Astroturf Doesn’t Have Roots, But Do Protests?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Thursday had one word to describe the much talked about uproar at recent healthcare townhall meetings: astroturf.
And, he had a prop to explain why. “I just want you to see what Astroturf is,” the Nevada Democrat said to reporters, according to ABC News, while waving a piece of fake grass around.
The relevance? “This is not grassroots,” Reid said.
Astroturf is being tried out as a catchphrase by several Democratic leaders who want to marginalize those who disrupt townhalls. Most Republicans fire back that what is being shown on the news and on YouTube is an organic movement of people who oppose the healthcare proposals in Congress. “To sit back and say that this is some Republican cabal is a bunch of baloney,” RNC Chairman Michael Steele told reporters.
But groups that support Democratic plans for healthcare reform are following Reid’s lead and characterizing outbursts at townhalls as “astroturfing,” a vague term that is used to describe fake grassroots campaigns.
“Clearly there is an orchestrated strategy to these townhalls to make it seem like there is more of them there than there actually are,” said Alan Rosenblatt, who runs the online advocacy group at the Center for American Progress Action Fund.
Since the term will undoubtedly be thrown around quite a bit in the coming weeks, it is worth taking a look at what astroturfing means, whether it is always a bad thing and why it is very difficult to prove it’s happening and who is behind it.
Curtis Brooks, a veteran field director of grassroots campaigns, defined astroturfing in broad terms. “I would generally consider it to be any time an outside interest comes in and creates an organization, or an appearance of an organization, and makes it looks like there are a lot of members when there aren’t,” he said.
Brooks noted that the technique can be particularly effective because “in politics, appearance is reality,” and often the groups behind it can be very careful in covering their tracks.
He also noted that, although it has recently received a lot of notoriety, astroturfing is a fairly old tactic, and it’s one, he said, that healthcare companies have a lot of experience with. For example, anytime Congress has considered changing any laws regarding the use of scooters for health purposes, he said, scooter vendors would call their customers and tell them Congress was going to take their scooters away. They would, in turn, call their representatives in Congress, creating the impression that there was widespread concern about the legislation.
There is also a definite difference between the broad definition of the term and how it is used in practice, others said. Colin Delany, the editor of the nonpartisan epolitics.com, said it is tricky to define exactly what is astroturfing and what is simply using money to excite supporters.
“One person’s advocacy is another person’s astroturfing,” Delany said.
And Brooks noted that astroturfing isn’t always intellectually dishonest. Often groups are upfront with people whom they believe will be sympathetic to their cause.
Rosenblatt said that there are three ways of looking at advocacy campaigns: Grassroots is entirely bottom-up; astroturf is entirely top-down; and, in the middle, there are large advocacy groups mobilizing their supporters.
He also said there is one sure fire way to tell if what is happening at townhalls recently is astroturfing: If people are being bussed to townhalls in districts other than there own, he said, it would indicate that some group is trying to create the impression that there are more constituents who oppose healthcare reform in that district than actually exists.Jeremy Jacobs is the staff writer for Politics magazine. He can be reached at jjacobs@politicsmagazine.com.