There was a representative for Newt Gingrich on TV just a few moments ago and he painted a rather lovely picture of the protests going on right now. He talked about people meeting at the local Dennys, deciding they want to speak to their representative about health care, getting into their scooters (his word not mine) and motoring down to the meeting to exercise their free speech as citizens of the United States.

If I didn’t have the cynicism to look at anything said by a political hack with a grain of salt the image he painted might have moved me to tears, but many in this country would hear those words and believe him. The professional mouthpieces for the astroturf groups are correct in saying they aren’t actually organizing and putting people on busses to get them to the town halls, but they are feeding into the irrational fear many have of the unknown and using that to motivate people to come to a conclusion that isn’t correct. Just listen to the chants shouted by these folks talking about how they want government not to get into health care, yet many of those folks working up the biggest chants are on Medicare, which is run my the government.

It’s a lie that these groups are grass roots and just sprung out of whole cloth. I tried finding out the location of town hall meetings in my area. I couldn’t find anything that gave a listing for this until I saw an accusation on MSNBC that information for town halls was on one of the front group websites. Sure enough, when I got to the site there was a detailed list of any town hall meeting given by DEMOCRAT representatives in all 50 states. There were only two listed for my state because it’s mostly Republican and both were halfway across the state. One had already occurred and that night I saw the footage from it which showed a packed house with people shouting down the representative.

Something I have been hesitant to admit but other commentators have noticed a disturbing trend in the shouting matches. Many of them, by way of words used and sign posted, seem to focus on how Obama is going to change the system. There is one video shows a lot where a woman screams about how America is changing and she wants her old America back. I’m willing to think, and I could be wrong, that the attacks which seem to be against Obama would be said no matter who the President might be. When the left was shouting down the Bush Administration, the attacks against Bush were a given. Some have suggested the attacks against Obama are racially motivated.

I’m not sure if I want to go down that road. There have been pictures of politicians (not Obama) hung in effigy and talks of lynching, but those had been said about Bush policies. Where I see this debate devolving is when both sides use hair triggers to get their side worked up but they ignore the issue. The right is scaring old people and bringing up socialist and Nazism to stoke the flames. The left is claiming racism.

August is turning into an ugly month of shout downs and accusations and by the time it’s all over we probably won’t be any closer to health care reform.