The Tolbert Report

While sitting at lunch at Olive Garden with my family, I received two separate emails in my inbox on my Blackberry about the same time – one from the Democratic Party of Arkansas (DPA) and one from the far left leaning group MoveOn.org. What stuck me were the similarities between the two. Both of them sought to organize their base against the “extremists” that are “disrupting town hall meetings.”

The DPA writes, “As you may have seen on the news, Republicans and their allies are organizing extremists to disrupt town hall meetings this month across the country. This week, it happened right here in Arkansas at a meeting hosted by two of our Democratic Congressmen.” They go on to ask, “What will you do in response? How will you offset the right-wing special-interest groups’ effort to stop thoughtful dialogue?”

Similarly, MoveOn.org writes to their members, “All across the country, right-wing extremists are disrupting congressional town-hall meetings with venomous attacks on President Obama’s plans for health care and clean energy…. We’ve got a plan to fight back against these radical right-wingers. We’ve hired skilled grassroots organizers who are working with thousands of local volunteers to show Congress that ordinary Americans continue to support President Obama’s agenda for change. And we’re building new online tools to track events across the country and make sure MoveOn members turn out at each one.”

What is interesting is that these groups are seeking to organize liberals to attend these meetings while falsely accusing the other side of doing the same. I attended part of the town hall meeting on my lunch break this past Wednesday afternoon with Rep. Vic Snyder and Rep. Mike Ross, but I did not find out about these meetings from any right-wing extremist group. In fact, my initial source for the information was Blake’s Think Tank, a Democrat leaning blog. I received no email from any Republican group or right wing organization. The one message I received from a TEA Party activist on Facebook actually advised not to protest the meeting since it was at a children’s hospital.

Now, I did make some phone calls, found out the details, and then posted these for my readers. I guess little ole’ me could be the right wing extremist group to which they are referring. But I am just one independent conservative voice in Arkansas, certainly not an “out of state special interest.”

I think the Democratic Party of Arkansas might be well advised to check their strategy. I don’t believe most Arkansans will be influenced by their MoveOn.org message.

UPDATE – My friend Blake Rutherford continues the anthem of day carried by the Democratic Party of Arkansas. Rutherford writes the following about the protesters at the health care forums…

But such a position ignores the complexity of the task at hand. This, naturally, begs the question as to whether any of these shouters understand what it is they’re shouting about. My guess is no, they don’t. So why so much anger? These efforts are deeply rooted in racial fears and the anxiety that the Obama presidency has brought to the lives of uneducated, middle class whites.

One question for my Democratic friends – has it occurred to you that many of these folks in Arkansas have traditional voted Democrat? Perhaps their frustration is with a party they felt has abandoned them and now has taken to calling them “extremist,” “uneducated,” and motivated by “racial fears.”