Provincial Conservatives love to astroturf. In fact they've had this latest astroturf run planned for some time.
They love to call radio programs and make comments in support of their leader, usually following talking points that are astonishingly similar. It's supposed to appear like a giant groundswell of support for their leader's cause du jour; some of it - like the insistence they aren't coached - gets kinda funny.
Within the past 24 to 48 hours, the number of Pitcher Plants has jumped dramatically. The ABC Astroturf is in full bloom.
You can tell them a mile away:
- They make repeated reference to "Premier Williams", pledge their support for him and praise him in the stereotypical pitcher plant fashion. Most people don't have a need to do that; Provincial Conservatives evidently do.
- They make repeated references to the need to "stand up for your province". A recurring theme among Provincial Conservatives is that the province consists of one mass whose interests are identical and who must act in a corporate fashion under the leadership of a single individual in order to achieve victory over external forces. That's the foundation of Provincial Conservative politics since at least 2003.
- They've been making repeated attacks on Fabian Manning. Again, that hasn't been a common feature of the call-in shows to date. Tonight it's all Fabe, all the time. Despite the efforts to claim otherwise - nothing could be further from the truth - there's been a great deal of Family Feud energy directed to defeating Manning.
- Dead give-away: they all make reference to the same episode, namely Manning sitting next to Harper in the House. They describe this episode suing similar terms and typically misrepresent what happened in the same way their Leader did originally. People who aren't Provincial Conservatives don't need elaborate rationales to vote against Conservatives.
- Second dead give-away: they praise any politician who has sided with their beloved "Premier Williams", usually referring to the individual as having acted in the best interests of his or her constituents. To provincial Conservatives, their leader's decisions and the interest of the entire province are synonymous. (See Indicator 2 above)
- They take great care to distinguish between Conservatives and the Provincial Conservatives, which they insist on calling Progressive. Only Provincial Conservatives need to make that distinction for some reason. Liberals and New Democrats don't care.
- They turn up online making comments from behind a pseudonym. In classic Provincial Conservative fashion, everything is about their leader. Note that the two comments here are from individuals who have a well-established pattern of behaviour presenting exactly the same kinds of comments offered here. They didn't comment on the original post at all, suggesting that they weren't yet mobilized to start astroturfing.
-srbp-