The same “Democrat Masters of Astroturf” who delight in liberal activism are crying foul about the perfectly valid rabble-rousing of Tea Party activists, writes Michelle Malkin on her blog. Conservative activists have been told to pack Democratic events and heckle them, something one liberal blogger describes as “civic vigilantism.” Malkin disagrees. “Booing a talking-points-programmed political hack isn’t ‘civic vigilantism,’” she writes. It’s “participatory democracy.”
The “anti-war, anti-free trade, anti-Bush mobsters” spent the last eight years pouring cement on train tracks, vandalizing businesses, and throwing shoes, Malkin fumes. But when the right asks aloud, “How can you manage health care when you can’t manage Cash for Clunkers?” it’s, to quote a DNC spokesman, “inciting angry mobs.” Malkin doesn’t think activists are the ones who are out of line. “It’s the Tea Party-bashers who can’t tolerate peaceful dissent.” (More Michelle Malkin stories.)