Jon Henke Attacks CAP/AF as “Astroturf”
Speaking of astroturf organizing, Jon Henke has a curious post up accusing my ThinkProgress colleagues of hypocrisy for using the term “astroturf” in a disparaging way:
The Center for American Progress & Think Progress, of all groups, should know better than to use the word “astroturf” against funded, ideological 501c(4) organizations that are trying to organize activists. Especially considering how many funded, ideological 501c(4) organizations they have trying to organize activists.
I don’t understand how this argument is supposed to work. CAP & CAPAF aren’t astroturf outfits because we’re not pretending to be a grassroots organization. The Tea Party “movement” is a sham because it’s pretending to be a spontaneous grassroots movement. Obviously, ThinkProgress is not a spontaneous grassroots movement. It’s a hierarchical organization that describes itself as “a project of the Center for American Progress Action Fund” that “seeks to provide a forum that advances progressive ideas and policies.”
40 Responses to “Jon Henke Attacks CAP/AF as “Astroturf””
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April 13th, 2009 at 11:12 am
They’re ignorant of the relevant concept – a bottom-up movement that establishes its own agenda without direction from the top, without concern for what any established DC interest directs – because, being the right, they’ve never seen such a thing.
Well…that’s not exactly true. There was the militia movement.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:21 am
It’s true you know… as Barney Frank so well expressed it… “labels are important.” In fact he may have understated it. Perhaps labels are the most important thing in the world. After all, without the correct label, the left wouldn’t know what to think.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:24 am
The fact that CAP lists these projects on its website and cultivates its public profile seems to me to be kind of a key difference, Al.
Henke consistently makes the other authors at Next Right and RedState look comparatively perceptive. I’m not sure what harsher criticism I could offer.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I think Matt’s point is a good one, but as usual, clumsily put. Let me correct it:
CAP IS an organization that is designed to (among other things)organize and support grassroots political action, but it never claims otherwise.
Fox News proclaims to be a fair and balanced news organization, yet they act like an outfit that is dedicated to supporting grassroots organization.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:41 am
The fact that CAP lists these projects on its website and cultivates its public profile seems to me to be kind of a key difference.
The Fox News prime time line-up spends about half its time “exposing” the fact that liberals fund groups like CAP, that CAP does things, and that this casts dark shadows over our democracy. Seriously, watch the O’Reilly episode where he stalked Amanda Terkel, and listen to the man explain the vast conspiracy behind a blog post that made fun of him.
I don’t think the story of established organizations helping organize events is interesting, or that it stops them being “grassroots.” What’s interesting, and worth pointing out, is how Fox can turn on a time from finding George Soros’s tentacles in everything to pretending there’s a citizen revolution against spending.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:42 am
Re “Obviously, ThinkProgress is not a spontaneous grassroots movement. It’s a hierarchical organization”
————
Jennifer wants to know if her coffee is ready yet, Matthew. Cream and sugar please.
And don’t forget that neck rub at 2:00 pm
April 13th, 2009 at 11:48 am
Al,
There is a difference between selecting a popular cause and organizing people in support of that cause at the local level, and the unfortunately named “teabagging”.
There is no popular cause for throwing teabags in or at things. There is no popular cause for whatever the hell it is supposed to signify. It is a publicity stunt in search of a constituency, pushed from the top down.
It doesn’t even make any sense.
April 13th, 2009 at 11:50 am
It seems to me that there are two different types of activities being discussed here.
Astroturfing is usually defined as the manufacturing of fake grassroots politics. Such as websites set up to look like blogs or small organizations, but are actually run anonymously by big PACs. Or when Fox News funds and promotes rallies, and then reports on them as if they were covering spontaneous protests.
Then there’s another set of groups, like CAP, which are legally set up as non-partisan political organizations and openly advertise that they engage in funding and promoting grassroots organizing. There’s a certain amount of artifice to this, in that there is top-down coordination and a legal fiction that CAP is “nonpartisan.” But generally speaking, the point is to cultivate grassroots politics and enable it to grow on its own, not to fake it. Maybe we should call this landscaping.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Al, you are correct. Matt made an embarrassing mistake. You win a gold star and a cookie for catching him out. There, are you happy now?
On the broader issue, though, I do think there’s a useful distinction to be made between groups like CAP (or the Scaife Foundations, for that matter) which attempt to seed the grassroots, and political insiders who try to fake the existence of a grassroots movement where none exists.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:02 pm
Working with grass-roots organizations is not the same thing as claiming to be a grassroots organization.
This is one of those really obvious points that one must strive mightily not to understand. Right, Al? You’re one of the mightiest strivers I’ve ever encountered.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
I too have worked with and even helped fund grassroots organizations without claiming to be a grassroots organization.
Though I could have, since I am pretty grassroots. I’d give that status up in exchange for this massive George Soros / ACORN funding the freeptards keep saying is flowing everywhere, but none appears to be forthcoming.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I think you’ve missed the point of the post. I wasn’t accusing CAP/CAPAF of being astroturf. I was pointing out that funded, ideological organizations that do grassroots work (e.g., I Am Progress, Campus Progress, State Progress) are not “astroturf”.
Astroturf requires two things: (1) A claim to be organic/grassroots, and (2) non-disclosure of the group really behind it.
CAPAF does help stimulate and organize grassroots, and that’s not astroturf. But don’t go accusing other organizations of being astroturf when they do the exact same thing with the Tea Party protests.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:21 pm
I am more amused by Yglesias’ enthusiastic support for “Organizing for America”, run out of the Democratic National Committee, which is just about as astroturf an organization as anything around
http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/03/organizing_for_america_kicks_into_action.php
And frankly, not very successful
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/05/AR2009040501890.html
Obama’s Machine Sputters in Effort to Push Budget
Grass-Roots Campaign Has Little Effect
Maybe Democrats should call it Polyturf when they engage in the practice
April 13th, 2009 at 12:25 pm
Campesino: I’m thinking that the mobilization campaign to get grassroots support to pass Obama’s budget sputtered out mainly due to the very, very rapid passing of Obama’s budget.
April 13th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Campesino: I’m thinking that the mobilization campaign to get grassroots support to pass Obama’s budget sputtered out mainly due to the very, very rapid passing of Obama’s budget.
===========================================================
Maybe, but it still doesn’t square Matt’s hypocrisy in loving astroturfing when Dems do it
April 13th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Perhaps instead of “astroturf”, Henke should have said “reminiscent of Pravda”.
Here’s my on the tea parties. Oddly enough, it’s somewhat similar to MattY’s. However, my suggestion for what they should be doing instead is something that MattY and CAP really, really, really do not want to happen. Luckily for MattY and CAP, people like Henke are too dumb to figure out how to do things that are effective.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
There must be something wrong with the Tea Parties when I agree with 24AheadDotCom about them.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
John Henke is subtly changing the definition of astroturf here. Traditionally it meant making the appearance of a grassroots groundswell where none exists: many virtually identical letters to the editors of multiple local papers. They are all made to look like concerned local citizens. Or “activists” handing out pamphlets because they are paid by some political action organization, not because they believe in the cause.
The definition has now shifted a bit towards any action that gets organizational support and funding, even if the activists on the ground really exist and truly believe in the cause. This allows a broader brush to be used to taint the work CAP does as being somehow insidious.
I really don’t consider it or the work of freedomworks to be true astroturfing. There is real grass there, it’s just that in the case of the tea parties the grass is sparse, but is made to look like a lush lawn by the Fox “news” media. The problem is less with the organizational or financial support such actions may get, as it is with how the media overstates their scope, either out of some nutty idea of looking balanced (interviewing the ten pro-war protesters, while tens of thousands of anti-war protesters march by), or out of pure political motives.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
I’m really hoping that the rest of the right wing loons decide to try to be as effective as Lonewacko. Yes you can!
April 13th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
Al,
My point was that not every entity that performs grassroots organization is a grassroots organization. Neither the Democratic nor Republican parties are grassroots organizations, but they do grassroots organizing.
When the Republican party organizes local people into GOTV campaigns, it is not astroturf. They are tapping into a legitimate desire of Republicans in many localities to increase the chances of their like-minded neighbors to vote.
The “teaparties” are the opposite. There is a desire at the top to pull a publicity stunt. Money is being spent to create, rather than tap into, popular sentiment.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I love the way the portray Henke on South Park. Spot on.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:37 pm
Er, no. Matt has quoted me in a way that makes me appear to say exactly the opposite of what I said. I was the one who specifically said that organizational support does NOT equal astroturfing, and the whole point of mentioning CAPAF was to point out that the Freedomworks involvement is no more “astroturf” than are the projects undertaken by CAPAF. That is, not at all.
Indeed, my description of astroturfing – both in a previous comment here and at The Next Right – matches your own. I would hope that Matt, who I like and respect, would clarify this. As it stands, his post title communicates exactly the opposite of what I said.
April 13th, 2009 at 1:44 pm
Lonewacko has a problem with Teabagapalooza because it would involve going outside.
Furthermore, he might be asked hard questions about who bankrolls his hate campaign, with the responses placed on YouTube.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
We Tea Baggers are directionless. Our officers have left us. Back to headquarters, back to 1211 Avenue of the Americas, NY, NY. Our officers are COWARDS. That is what I am thinking.
What are we Tea Baggers to do now? We are not sure, we were never sure, what it was to be a Tea Bagger. Our officers barked orders. We obeyed. Now they gone.
I am a Tea Bagger without orders. What will become of me?
Signed,
Nutbag
April 13th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
I’m self-funded and not affiliated with any groups or parties. I’m also man enough not to hide behind a sockpuppet.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
I’m also man enough not to hide behind a sockpuppet.
ROFL.
It’s clear that VeryBigPowerfulScaryInterests that underwrite Lonewacko’s CampaignOfHate, and he’s only pretending to be an blogwhoring crank. The sooner he has to answer ToughQuestions about where the money’s really coming from, the sooner those BigScaryInterests will be exposed.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
Here John H, are your exact words:
I would limit the definition to cases where the “other people” don’t really exist.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Yes, so we have the same definition. When an organization conducts activism itself, and then tries to pretend the activity was really being done organically by grassroots people, that is astroturfing. We’re not disagreeing on this. You’re just assuming Matt’s characterization was correct. It wasn’t.
April 13th, 2009 at 2:56 pm
There must be something wrong with the Tea Parties when I agree with 24AheadDotCom about them.
Yeah, but I’m still not clicking on his link.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:08 pm
Weigel and I don’t often agree; in fact, here’s something that Dave Weigel doesn’t want anyone to see.
April 13th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
Or that one either.
Somewhere on the Mountain of Purgatory is a little ledge occupied by otherwise blameless souls whose only sin was clicking on a Lonewacko link.
April 13th, 2009 at 4:10 pm
DTM wrote: Speaking just for myself, I wouldn’t accuse Freedomworks of running an astroturf operation. Rather, I would accuse Fox News of doing so.
Funny, I don’t recall too many lefties being upset when the MSM routinely failed to note that the “antiwar” rallies were being organized by a bunch of communist front groups. Similarly, I don’t remember too many of you complaining when news folks rushed out to cover a couple dozen professional ACORN “protesters” standing out in front of the AIG building a few weeks back.
Your hypocrisy would be jaw-dropping if it weren’t so predictable.
April 13th, 2009 at 4:20 pm
I was a well paid Tea Bagger. But since our officers left us we no longer receive paychecks labeled FOX NEWS HQ, payroll department, Tea Bagger subsidies.
Several Tea Baggers have suggested we continue Tea Bagging without pay. Why would I carry sacks of tea to dump into lakes and streams if no one is paying me?
I am disconsolate. I was a well paid Tea Bagger. Now I am broke. I no longer want to be a Tea Bagger.
Signed,
Nutbag
April 13th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
Yes, Al, because the only possible way to spend money on something like this is to pay the the people who show up. One couldn’t possibly spend money on mailings or publicity or anything like that.
April 13th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
Njorl,
I happen to be the president of an extremely well-heeled non-profit, and I am about to spend mega-bucks to send out mailings and such to organize rallies aimed at getting our national symbol changed from the bald eagle to the jack rabbit.
Now how many people do you suppose will show up for these events?
See, the way it works here on planet Earth (at least the American part) is, people don’t show up unless they are a) being paid, or b) believe in the cause they are rallying for.
And we sure aren’t being paid… in fact, many of us are missing work to attend.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
Effective grass-roots organizing requires some, well, organizing. Otherwise it’s just chaos. There’s a reason why the media doesn’t pay much attention to “flash mobs”. If the scale of organization behind the activity starts to look too grand or powerful, then the authenticity of the “turf” can start to look questionable, but I don’t think we’re there yet with the tea parties.
April 13th, 2009 at 5:57 pm
DTM,
Yes, I noticed that you omitted mention of my point regarding the “antiwar” marches.
Second, at least the ACORN protest (well, what little of it there was) got MSM coverage — For some reason, thousands of tea party protests in cities all across the country do not receive the same coverage.
So did you think the MSM was “hyping” the pro-illegal immigration rallies when we got breathless reports on them for weeks on end leading up to the big national demonstrations? I somehow doubt it.
In the case of the tea party protests, Fox is not hyping them so much as they are reporting the fact that they keep happening, damn them!
Face it — you’re just using situational outrage to disparage something you don’t happen to like. You have no interest in either consistency or intellectual honesty. My position on the media is pretty straightforward: Cover it all, regardless of whose ox is being gored.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
That is simply false. You’ve stooped to saying the world is flat.
April 14th, 2009 at 6:40 pm
At least we now know it’s not astroturf those guys are smokin’.
April 16th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Hello everyone. Truth has beauty, power and necessity.
I am from Azerbaijan and too bad know English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: “Bradenton airline listings airline tickets.”
With respect 8), Tyanne.