It sounds like the name of a 1960s band. But it is rather more sinister. Recent moves by the self-styled 'teabaggers' come straight from the play-book of Leon Trotsky. The policies may be different, but the techniques of organized thuggery are not. And they are a real threat to the survival of the Republican party.

I have seen these tactics before, the organized disruption of public meetings, shouting down the speaker with imaginary 'facts' and chanted slogans. They were the favored technique of the 'Militant Tendency', a Trotskyite faction that attempted to take over the British Labour party in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

A standard Militant modus operandi was 'entryism', they would identify a constituency party where the leadership was clearly moribund and organize a group of people to sign up for membership. Once they had got about 20% of the membership they would set about driving out the remaining 80% by making party meetings as unpleasant as possible for anyone who didn't agree with them.

These tactics allowed Militant to capture control of the Labour councils in several major UK cities, in particular in Liverpool where Derek Hatton, the 'deputy leader' took the city on a collision course with the Thatcher government, bankrupting the city in the process. Taking the number 2 spot in an organization and letting someone else be the titlar leader is another classic Trotskyite tactic.

The Trotskyites were the principal cause of Labour's defeat in the 1983 general election. A group of Moderate MPs who were tired of the treatment split from the party and formed their own party - the SDP which quickly aligned with the Liberals. The split in the progressive vote is the reason Thatcher was relected twice. But defeating the Tories or implementing any policy goal was a much lower priority for the Trotskyites than gaining control of the Labour party.

The teabaggers tactics are already proving counterproductive as far as the health care debate goes. Deomcrats might have changed their minds on health care reform if they thought they were faced with genuine opposition from real constituents. Now the tactics are known, any opposition is going to be attributed to rent-a-mob.

But that isn't the real objective here. The real objective is to send a signal to the Republicans in Congress - obey us or else you will get the same treatment. It is kind of like a protection racket where the thugs go burn down the competitor's store before making their demands.

Disrupting Democrat town halls will not derail health care, but it will force the GOP reps to align themselves with the leaders of the teabagger mob. And getting all those people riled up and angry is proving to be mighty profitable for the Bill O'Rieleys and the Rush Limbaughs and the rest. They make money from books and from their radio shows and from their fundraising campaigns. If you have a direct mail operation sending out a million solitications a month, you can charge 10 cents a time as administrative overheads.