brook, managing director of BH Equity Research, in a recent Forbes article. “Rights, as our founding fathers conceived them, are not claims to economic goods, but freedoms of action…The rights of some cannot require the coercion and sacrifice of others.†This entitlement idea, he said, has been the key driver of the expansion of government medicine in America and led to the growing unaffordability of healthcare. Prior to the government’s entrance into medicine, basic health care was affordable for virtually all Americans, “while those few who could not were able to rely on abundant private charity.†Had this system been allowed to continue, he wrote, “Americans’ rising productivity would have allowed them to buy better and better health care, just as, today, we buy better and more varied food and clothing than people did a century ago.†The history was described in more detail by one reader, who noted the immorality of government mandates that have caused everyone’s medical costs to skyrocket to among the highest in the world and created more problems with healthcare access. “No amount of ‘need’ on the part of one man entitles him to initiate the use of force to take another man’s property.â€
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Fascinating that in their memo, the Dems never once mention Truth. It is all about “controlling the message” and pushing the issue, keeping momentum going and parroting the White House. I suppose revealing the Truth would defeat their purpose. That has now become the job of the Right-Wing Extremist Mobsters. Say hello to our little friend: the Truth!