What's Up with the Political Violence?

[Anonymous]

Racial slurs shouted at Congressmen. Slurs hurled at Barney Frank as well. Vandalism at various Congressmen's campaign offices. Faxed pictures of nooses. Death threats called to their homes. Signs that read "If Brown Can't Stop it, a Browning Can."

What's up with all of this? Is this how people really feel? Are they only doing it because political leaders egg them on (baby killer shouter)?

I think the political leadership of both parties have to take a hard stand and condemn this. Where the heck is Michael Steele?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I think the political leadership of both parties have to take a hard stand and condemn this. Where the heck is Michael Steele?

Michael Steele is practically burning Nancy Pelosi in effigy on the GOP's website and warning her that she is on the "firing line". The lunatics clearly are in charge of the asylum.

I have been warning of this for some time. The Republicans started out with extremist rhetoric immediately after the election: calling Obama a socialist, Nazi, and communist, hinting he might be a Muslim, and questioning his place of birth. They put themselves in a box because they could not then turn around and negotiate with a Muslim Hitler. So, being the "Party of No" was their only choice. Then, they could only turn up the rhetorical volume. During the healthcare debate, Republicans have told their followers that the law is illegal and represents tyranny. They say it means "Armageddon" (biblical symbolism purely coincidental I presume). What do they expect? What patriotic American will not stand up and fight against the imposition of tyranny? Of course they've been lying and don't believe their own words. But, their followers are too stupid to realize that. Hence, the situation we are now in. Somebody is going to get killed and the Republican leadership will have blood on its hands.

[Anonymous]

I find this extremely depressing and it just reminds me of the Milgram Experiment (is that what it's called?). How the masses can be lead to do whatever the leaders say, even if it violates their own moral convictions. But then again, maybe these types of violence and hate speech "are" the people's true moral convictions.

Scary.

[Anonymous]

Apparently Eric Cantor wanted to say he was also a victim of political violence and wasn't going to make a big deal of it like the Democrats. Then, whoops, it turns out it was likely a random shot. Just plain old every day violence in Richmond, VA:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35086.html

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Apparently Eric Cantor wanted to say he was also a victim of political violence and wasn't going to make a big deal of it like the Democrats. Then, whoops, it turns out it was likely a random shot. Just plain old every day violence in Richmond, VA:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35086.html

Bullets flying through the air in Richmond? He may not have been a target, but that's not exactly random, either. Too much pistol packing in that state.

[Anonymous]

Apropos of the earlier post, let's call it "Republican Hospitality".

[Anonymous]

http://www.kansascity.com/2010/03/22/1830379/democratic-offices-vandalized.html

[Anonymous]

Vanderboegh posted the call for action Friday on his blog, “Sipsey Street Irregulars.” Referring to the health care reform bill as “Nancy Pelosi’s Intolerable Act,” he told followers to send a message to Democrats.

“We can break their windows,” he said. “Break them NOW. And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.”

Is urging this kind of vandalism illegal? Is it hate speech?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

Vanderboegh posted the call for action Friday on his blog, “Sipsey Street Irregulars.” Referring to the health care reform bill as “Nancy Pelosi’s Intolerable Act,” he told followers to send a message to Democrats.

“We can break their windows,” he said. “Break them NOW. And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.”

Is urging this kind of vandalism illegal? Is it hate speech?

The icing on the cake with this guy is that he lives off government disability checks -- all the while decrying government involvement in the economy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Vanderboegh posted the call for action Friday on his blog, “Sipsey Street Irregulars.” Referring to the health care reform bill as “Nancy Pelosi’s Intolerable Act,” he told followers to send a message to Democrats.

“We can break their windows,” he said. “Break them NOW. And if we do a proper job, if we break the windows of hundreds, thousands, of Democrat party headquarters across this country, we might just wake up enough of them to make defending ourselves at the muzzle of a rifle unnecessary.”

Is urging this kind of vandalism illegal? Is it hate speech?

I don't know if it's hate speech because of the targets, but it is probably not protected speech. The first amendment does not protect specific calls to break the law. You can make general statements about disobeying the law, but when you actually give out directions like that, it's another matter.

[Anonymous]

The media Republicans are worse than the elected Republicans in this whole thing. Palin, Limbaugh, Beck, Hannity etc all are going for ratings, book sales and money. The more sensationalist they are, the more money they make. They don't make money from making intelligent, balanced observations. They make money from being as over the top as they can and get more coverage when people are violent or screaming hate threats. When an incident happens or they make a particularly hateful remark they get coverage cycles for it on the mainstream media further boosting their exposure. The far right has always been out there. The only difference now is that someone is making money on pushing them toward violence. As long as someone can make money selling books, or ad time on TV and radio shows by amplifying and encouraging extreme rhetoric and inciting violence it is not going to calm down.

Most of the elected republicans can't control the media performers and won't distance themselves out of fear of losing the extreme right. Even though the extreme right is a minority and doesn't win general elections, they come out in droves for state and local elections. There are many Republicans who silently wish Palin, Beck and the crew would fall off the side of the earth. My guess would be that Steele is one of them and he is in a bad position. He can't control the far right which is completely intolerant of the moderate mainstream and regularly offends this important block. He can't win mid-term elections without the far right but he knows he can't build a solid base for national elections by losing the middle. He knows that an incident can be one of those decade defining images and harm the political brand way beyond midterm elections.

[Anonymous]

"Media Republicans" have it easy. They can make a fortune by just catering to the most conservative and volatile segment of the country. They are accountable only for ratings, and they can make their numbers by doing well with a very narrow demographic, those on the far right of the spectrum.

Elected officials must do more. They have to win over a majority of the electorate, so they are going to be more measured in their response.

[Anonymous]

I hope no Dems are killed before Nov! If so, we won't have the pleasure of seeing them voted out of office.