Glenn Reynolds, RedState promote anti-intellectualism and intimidation (completely ineffective protest against Tim Bishop, tea parties)

The attached video shows a group from the "Conservative Society for Action" protesting at a town hall meeting held by Long Island Rep. Tim Bishop. It's difficult to describe just how idiotic it is. Rather than going inside and trying to engage him in debate about his policies, they stand outside waving loopy signs, conducting a sing-a-long, and chanting various slogans. Not only that, but they cluster around the windows of the meeting location, no doubt intimidating those inside. In other words, they're engaging in anti-intellectual actions more often associated with ACORN, CodePink, and other far-left groups.

And, all of that is being promoted by Glenn Reynolds [1] and by Brian Faughnan of RedState [2].

The only appearance on the video by Bishop is as he enters; someone yells at him, asking whether he has something to say to his constituents. The same person then says, "stop spending our money". That's it; they didn't even have a good question that could be shouted at him. Once again: I can't adequately describe just how idiotic this is.

For the intelligent, effective alternative, see the question authority page.

UPDATE: Someone from the tea party side weigh in in comments, indicating that there are videos from inside the meeting hall on Youtube, but without providing a link. They're here and here. One video was uploaded on the day of this post, the other the next day; whether the first was even up there when I posted this isn't known, but neither of those two videos were in the Instapundit and RedState posts discussed in this post. The two videos were added in a comment on the RedState post at 4:21pm EDT today (6/25). And, the user who uploaded the attached video only appears to have one video in his account; the new ones are from someone else. Next time I'll remember to reload RedState every five minutes so I don't miss anything.

And, both RedState and another commenter are crowing about Bishop cancelling a planned meeting. That's a very mild version of this. Bishop should be encouraged to have as many meetings as possible, where those with valid arguments can make them. Crowing about shutting down debate is the way campus far-lefties operate.

More on the videos after I watch them; I'm going to guess that there's little more than ranting but we'll see.

UPDATE 2: I only made it through the first six minutes of the first video; I think I've seen enough. What's there is little more than angry ranting and attempts to shout him down; despite what they say on their post [3], I didn't see any valid questions being asked. That page has a list of the thing he supposedly supports, and the list is obviously false. Does anyone outside of their group think he really supports "the destruction of our private healthcare industry" or wants to "[destroy] the United States economy"? And, at that page, they even admit being an angry mob:

After the meeting was over, Congressman Bishop once again had to run the gauntlet of Tea Party Patriots back to his car. This time he was escorted by Suffolk County police, but he was dogged by a crowd of about two hundred brandishing signs and singing chants of Pelosi, Bishop, No Difference! One wag remarked that the only thing missing from that scene was torches being carried by the crowd!

[1] pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/80760 says: TEA PARTIERS ELSEWHERE TAKE NOTE OF THIS APPROACH: Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) Runs from Constituents. As Jim Geraghty noted, you can make a big impression by showing up in person at things like congressional district meetings.

[2] redstate.com/brianfaughnan/2009/06/24/rep-tim-bishop-d-ny-runs-from-constituents

[3] nygoe.wordpress.com/2009/06/23/
taking-the-tea-party-to-town-halls-bishop-gets-the-t-e-a-message

Wed, 06/24/2009 - 18:32 · · Importance: 4