I am getting a premonition of how shocked and appalled “reasonable” people are going to be (and how Villagers will bleat that “no one could have predicted!“) when right-wing nutjobs take irresponsible, inflammatory rhetoric like this and decide to kill people in the name of defending the republic:
At a town hall meeting this week, “a partisan crowd of over 2,000 people” cheered on Rep. Wally Herger’s (R-CA) fear-mongering about the Obama administration and its policy proposals: “Herger did not hold back on his opinion of the health care plan and the administration’s appointment of ‘czars’ to head various departments and task forces. ‘Our democracy has never been threatened as much as it is today,’ Herger said to a loud standing ovation.”
It’s pretty simple: These nuts seriously believe that, under Obama, our democracy has never been threatened as much as it is today.
When a supposedly respectable Republican elected leader is effectively telling you that Obama is more dangerous to our country than even Hitler or Stalin’s communism were, how could you, as a red-blooded Real American™, NOT go out and kill the evil libruls that are out to destroy America?
I weep for our country when that day someday comes (again)…
Update: Frank Rich tears down some more inflammatory rhetoric spewed by GOP Senator Tom Coburn:
“IT is time to water the tree of liberty” said the sign carried by a gun-toting protester milling outside President Obama’s town-hall meeting in New Hampshire two weeks ago. The Thomas Jefferson quote that inspired this message, of course, said nothing about water: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” That’s the beauty of a gun – you don’t have to spell out the “blood.”
The protester was a nut. America has never had a shortage of them. But what’s Tom Coburn’s excuse? Coburn is a Republican senator from Oklahoma, where 168 people were murdered by right-wing psychopaths who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995. Their leader, Timothy McVeigh, had the Jefferson quote on his T-shirt when he committed this act of mass murder. Yet last Sunday, when asked by David Gregory on “Meet the Press” if he was troubled by current threats of “violence against the government,” Coburn blamed not the nuts but the government.
“Well, I’m troubled any time when we stop having confidence in our government,” the senator said, “but we’ve earned it.”
Coburn is nothing if not consistent. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, he was part of a House contingent that helped delay and soften an antiterrorism bill. This cohort even tried to strip out a provision blocking domestic fund-raising by foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas. Why? The far right, in league with the National Rifle Association, was angry at the federal government for aggressively policing America’s self-appointed militias. In a 1996 floor speech, Coburn conceded that “terrorism obviously poses a serious threat,” but then went on to explain that the nation had worse threats to worry about: “There is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own government.” As his remarks on “Meet the Press” last week demonstrated, the subsequent intervention of 9/11 has not changed his worldview.
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(THE GRAPEVINE
I cannot take seriously any research, opinion, or contrast written by somebody with a username such as Metavirus. However, do keep in mind that even elected officials are not immune to what is happening in this country. Our republic has been downtrodden while powermongers continue to struggle for control.
What name would make you more comfortable? Jim Smith? L. Bob Rife?
Thaddeus Pilkington III? Your experience with pseudononymous blogging
shouldn't be influenced by whether you happen to approve of the
pseudonym someone chooses to use. After all, Very Serious guys with
Very Serious names like Bill Kristol are also perfectly capable of
pumping out craven, excreble, factually unsupported dreck without the perceived handicap of a
disfavored pseudonym.
I suppose that KCFisher would prefer names like Truth, Justice, Chemist, and Avenger? Does a persons name determine his status as a researcher or thinker? Each of us uses pseudononymous name because we know that anything on the net is on the net forever and can be used out of context at any point. Each to his own. I prefer to use a nickname that anyone who knows me will recognize. But I could use Nutmeg, The Old Smoking Dragon or Blade. Or an even older one like Bastard.
The game is over. The stupid have won. They are breeding at a far greater clip than the intelligent. It's a numbers game. Since everyone gets to vote, no matter how stupid, the end result is obvious. We continue to degenerate until the whole thing falls apart. People like Coburn and Herger use fear to control the stupid, stay in office, earn fat pensions, and enjoy the perks.
The vast majority of angry protesters have never even left their home state, much less the country. They willingly gulp down the BS because, ultimately, all each knows and is capable of understanding is his or her own little narrow world. Everything else is BIG and SCARY. Why? They're stupid. But they get to vote. Maybe they can't find their own country on a world map. Maybe they don't know their own state capitol. Doesn't matter. Got a pulse and over 18? You can vote!
My dear friend, Metavirus, you're going to drive yourself crazy. As you've wisely said before, democracy is little more than tyranny of the stupid. This is borne out more and more each day. The system is too big, too bloated, and too broken. It must collapse in upon itself before it can be renewed. It cannot be fixed. This is so painfully obvious to anyone with a half a brain (and I know you have much more than that!). Buy guns. Learn to use them. Stock up on ammo. Learn to survive.
The stupid will die off fast, but they'll put up a fierce fight when the day comes. But just think how satisfying it will be to blast them in their stupid faces when they finally succeed in tearing the whole thing apart for no good reason. Look to the future. The present is lost.
Oh Devastator, your words ring true as they always do. It's times suchas these that give me insight into why I love fantasy and scifi somuch. Through escapism, I can imagine the survival of the human raceafter the final death throes of barbarism either wipe us out ofexistence or allow a newly annealed form of humanity to arise out ofthe ashes of our former savagery.
“democracy is little more than tyranny of the stupid.” Then I suppose that you would prefer a dictatorship, or a self appointed group of elites, or even a theocratic group of self stilled religious leaders? Or biggest problem is the lack of voters.
unfortunately democracy is the best we've got. and the best a democracy can offer is the quality of its voters and the elites that the voters elect to govern them. unfortunately, a huge number of our voters (and elected leaders) in this democracy are ignorant, fear-obsessed sheeple. either people evolve (quickly) or the empire and its edifice falls. such is life
I think that we will have to agree to disagree about the stupidity of the average voter. Most of the crap you are seeing and reading is a dedicated program designed to misinform and drive people from voting. The crazier the participants act the more people they think they can drive from the poles and the easier the Republicans can control the vote. The Republicans are masters of producing the mind numbing apathy that causes people to stay away from the poles. Then add the limits to vote, and the near Jim Crow laws sponsored at state and local levels and a clear pattern can be found.
Timothy and Terry were not the sole perpetrators of the Oklahoma City Bomb.
Why did the Feds call off the rescue when two or three undetonated bombs were found while searching for survivors.
Who planted those bombs?
Oklahoma was just practice for the 911 "attack".
Well, there were millions of hateful ignorant Americans who fanned theflames of paranoia that led to the oklahoma city bombings. Just likeGlenn Beck and Michelle Malkin and John Cornyn are fanning the flamestoday
Well said, the so called militia’s of the ninety’s never went away. When you see armed individuals standing outside of political meetings with signs indicating that the blood of martyrs and tyrants are needed to water the tree of liberty is reminiscent of the KKK rallies in support of the Jim Crow laws. The people are only interested in trying to intimidate people from expressing opposing views and need to be dealt with.
Our democracy has never been threatened as much as it is today, and I agree with this statement totally. What we disagree on is the danger. The danger comes from the very people using statements like this to beat down their opponents. The last time our nation was this polarized was before the civil war. With a vocal majority trying to maneuver the Republic to their view point and only their view point. Then add in then we will kill you if you oppose us. The right wingnuts position is nothing short of blackmail.