I have been watching the recent orchestrated ejaculations staged to interrupt the attempts of Democratic legislators to conduct a discussion of pending bills with their constituents.

Perhaps the scene is one in which ER is reminded of that piece of Republican illegal violence from the 2000 election. In that case a full court press was organized and an attack on the offices of the Registrar of Elections for Dade County Florida. That governmental office was then in the process of conducting a recount of some 10,000 ballots inthe Bush-Gore presidential election. The office was attacked by a mob of Republican thugs brought in to stop the recount, and stop it at any cost.

This nazi-like disruption was thinly papered over and presented as a “grass roots” protest and called the “Brooks Brothers Riot” by a compliant press. We now know that the first ten protesters in the lead of the disruption were all Republican staffers and employees of Republican congressmen. The intimidation and disruptive confusion was enough to stop the counting process and permitted George Bush to frustrate the will of the people of Florida and with a compliant Florida bureaucracy, steal our electoral votes and the susequent presidential election.

The current outrages occurring at the town hall meetings are no less sinister nor spontaneous; when the alleged grass-roots protesters show up with hand printed talking points, distributed by insurance company lobbyists and Republican neo-cons, supposedly critical of legislation that has not yet been written.

What is at risk here is a grave threat to the orderly process of democratic government. Voicing a shrill cry envoking the wonders of "free market capitalism" the minions of the insurance cabals seek to maintain their monopoly of the market and protect their profit centers at the expense of the American people. While the neo cons rail over the fear of "socialized medicine" they fail to mention what they are proposing is a policy of "socialized insurance."

Tom Broz should logically join with his fellow conservatives, liberals, libertarians, etc. to all be alert to the danger that the disruption of these meetings is not part of the orderly process of voicing dissent, nor intended to inform the voters of the issues. Rather it is a dangerous attempt to shout down and stifle discourse and defeat the attempt of our elected officials to engage in a dialogue with their constituents. Make no mistake, this is not a protest solely concerning health care issues. It is a much more serious attempt to undermine our system of government.

Publius