Remembering when dissent was patriotic:

On March 16, USA Today reported that Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum “was among dozens of members of Congress who ran gantlets of demonstrators and shouted over hecklers at Social Security events last month. Many who showed up to protest were alerted by e-mails and bused in by anti-Bush organizations such as MoveOn.org and USAction, a liberal advocacy group. They came with prepared questions and instructions on how to confront lawmakers.”

This was just good, boisterous politics: “Robust, wide-open debate.” But when it happens to Democrats, it’s something different: A threat to democracy, a sign of incipient fascism, and an opportunity to set up a (possibly illegal) White House “snitch line” where people are encouraged to report “fishy” statements to the authorities.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi calls the “Tea Party” protesters Nazis, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman –forgetting the events above — claims that left-leaning groups never engaged in disruptive tactics against Social Security reform, and various other administration-supporting pundits are trying to spin the whole thing as a deadly move toward “mob rule” and – somewhat contradictorily — as a phony “astroturf” movement.

Remember: When lefties do it, it’s called “community organizing.” When conservatives and libertarians do it, it’s “astroturf.”

But some people are noticing the truth. As Mickey Kaus notes, “If an ‘astroturfing’ campaign gets real people to show up at events stating their real views, isn’t it … community organizing?” Why yes, yes it is.

As someone who’s been following the Tea Party campaign since the beginning, it seems to me to be the most genuine outbreak of grassroots popular involvement in my lifetime. People have been turning out, in the tens of thousands at times, because they feel that Obama pulled a bait-and-switch and is moving the country much farther to the left than he promised during the campaign.

I don’t know whether Paul Krugman (and some of my commenters) suffers from amnesia and false memories, or is simply lying for his political cause. And I’m not sure which is worse.

[Update a couple minutes later]

The community grows restless.

…is the new dissent.

[Late morning update]

Thoughts on an artist’s duty to dissent.

I don’t know whether or not an artist has a “duty to dissent,” but if so, it seems a duty that only applies when Republicans are in power.

…that black people would get beaten up by racist thugs in the streets. And they were right:

Last night in St. Louis, Missouri, a local conservative found out firsthand about the “Chicago way.” Kenneth Gladney, a black conservative from the city, was handing out “Don’t Tread On Me” flags after a Russ Carnahan town hall meeting on health care in Mehlville. This didn’t go over well with the Obama supporters and union thugs who attended the meeting. They punched him in the face, kicked him in the head, and stomped on him on the pavement. So much for hope and change.

Well, the change is that they probably won’t be prosecuted for it, as they probably would have been under a Bush Justice Department.

[Update a while later]

This is a pretty incredible story. I mean, violence from union members? Who’s ever heard of such a thing? Anyway, I expect that at his next news conference, the president will point out that the man handing out the signs was behaving stupidly.

[Update late afternoon (Pacific)]

Mary Katherine Ham has an interview. I heard one with him on Cavuto in the car at lunchtime as well. It will be interesting to hear if the ACLU or NAACP has anything to say about it. Or if the latter lives down to its name of the association of “liberal” colored people.

[Update a few minutes later]

And as usual, what does a Democrat do when confronted with wrongdoing by his supporters? Blame it on Republicans.

[Another update]

I’m on the left coast, so I missed this episode with my own (worthless, or actually of negative worth) Florida Congressman (soon to be be my ex-Congressman, since we’re almost certainly moving somewhere, and probably back here to LA):

Though only a handful of constituents typically show up at the Lighthouse Point public library once a month with questions for U.S. Rep. Ron Klein’s staffers — often questions about Social Security checks or passport applications — this time about 100 people packed the room for two hours.

The group was rowdy, rude and fired up about healthcare.

“Where the hell is Klein?” demanded Republican activist Ana Gomez-Mallada, even though the congressman was not scheduled to be there. Others branded him a “coward” and a “communist.”

The natives are definitely (and justifiably) growing restless.

Under the Bushitler, dissent was the highest form of patriotism. Under The One, it’s the highest form of racism.

[Late morning update]

Meet the scary “racist” mob.

…in the media:

Jon Henke of The Next Right heard the first shot — the newspaper changed its story, literally — and exposed the sniper. The Times (whose parent company once employed me at Congressional Quarterly) initially, and correctly, thought it fair to note that the Service Employees International Union organized a counter protest at Castor’s event.

The paper also included this explosive quote from an SEIU official hinting at plans to instigate trouble at the event: “We’re prepared [for disruption]. We have strategies to deal with it if it should come up.”

That language provided important context about a group whose leader once described his thug-like organizing philosophy like this: “[W]e prefer to use the power of persuasion, but if that doesn’t work we use the persuasion of power.”

The rewrite of the story a short time later dropped the quote and changed the tone of the story to what Henke rightly called “something far more SEIU/Democrat friendly.” The second version downplayed SEIU’s role even though it was billed as an organizer, and it spun the story from the critical perspective of pro-Obama protesters.

I don’t think that the Obama honeymoon with the media is over. It’s just the honeymoon with the public (and particularly those who voted for him because it was “cool” without paying any attention to his record or actual statements) that is. So now they’re getting desperate to defend their paramour. It is nice to see the orgy getting smaller, though.

[Update a couple minutes later]

The White House (and the Democrats in Congress) against community organizing:

Nancy Pelosi, who will get her own bound volume in the annals of asininity, has outdone herself. When asked by a reporter whether the protests at various town-hall meetings represented legitimate grassroots opposition or were manufactured “AstroTurf” stunts, she replied, “I think they’re AstroTurf. You be the judge. They’re carrying swastikas and symbols like that to a town meeting on health care.”

Now this is a pas de trois of dishonesty, slander, and idiocy. Not only is Pelosi lying when she says protesters are bringing swastikas to these town halls, not only is she suggesting that American citizens are Nazis for having the effrontery to get in the way of Obamacare, but she’s also saying that the alleged swastikas are obvious proof that these protests are manufactured by slick P.R. gurus.

How does that work? What public-relations genius says: “Okay, we need these protests to seem like an authentic backlash of real Americans. Make sure everyone has enough Nazi paraphernalia!”

The combination of stupidity and venality of this woman would be hilarious if she weren’t third in line for the presidency.

It’s difficult for mere mortals like us to fully grasp the enormousness of the Democrats’ hypocrisy. Put aside all that talk of dissent being the highest form of patriotism. Overlook that Democrats would have upended jerry cans of gasoline and immolated themselves in protest if the Bush administration had asked people to inform on their neighbors. You can even forget that the DNC’s claims are untrue.

But how can we ignore the fact that the world’s most famous community organizer is whining about community organizing?

Free speech, community organizing, executive jets for me, not for thee. These people are nothing if not hypocritical.

[Update a few minutes later]

Organizing the wrong community.

[Another update]

New rules for radicals:

In today’s world, the “radicals” are the ones who protest the takeover of a huge swath of the economy by government bureaucrats who have proven they can’t even run a program that gives free money away to car buyers properly. It is radicals who want to preserve the pillars of a system that over 80 percent of Americans still believe works — though certainly not perfectly.

In this new world, radicals are the ones who protest adding trillions to our debt and who have the temerity to ask if legislators have read the bills they sign. You’ve seen them. Those radicals who are ranting and raving about silly things like the Constitution.

So here is a plan. Instead of making the case for health care “reform,” let’s launch an offensive against citizens. Nazis. Fanatics. Mobs. Thugs. Whatever you call them.

And if you’re really patriotic, you can even report them.

The not-so-silent majority is waking up.