Yesterday Romney foolishly threw down the gauntlet in a heckling war, sending campaign operatives to disrupt a presentation by David Axelrod. The Obama campaign has always been very opposed to what they regard as "negative" tactics like disrupting opposition events and meetings. They don't even like tranditional demonstrations. They've always argued against glitter bombing and shout downs. They want everything to be about phone banking, door to door, networking and grass roots work. OFA has never been into street combat. It comes right from "No Drama Obama" himself who had ample experience with both types of activity as an organizer in Chicago.
However the right insists on believing every liberal, progressive or union organization in the US is under the President's control. Since the left isn't coordinated with tons of money and is composed of younger people in large part, that isn't the case. Any experienced liberal organizer of activist knows this.
In Charleston, SC the demonstrations against Republican candidates here during the primary came out of the Occupy movement and radical left (Assisted towards the end by people from out of town), not the Democratic Party or Obama organization. In fact, a major rift developed over such tactics between those groups here.
Romney's events are usually small, secure and difficult to penetrate. They attempt to spot and eject anyone who looks out of place or whom they can identify as a liberal or opposition activist before anything happens. They're perfectly happy to divert them to some area for questioning or just park them out of site where they can watch a video feed. They handle problematic right wing people the same way. Even a conservative suit and flag pin won't necessarily get you inside. If you are using a camera, you may be spotted. Ask a hard question and you will be invited to leave. You are likely to be photographed on your way out and presumably accessioned to some Romney Biometric screening data base for use in the future.
Such security limits the reach of Romney events. You can't hold a 10 thousand person rally with such precautions. Romney's goal is to drive Obama into a similar defensive posture to reduce the effectiveness of the President's campaign. These tactics grown out of those developed by the Union Busting industry which has refined them in the global war against organized labor and more recently, stockholder protests.
Obama won't be sending groups of OFA campaign workers to harass Romney, no matter what happens. Romney will be dogged by protests from Unions, Occupy and other groups. Some of these groups don't exist yet and may develop out of online activity. Many of these groups are disappointed with Obama as well. When they're dismissed as being Democratic tools, they'll get even angrier and more creative.
It will be ugly. It will drive a lot of the fun out of politics. In the end Romney won't be able to deploy enough smart alec frat boys from business school to cover all the Obama activity. As opposition to Romney multiplies and diversifies outside of coordinated Democratic control it will become harder to manage. Romeny will need higher fences, more secure venues and more security. It will culminate in Tampa when the Republicans gather behind concrete and razor wire to celebrate their version of democracy. Hopefully it will end in November when perhaps we can return to the long delayed work of restoring our country to a tradition of justice, equality and inclusion.
Most of the fun in politics went out for me in July 2009 when a small health care reform event here in Charleston was jumped by a tea party harassment cadre of over 80 people ginned up on local hate radio. It's clear to me that Sarah Palin doesn't believe I'm a real American and the Tea Party believes I should have no right to free speech. I accept the new conditions and am confident that though the election is over here in SC, that Romney will get what he deserves elsewhere.