Comedian turned cultural guru/current events pundit, John Stewart (recently voted in a Time Magazine poll as the most trusted News Personality in America), in 2006 said on his nightly television show, "The world is run by extremists because moderates have (expletive) to do." There is a sense in which that is true. There are not a lot of moderates hanging out at town hall meetings, and those that are can be easily swayed into the fray with a couple of well placed phrases from highly paid lobbyists posing as the "trustworthy looking older gentleman/lady" from "down the street". .
The phrase "one bad apple spoils the bunch" is well known among crowd control experts. In fact, experts have known for a very long time that a few people in the right place can change the mood of an entire room. When Frank Sinatra first took to the stage, his handlers used crowd control technique to create a name for their rising star. They hired half a dozen girls to swoon in the front rows. Due to the miracle of crowd manipulation, while half a dozen girls swooned for pay, dozens more followed suit, some even to the point of fainting upon receiving a wink from the blue eyed crooner. .
The truth of the healthcare debate in town hall meetings is that crowd control experts working on behalf of those who would discredit the officials hosting the discussions are planting a few people in crowd whose job it is to sway the crowd in such a way as to be picked up by the 24 hour news cycle, thus broadcasting a few choice buzz phrases to millions instead of the mere dozens in the town hall meeting. The amazing thing about this sort of negative campaign is that they use the limitations of the 24 hour news cycle to create an even larger frenzy that threatens to derail a bill that the majority of Americans would likely find very much to their satisfaction, given the opportunity to make use of its services. .
That is not to say that all of the buzz generated in Town halls is fake.
