The irony is pretty thick, but for some reason no one in the press or in the GOP seems to have noticed. Speaker Paul Ryan said the protesters at Trump’s rallies have contributed to the level of violence and rhetoric at the events
“It’s pretty clear that there’s a concerted effort by people on the left to disrupt these rallies, to disrupt these events, and that needs to be condemned,” Ryan said.
A concerted effort? To disrupt events? Needs to be condemned? Do tell, Mr. Speaker!! But where was your condemnation in the summer of 2009?
Some of us were paying attention to efforts to pass the best healthcare reform in decades, the Affordable Care Act, while others were attempting (with unfortunate success) to benefit politically from attacks on that achievement.
The summer of 2009 was when GOP Astroturf groups like Freedomworks and the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity went all out in a “concerted effort” to “disrupt” Congressional town hall meetings.
Of course, professional agitators like Rush Limbaugh were defending the tactics back then:
"These are genuine voting American citizens. It is -- what these Democrats are accusing you of doing, who go to these town hall meetings, is exactly what Obama taught people to do. He's the community agitator. He's the community organizer. Obama is the guy who taught people how to show up at events like this over and over again and rip 'em apart and tear 'em down, disrupt 'em, and make sure they don't happen. And now the tables have been turned. It's happening to him, only this time, it's not ginned up; it's genuine. It's real."
But the disruptions of the town halls were “ginned up”, they were extremely scripted and tactics were disseminated by provocateurs on the right. Groups like Freedomworks were only too happy to crow about their disruptions and encourage more. MediaMatters detailed much of this at the time.
In Texas, protests against Rep. Lloyd Doggett were coordinated by Heather Liggett, who worked with the local Republican Party, as well as the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, to organize antitax “tea party” demonstrations.
[It should be noted that I could find no reports of the victims of these tactics exhorting their supporters to punch anybody in the face.]
So now we have Paul Ryan, whose party swept to power in the House largely fueled by these “disruptions” and “concerted efforts” saying such tactics need to be condemned? Mr. Speaker, you have absolutely no right to condemn anyone. Shame on you!
It is high time that somebody in the media started calling out the hypocrisy and double standard evident in condemning disruptive tactics and blaming protesters for violence at Trump rallies.