We might start seeing more angry liberal reaction to the Paul Ryan budget this weekend and next week. Reacting to my article from this morning, someone from the “Don’t Make Us Work Til We Die” campaign
says that protests
will begin “next week in 13 states.”
Brian Beutler did more reporting on the relative lack of in-your-face liberal outrage at congressional town halls.
“I don’t think it’s possible to do that over again,” said Justin Ruben, executive director of MoveOn. “It’s like SwiftBoats in 2004. Interesting things happened in August, but it’s hard to repeat.”
MoveOn is mobilizing and prepping its members for town hall events in their districts, and is responsible for some of the disruptions – such as they are – that we’ve seen so far.
But things have changed since 2009. Those town hall disruptions convinced members of both parties to lower their profiles. The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) reinforced that instinct. In 2009, town hall events were publicized and scheduled well in advance. That’s not true anymore.
On top of that, progressive, Democratic, and union groups across the country aren’t fighting off one threat to their interests – they’re swamped by state-level fights over collective bargaining, public pensions, voting rights, and other conservative onslaughts.
So there you go.
