Opinion: Angry mobs of Democrats?

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This e-mail just dropped into my inbox:

Paul --

I wanted to send you an urgent invitation to an important town hall with Rep. Adam Schiff this Tuesday, August 11th. He’ll be talking to constituents and gathering feedback -- this is an ideal opportunity to make sure your support for health insurance reform is seen and heard at exactly the right time.

Our congressional representatives are back home this month, and they’re facing more and more pressure from special interests on health insurance reform. It’s critical that we get out there and show them where we stand. ...

Our representatives are under attack by Washington insiders, insurance companies, and well-financed special interests who don’t go a day without spreading lies and stirring up fear. We need to show that we’re sick and tired of it, and that we’re ready for real change, this year.

Please come to the town hall, and make sure that the most powerful voices in this debate are those calling for real reform, not angrily clamoring for the status quo.

Thanks,

Mary Jane

Mary Jane Stevenson
California State Director
Organizing for America

P.S. -- Before the event, please print off a flyer to display and make sure that your support is visible.

This is in the wake of Democrats crying foul over similar efforts by Republicans and anti-healthcare reform groups to pack town halls with ‘mobs of extremists,’ as a Democratic National Committee spokesman put it. I hadn’t planned on going the town hall in Alhambra hosted by Schiff, who happens to be my congressman. Now that I know the DNC wants to pack the meeting with its own masses, increasing the chance that the town hall will be little more than a contest to see which side can more effectively drown out the other, I’m really glad I won’t be going.

[Full disclosure: I’m a ‘decline to state’ voter, not a Democrat. I signed up last summer to be alerted when candidate Obama announced his running mate, which is probably why I received this e-mail.]