One of the greatest worries congressional staffers face when organizing a town hall meeting for their boss is that no one will attend it. Now they really have something to fear: organized gangs of partisan hecklers intent on stopping a national dialogue on health reform.

After spending thousands of dollars of government-paid “franked mail” to every constituent in a member’s district, blasting out faxes to the local media, assembling experts to answer difficult questions and posting reminders through Facebook and Twitter, encouraging citizens to attend these informative events takes time and money. So why are some folks hellbent on shutting them down? My answer: Republicans want to stifle debate and kill any attempt to reform health care during this session of Congress.

In a July 31 memo to House Republicans titled “A Very Hot Summer,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, promised that “Our Democratic friends are going to feel the heat in August from the American people as a consequence of the massively flawed health care bill, and rightly so. ... Our work is far from over ... Our mission now is to keep it going.”

Three days later, Boehner posted a “Leader Alert” on his official Web site that crowed about Democratic congressmen being harassed and heckled during town hall meetings with their constituents. Boehner seemed particularly pleased with the Austin American Statesman account of the “angry reception” Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, faced from a group that “overwhelmed the congressman as he moved through the crowd and into the parking lot.”

Meanwhile, FreedomWorks, chaired by former Republican House Majority Leader Dick Armey, is e-mailing 380,000 supporters this week with a link to an “August Recess Action Kit” and the call to arms: “Turn Up the Heat in August: Help Defeat ObamaCare.”

Reforming our nation’s health care system is too important and complex a topic for us to allow partisan agitators to be so disruptive. It’s a shame because no matter where you stand on the various proposals, this summer is a time to review and discuss the legislation that Congress will consider upon their return in the fall.

As Richard Nixon once noted, “We cannot learn from one another until we stop shouting at one another — until we speak quietly enough so that our words can be heard as well as our voices.”

Yes, of course hecklers are welcome to attend town hall meetings, but no member of Congress deserves to be heckled and harassed to the point of fearing personal harm. What is happening at the town hall meetings is frightening.

Have we abandoned all hope of bipartisanship? Do we really want our elected officials to demonize their opposition?

And are Republicans that desperate because it appears as though the economy is improving and Obama might just get the credit after they fought him tooth and nail?

These so-called hecklers should be encouraged to attend, rather than shut down, town hall meetings, if only to listen to fellow Americans who are fearful of losing their current health care or worried that their premiums will rise so much as to not be able to afford any at all.

Instead, these disruptive elements scream with one eye searching for the nearest TV camera. They seek confrontation that will distract from any meaningful dialogue between our elected leaders and their constituents.

What we need is a respectful and civilized debate. What we have are agitators who hung in effigy a likeness of Reps. Frank Kratovil Jr. (Md.) and Allen Boyd (Fla.) outside their district offices. Rep. Pete Sessions, who chairs the National Republican Congressional Committee, went so far as telling Politico that the time for polite town halls is now “over.” Republicans leaders should be held accountable for encouraging and promoting these disruptions.

We need a vigorous national debate, not intimidation, coercion and sowing seeds of discontent. This is all part of a well-orchestrated political campaign paid for by opponents of health care reform. They want the status quo, in new threads. However they dress it, it will leave the average American in rags. Cries of “socialism!” and “government-run health care” are scarecrows they raise to protect vested interests.

For now, these hecklers are just smoke and mirrors. Americans continue to demand the genuine change needed to afford to maintain the health care we have — and may one day lose.

We are all dead in the water with the current broken health care system. The president’s willingness to change the August deadline shows his commitment to “getting it right.” It’s a delay, not an end. The American people will have their reform. We all want better health care, and better health care we should demand — provided members of Congress don’t fall for the fear mongers.

Courage is what we all need now — courage to risk change after our best plans are put forward and debated.

Donna Brazile is a political commentator on CNN, ABC and NPR; contributing columnist to Roll Call, the newspaper of Capitol Hill; and former campaign manager for Al Gore.