Where Have You Gone, Joe the Citizen? - NYTimes.com
You can't deny that the tone of discussion around health care has been heated, you can't deny that their have been people who are working together with shared interests. You even can't deny that some of these people could be called leaders, and some of them have positions of power. What that does not add up to, at least not in my mind is astro-turfing. What makes someone who believes something, and then finds figures that represent that belief and meet with others that share it some how false? What makes a movement invalid because it has strong and connected leaders. We are not talking about organizations busing people to events, sometimes even paying them to be there - that would be union organizing.
However, as this points out, when the tone and the volume of debate gets too loud, those who speak quietly and calmly have a harder time being heard. They deserve to be heard as much as anyone else. I have my doubts about health care, but I have greater doubts about the nature of the discussion around it.
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