The Surreal With the Fringe on Top

by John Cory, Reader Supported News

Wednesday, 24 March 2010 18:30

Tea Party rally, Washington, DC, a protester wraps himself in an American flag, 12/07/09. (photo: Getty Images)

Reader Supported News | Perspective

t was supposed to be about humaneness and empathy and our social contract with each other. It was supposed to be about compassion and caring for one another like we would do unto ourselves. It was about health and healing and caring.

It became shouts of "nigger" and "faggot" and "baby killer." It became spit dripping off a Congressman and faxes with "nooses" and racial slurs and phone calls to the homes and family members with vile and threatening and disgusting messages from good "Christian" Americans.

It became vandalism against Democratic offices across the country. It became vandalism or maybe worse against the brother of a Congressman when his address was listed on Tea Party web sites and elsewhere.

When told the address was not the Congressman's, but his brother and his wife and four young children, Nigel Coleman responded: "Do you mean I posted his brother's address on my Facebook? Oh well, collateral damage."

And now 10 Democratic members of Congress find the need for extra security for their families and themselves.

The GOP leaders may try to distance themselves by calling these incidents "isolated." Or using Bill Bennett's logic: "Crude judgments about race is what the left does. The isolated idiots on our side who do this are not only wrong, but adopting the tactics of the left."

Mealy-mouthed denunciations, while castigating liberals, is nothing more than tacit approval of violence and vigilante mob mentality.

We are past the playground snickers of sticks-and-stones. We are past so-called "heated rhetoric." We are long past decency and decorum.

We are in a dangerous place.

The GOP has warmly embraced the Tea Party movement and its offspring. Will the GOP step forward and condemn them now? Strongly and forcefully?

People will get hurt. And who will be first to deny that their words and encouragement had anything to do with a "few crazies?" The GOP.

You can stop this, Republicans. You should stop this, Republicans. You must stop this, Republicans, or you are nothing more than accomplices in the reckless endangerment of citizens and families and the very democracy you claim to love.

Or you can choose to play politics with people's lives because of the power it might give you. After all, what is power without some collateral damage?

It was supposed to be about something good.

It was supposed to be about loving our neighbor as ourselves.

It was supposed to be about life.

It is now about death and destruction and decimation.

It has become surreal with the fringe on top.

Comments

+31 # Eric Jackson 2010-03-24 21:56

They have left themselves vulnerable and are screeching gibberish like wounded birds. The Democrats in Congress and the progressive element at large really ought to be pressing the attack on several fronts, particularly on job-related economic issues, because we don't have especially credible opponents at the moment.

Give them a breather and they will regroup. Press the attack and they will be routed and have to regroup under much less favorable (to them) circumstances.

+33 # Guest 2010-03-24 22:13

We shouldn't use the word "fascism" easily.

It has a precise meaning in 20th-century history. What we are witnessing today is not fascism, but it is as dangerous.

Benito Mussolini is said to have regretted naming his movement, party and regime "fascist" in a failed attempt to make a symbolic link to ancient Rome.

Better, he thought, to have labeled it "corporatism," a unique blending of the economic power of capitalism with the authority of the state. What is emerging in the USA is a version of corporatism with the added feature of fundamentalist Christianity and a defiant rejection of science and reason.

None of this is new, but the current version is potent, and advanced not just by Fox News but by the entire corporate media and "official" education which combine to turn public discussion into a coin toss between the hard and soft sides of the coinage of social control.

+17 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:10

I agree that we should use the word "fascist" with care. There are four main philosophical points of fascism, the first of which which Mussolini referred to when he referred to it as "corporatism."

Fascism promotes:
1. the total intertwining of government and big business and industry.
2. constant aggressive war as the best war to security.
3. hyper-patriotism, flag-waving, xenophobia, and obsession with the supposed exalted status of the "homeland"
4. the idea that the state should have total power to repress dissent and "abberant" behavior.

Is this a fair precis? Does it not quite closely describe the philosophy of the previous White House and many of the loudest and most-often-heard voices in the Republican Party right now?

0 # Guest 2010-04-01 11:25

A perfect summation of the problem that befuddles and beleaguers the country. I am called to mind of the purges of Mao's China and Stalin's Russia. I congratulate you on your ability to see this and hope you continue to spread the word.

+26 # Guest 2010-03-24 22:32

And to imagine that most of these threatening people would probably mistakenly call themselves "Pro-Lifers"! It's time that we teach people that being Pro-Life means promoting healthcare for all, healthy living, and mutual support, not bigotry and violence.

Paul Harris
Author, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina"

+33 # Guest 2010-03-24 22:32

I have thought for a long time that this country would eventually be destroyed by the organic stupidity of the general population. Seems that is coming true. These hate-filled cretins are so stupid that they can do nothing but strike out with violence whenever they feel threatened; and they feel threatened a lot by any kind of change. Any gasbag can rile them up with hateful rhetoric and rather than think about the issue they react like the brain stems they are. I feel it's only going to get worse given that stupid is now not only the norm but encouraged. After all, if people aren't stupid how can they be controlled and scared--two things Repubs are masters at doing.

+10 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:40

Susan is very right. I would add just this: most of the "cretins" and the "stupid" are not mentally disabled. They are among very large numbers of Americans who have not received a decent humanistic education. Education doesn't interest such people, so Education is often at the end of politicans' lists of necessary things to do.

+7 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:44

Even without the final reference to Republicans, your comment is right on the mark. You may notice in all of the replies a general tone of rationality in contrast to hatred and ignorance that appears in those of the people you describe. Sinclair Lewis's It Can't Happen Here, seems the roadmap they are following.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:06

hi susan
I'm sure we agree on general political issues,but I wanted to point out that you are mistaken when you say the "organic stupidity of the general population." The Tea Party and kindred foks rare all Repbulicans, and have taken siliar views ove rthe last 70 yers. They are about 1/6 of the population and indoctrinated into their own conservative, sometimes racist, anti-government fanaticism. It's not the general populace, which has its own rationality and logic -- like distrust of large corproations and government -- but to cal the general populace stupid and believe these right wingers reflect that "stupidity" is wrong.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-26 07:46

AND they are the ones who own the guns!

+3 # Guest 2010-03-26 12:19

Dear Susan: "organic stupidity of the general population?", "Hate-filled Cretins?", "Any gasbag?" "The brain-stems they are?", "Stupid is now?". Susan, with a vocabulary like that and your contempt for these people who are unfortunately uneducated (they tend to 4-letter words), how can you expect anything from them. Personally, I think your rhetorical skills are working against you. Maybe you could look for a better way.

+16 # Guest 2010-03-24 22:41

I am fed up with the tactics of the so called rightous right, they are nothing but bigots. They are trying to bully there way to the top with their nasty tactics. Well let me tell you something republicans, keep saying no to everything that President Obama is trying do & come November you will be voted out just like the last election, when the Democrats won by a landslide. We had to put up with your leader for 8 gruesome years of doom & gloom, we never descecrated him although we should have. Have respect for the President of the United States, & be men instead of mouse, & using your nasty tactics.

+15 # Guest 2010-03-24 22:49

WITH GREAT HOPE IN MY HEART, THE REPUBLICANS WILL REAP WHAT THEY HAVE SOWN COME ELECTION DAY, BOTH IN 2010 AND 2012. ABRAHAM LINCOLN IS SURELY SPINNING IN HIS GRAVE OVER WHAT HAS BECOME OF "HIS" PARTY. SADLY, THEY HAVE BECOME SO PERVERTED BY THEIR VITRIOL, IT MAY BE TOO LATE TO PREVENT SOME DISASTROUS EVENT SPURRED ON BY THEIR INFLAMMATORY RHETORIC. REPUBLICANS CHEERING THE DISGRACEFUL ACTIONS AND EPITHETS PERPETRATED AGAINST DEMOCRATIC MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AS THEY WENT IN TO VOTE FOR THE HEALTH-CARE BILL BORDERS, IN MY OPINION, ON TREASONOUS AND DANGEROUSLY THREATENING BEHAVIOR AGAINST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS AND SHOULD BE ADDRESSED BY CENSURE OR IMPEACHMENT, AT THE VERY LEAST. THEY HAVE LOST THEIR MORAL COMPASS AND ARE BEHAVING LIKE THE MINDLESS MOBS TO WHOM THEY PANDER AND INFLAME. SHAME ON THEM.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 20:21

I wish I could read what Lyttle-me said, but I can't. My eyes simply will not follow all caps on a screen. From what people are saying, it probably would have been interesting.

+17 # Guest 2010-03-24 23:39

Well said.

Add to this the Republicans -- shut down the Congress --- what are you Republicans thinking? Yoou will lose big time and your minority will only get smaller.

Unbelievable that you can act so hatefully and so childish. Our nation is suffering and you (along with BUSH) sold us out. You trickled our jobs out of the country and then you complain when somebody (or president, Barack Obama) is trying to put things back on track) GROW up-- you cannot rape this country ever again.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 20:22

I believe they tried something similar during the Clinton administration. As I recall it didn't work out very well for them.

0 # Guest 2010-03-28 23:27

Quoting

Well said.

You trickled our jobs out of the country and then you complain when somebody (or president, Barack Obama) is trying to put things back on track) GROW up-- you cannot rape this country ever again.

Wasn't it Clinton who passed NAFTA and started the flow of jobs overseas?

+15 # Guest 2010-03-24 23:50

Ernst Nolte in commenting about the rise of Nazis in Germany-democracy only works if all the parties want it to work. Once one section of society decides that the destruction of the system is the goal there is little to be done without lapsing into the same destructive tactics. Are we there yet?

+10 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:39

I think we are there. The Republican leaders are trying to destroy our democracy. They have no respect for elections, the will of the people, the legislative process, or the law. If they can't steal an election, they ignore the results. If they can't get their way with all their lies and cheating, and with the help of biased news reporting, they resort to inciting violence. This isn't merely "dangerous". It is treasonous. The Republicans need to learn that "freedom" does not mean the right to do anything you want and suffer no consequences. The Democrats need to learn that letting Republicans get away with these things only encourages them to be more radical and violent and only helps Republicans destroy our democracy faster.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:53

I agree with both of you, only i'm totally convinced that the stage is set for another coup (see JFK assassination). I believe that the necessary critical mass is missing and can't tell what needs to happen before significant number of us hit the streets. I admire the solidarity of the French working class who can get their country to stop working. I am presently reading a book, (Backing Hitler, by Robert Gellately) which presents scary similarities with the rise of Nazism and the conditions in this country. I suggest that the ruling elite led by the military/industrial complex is capable, with the consent of the majority of the 1% who own this nation. And I believe that the Congress does not represent us, and that we have to re-think what this country is going to be about.

+20 # Guest 2010-03-25 00:14

I am ashamed to think I was once a Republican. The party has turned out to be an eletist and racist organiazation whose primary objective is the retention and accumulation of wealth. Its party members actions are despicable.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 20:37

Don't beat yourself up. The Republican Party was once a meaningful intelligent group of progressives. After all the first Republican president was Lincoln, a man who believed in the dignity of labor and its primacy over capital, public works, expanding civil rights, progress, government as a solver of the people's biggest problems, and many of the things the present Republican Party repudiates. Even while it became economically conservative (in the word's true sense) the Republican Party continued to try to genuinely serve the interests of the American people. Certainly through Teddy Roosevelt and perhaps later. It wasn't until the Depression and was taken over by the cowering capitalists that it began to devolve into what it is today.

+23 # Guest 2010-03-25 00:48

Yes, true, and thank you. I was born in Berlin the year after Hitler came to power, lived through WWII and the nazis, so I've got experience. To call some of these Republicans fascists is flattery - the term should be nazi and nazis. Republicans are inciting to murder and assassination, appealing to and whipping up a lynch-mob mentality. Yes indeed there is a fringe on top of the surreal - any moment it can start dripping with blood! Peter Edler, Stockholm

+10 # Guest 2010-03-25 00:51

How disgusting and vile. The world is supposed to look up to the US as a model to fashion oneself after? Not!!! Shame on the US that Iraq and Afghanistan are also being equally decimated, as the US to itself. Spewers of hatred, internally and externally. Corrupt and forever broken.

+32 # Guest 2010-03-25 00:55

I don't get it. What's all the fuss about? Are the large part of the American population completely insane? I read that Americans spend 9% of GDP and have the worst medical care in the Western world. New Zealand, where I live, spends 5% of GDP and has universal healthcare, one of the best and most accessable healthcare systems in the the world - funded out of taxes. Socialism? Not being able to afford healthcare is no choice. What is there not to like in our 'socialism'? What is there to like in your 'freedom to choose'? Its a no-brainer.

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:44

Andrew is right (except for the amount of GDP we spend on health care-- it's closer to 17%)

He's also right when he says it's a "no-brainer." Which of course is the trouble. No brain is what the whipped up mob has. And unfortunately the establishment has egged them on so they have way too much power. And the leaders whipping up the mob can only be successful because the mob is not only stupid, but abysmally ignorant.

Sometimes it's humiliating to be an American.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 20:46

There is a substantial portion of our populace that has a phobic response to the word "socialism." They react in the same way most of us would if we were in a movie theater and someone screamed "fire". They panic. That there is no smoke, no heat, no threat is irrelevant, because they are afraid and when people are afraid you can make them believe almost any damned fool thing.

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 01:43

A question from France :

Do the United States deserve someone like Barak Obama?

+7 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:52

Elisabeth,
The ignorant Americans who are pushing right-wing propaganda, lying, threatening and making the headlines do not deserve Barak OBama as president. However, there is also a large percentage of intelligent and thoughtful Americans who appreciate and support most of his agenda. The problem at the moment is that the ignorant reactionaries, at the behest of political demogogues, are drowning out the voices of reason. Ugly noises always make the headlines.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:45

remains to be seen--I guess the majority , who voted for him do, but as the world can see, we live in a country that now suffers from the tyranny of the minority.

+10 # Guest 2010-03-25 01:58

This is very powerful and sadly, accurate. I now live in the 7th most conservative county in the country and have a 'Proud Democrat' sticker on my car.....maybe I too am in danger? Very frightening indeed.

+8 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:23

I feel your concern. I live in a very conservative, heavily Repbulican part of our country and have a PROUD DEMOCRAT sticker on my car. In the last few days I have had pause to ask "is this a safe way to expression of my political beliefs?".

+18 # Guest 2010-03-25 02:14

Could anything else be expected?

The GOP's right wing has been exploiting the baser elements of Americans' nature for decades--at least since its adoption of Richard Nixon's "Southern strategy" in 1968--in quest of political advantage.

And now the right's nightmare seems to be coming true: an articulate, liberal BLACK Democrat is President and the Democrats control both houses of Congress. What else can they do but exploit hatred? It's not as though they actually had any worthwhile ideas of their own.

+10 # Ninure 2010-03-25 02:27

For Republicans and Conservatives it NEVER was, or will be, about Life.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:45

On almost every issue the Republican party is on the side of death. They should change their name to POD - the Party Of Death.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-25 02:54

Right on, John!
Celia

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 03:22

Yep! The Republicans feel right "at home" with these tearing apart the fabric of the Americanv FaMILY THEY SO PROUDLY PROCLAIM AND DEMEAN DAILY IN THEIR DRIVE TO DRIVE PRESIDENT OBAMA OUT OF OFFICE BY THE END OF THE FIRST TERM.

Truely great amerikans, those Tea party promoters.

-8 # Guest 2010-03-25 03:27

Well if the violence by the extreme right aided and abetted by the GOP continues, then maybe progressives and liberals and those that disagree with this fringe need to put aside their anathema towards guns and arm themselves to protect themselves and their loved ones. Maybe a few well-placed shots will put a halt to the hooligans cowardly attacks.

0 # Guest 2010-03-25 07:57

Calm down, please. I do not want to lower the liberals and progressives to the uncivil and violent level of the GOP & tea-bagger mindless zombies. How would we have the high moral ground if we ignore the rule of law, equality for all, and respect for those who may have different opinions?

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 13:57

WHEN THEY RESORT TO VIOLENCE, DISREGARD ALL LAWS & MANNERS (RACIAL & SEXUAL SLURS, SPITTING, INTIMIDATION, et al), THEY WHO WANT TO REWRITE THE CONSTITUTION AS, "...A GOVERNMENT OF "US" PEOPLE, BY "US" PEOPLE & FOR "US" PEOPLE" (WHICH NEGATES THE MAJORITY OF AMERICANS THEIR GOD-GIVEN RIGHTS), THEN THEY CAN'T BE ALLOWED TO HIDE BEHIND THE CONSTITUTION WITH THEIR ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES THAT DENY THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF OTHERS. TRUE AMERICANS DON'T DO WHAT THEY DO TO OTHER AMERICANS.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-25 20:58

Whoa, whoa, whoa. This country has been here before. Picking up a gun has a certain emotional appeal, but isn't that the problem we're already having? I do think something needs to be done, but I suggest that it be something along the lines of more vigorous enforcement of the laws against incitement to violence and sedition. In fact I believe that failure to enforce the laws we already have is a big part of the problem. If we would arrest and try all of our former officials who have already confessed publically to committing serious crimes, it would deter some of their followers.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-26 12:35

Sedition? I don't think so, Jeff Redman. John Adams started that law to get rid of his political opponents. It worked, too. Sedition should not be on the books. We have free speech (maybe) in the U.S. Education is what we need so that the well-chosen, but small-minded epithets of Susan would not apply to so many of our benighted compatriots.

+12 # Guest 2010-03-25 03:53

The GOP is no longer the grand old party, it nows stands for Greedy Old Pigs. They have lost all sense of decency and proved themselves to be the childish bullies I always knew they were. By the way, I am an independent and they have lost our respect.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 04:28

I have been saying this for years. I am a nurse of 30 yrs. We already have socialized medicine dictated by companies...that is Fascism....AT least Socialism is more humane...How did fascism work last time it underhandedely reared its ugly head....Its an slow and incidious process...but every great civilization of great power...usually has a time of change..becareful
America for what you wish for..

+3 # Guest 2010-03-25 04:57

If you haven't seen it as of yet I urge ALL Americans to watch:
America: Freedom to Fascism at:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1656880303867390173&ei=slmrS5...

and then check out Fall of the Republic at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VebOTc-7shU

share both of these documentaries with your,family and friends...stop your personal consent to be governed by criminals, live free and think independent of the mainstream mind control...disobedience to tyranny is obedience to our divine creator!

Namaste!

+11 # Guest 2010-03-25 04:58

Not only are the Banana Republicans, Fox Noise and the teabaggers responsible for aiding and abetting criminal behavior, but I hold Obama, Pelosi, Emanuel, Reid, and Holder responsible for not leading an investigation on the war crimes and torture committed by the previous administration. This, IMO, constitutes tacit approval of the use of violence to solve problems. If you don't hold sociopaths accountable for their crimes, their behavior will only escalate. I'm one steamed progressive, let me tell you.

+10 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:16

You're absolutely right. By failing to bring the Bush crime syndicate to justice, Obama and Pelosi, et. al., have impliedly encouraged the right-wing lead and inspired sociopathic and criminal behaviors we see today. Investigations and possible prosecutions of Bush and his team not only would have re-established the primacy of the rule of law, it would also have put the right and the Repubs "back on their heels" and forced them to have spent time and capital defending themselves, which would have left them little time and money to have engaged in the obstructionism (some might say "sabotage") that not only is paralyzing our country, but is also preventing the effective changes a majority of the voters endorsed in electing Obama.

+9 # Guest 2010-03-25 10:07

I couldn't agree more, John. For those of you who haven't seen it, take a look at the NYT Magazine photo essay of last Sunday, it's a sad and powerful reminder of the long-term effect of the wars the neocons, Cheney, Bush, and company lied to get this country to destroy hundreds of thousands of Iraquis and over 5,000 American soldiers (not counting the thousands who are permanently disabled, both physically and mentally. The proof is overwhelming, they are guilty of war crimes and deserve to be brought to trial and convicted. And this all happened as a result of lies, deceit and dissembling.
We need to regain our honor and morality both as a country and as individuals. Bring these criminals to justice.

+8 # Guest 2010-03-25 10:07

If we don't punish war crimes, we become complicit in them -- aiding and abetting -- war crimes in themselves. President Obama and his administration have done an enormous amount to improve our self-respect and our image in the world. Much remains to be done.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 12:50

Absolutely true Mr. Kalmus. If sociopaths are not held accountable for their crimes, their behavior escalates. The tacit approval for the severely egregious behavior of the prior administration merely empowers the behavior that should have been punished. Further, not punishing it assures that it will happen again.
Both the crimes of the prior administration and the crimes occuring now should be fully investigated, charged and prosecuted. The right needs to be put on the defensive but good or their offense will continue and will naturally escalate.
If we are a nation of laws then these laws need to be enforced. What the prior administration did (and I do refer actually to multiple offenses) and what is occuring on the right now via the Teabaggers et al, left unprosecuted means then that their is no law. When might makes right only the law of the jungle applies and when the law of the jungle prevails we all lose.

+9 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:06

No Mr. Howard Doughty, fascism is exactly what it is, more accurately Nazism. This is exactly how Adolf Hitler and his brownshirts began in the 1920's, with lying rants targeting Jews and Bolsheviks (the name at the time for Communists) and punctuating their rhetoric with physical violence in the streets, the beer halls and at the election polls. The behavior of these "Republicans" is exactly fascist/nazi and so incredibly anti-American that the greatest shock is the failure of responsible Republican leaders to denounce it in the strongest possible terms. Ugly and utterly outrageous.

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:20

Neither violence, its incitement, nor the call for violence are Constitutionall y protected speech. It is time for law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels to respond to such criminal acts. As in medicine, we can treat the sore or let the infection spread.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:23

Neither violence, inciting violence, nor threats of violence are Constitutionall y protected speech. It is time for law enforcement at the federal, state, and local levels to confront this mounting danger and respond to every such criminal act.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:25

The GOP isn't going to condemn the actions of those that they have called into being precisely because they are the parents of this phenomenon. They seek these manifestations of hate and violence, which we have only seen the beginnings of. They are only going to make phony and back-handed "criticisms" of what some of these Tea Partiers are doing while they encourage more of it in veiled and not-so veiled ways. To ask the GOP to distance themselves from it is to misrepresent what the GOP is today and what their agenda is.

Obama and the Democrats have, by failing to do what is right on any number of issues, including in their bailouts of the bankers and the private insurance companies and their seeking common ground with these fascists as a whole, allowed the flourishing of the Tea Party and the fascists in our midst more generally.

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:46

I was castigated a while ago by tebaggers on a Coffee Party forum for calling the teabaggers "racist." I haven't heard a peep from them on that subject since last Saturday's events in DC and the subsequent vandalism & attacks.

The Republican party is the part of the rich, the racists and the religious. Where I live in NW PA, people seem to be genetically programmed to be working class Republicans (I know...oxymoron...but these people are morons anyway). They may be dirt poor and have no pot or window, but they hate n*****s and love Jeezuz! How did America get to be this ignorant?

-17 # Guest 2010-03-25 05:53

How laughable! First, every single threat should be fully investigated. I'll bet at least half of them are left-wing plants . . . exactly what SDS used to do. Second, this kind of lame-brained behavior is nothing when compared to the murderous violence of left-wing kooks like the unibomber, WTO protesters, Earth First. Third, all the focus on name-calling is obviously part of a media strategy to distract the public from the disaster we are headed toward. Now, that is right out of the fascist playbook!

-8 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:17

Mr. Cory, you talk as if no one else has ever been threatened. Please don't put people in a corner based on the actions of a few:

10/8/2005:Veteran's home vandalized
9/4/2005:Democrat Senator Mary Landrieu: I'll Punch Bush, 'Literally'
4/25/2005:Leftist Radio Threatens to Assassinate Bush
2/17/2005:Protester throws shoe at Richard Perle
1/24/2005:5 Democrats charged with election-day tire slashing
11/8/2004:Muslim/Democrat mob attacks college republicans
10/30/2004:Liberal Professor Assaults Conservative Student
10/5/2004:Democrat mob storms GOP HQ injuring staffers
9/17/2004:3-Year-Old Girl attacked by democrats
3/20/2003:GOP headquarters in Madison hit with bricks
3/11/2003:Peaceniks destroy 9-11 Memorial
4/1/2005:Democrat assaults Pat Buchanan at Western Michigan University

More recently, G20 protests, AL school shooting, Dem office vandalized by Dem in 2008. Be honest. Please do not incite fear or hatred.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:25

Of course violence sometimes flairs up on the left as well as the right. Cory never implied otherwise. But he was commenting on something specific, the recent violence from the right, not violence in general. The big difference with this recent violence is that the right-wing politicians, even members of Congress, are actively inciting and encouraging it. I don't know of any politicians on the left who are inciting violence, do you? The right wing media is encouraging violence even more, but the left wing media (what little there is) is not encouraging violence.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 10:55

Joe, you have a point. As in cases when Israelis were caught posing as Palestinians lobbing rockets into Israel, British agents caught posing as Iraqis about to bury bombs, and many other agents from countries intent on war and deception, we actually cannot trust who is promoting violence or actually pulling it off. Media reports are nothing close to eye witness reports in these matters, but sadly most believe the media. Ronald Reagan was an expert at planting rabble rousers among protesters, then turning to the cameras and announcing how he cannot trust these protesters. "That is why it was necessary to call out the National Guard." He set the standard and it continues even today. Don't trust anyone when it comes to laying blame. Do all you can to get to the truth. Protest the truth when it involves lies.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 13:01

Well Joe, the problem you seem to have is that you conveniently forget that the actions you list were neither endorsed by or favorably commented on by any democratic organization or liberal organization of merit beyond perhaps the words of a few individuals who did not receive rousing endorsements themselves. You can cherry pick all you want, but their is no branch of the left comparable in behavior to what is seen coming from the right.
I take exception to some of what you list by the way, such as "3 year old girl attacked by democrats". The implication that democrats attack 3 year olds as a matter of policy and fact for any kind of gain is just plain stupid, and I bet you actually know this perfectly well.
Your poor justification for obvious right wing behavior, much of it openly encouraged and winked at by the Republican party and other members of the right, is disingenuous, vacuous and stupid.

-5 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:18

This administration has completely ignored the nuts and bolts of our current social problem. If the private industry cannot thrive and produce the tax dollars needed to run government then my friends we as a whole will fail. Forget about all the political posturing on both sides and center on the real issue, what is the purpose of a federal government? Until you truly answer this question with as little bias a possible then you and all of us are doomed to a future that is dictated from above about our behaviors, wants and needs. This is the soul of progressivism and it will collapse on its own misgivings, eventually. I look forward to that day!

+9 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:39

Private industry provide tax dollars? What a joke. The big corporations hardly pay any taxes compared to their profits. Private industry would be thriving if they didn't focus solely on short term profits, which is ruining the economy for everyone. Now the people who pay the vast majority of the taxes, the middle class, has to bail the corporations out of the mess they made. This present reality is already dictated from above. Why do conservatives think socialism for corporations is great, but it's terrifying to give help to real people? The middle class is disappearing, and that will make the entire system collapse, with no way to save it this time. Corporations are nothing without people, and they ignore that fact at their own peril.

+8 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:27

The GOP, republikkkans, their corporate neo-fascists, the right wing religious groups, racists in business suits have turn this country into a near Benito Mussolini and Adoph Hitler mentality.

The American people (USA) will decide in November if the nation goes back into a new Dark Age or join the civilized world once more since the GOP is banking on their own supply of ignorant arrogant and equally stupid mostly southern hillbillies to obtain funds to get re-elected.

It has worked before because the USA has become partly a nation of stupid ignorant arrogant individuals who have no concept of what decency, equality, justice, compassion, or humanity is. They have been brainwashed and targeted by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Dick Cheney and other racist show hosts supported by the FOX News Media to include racist southern hillbillies and mountain states congressmen/women.

My question is, will the USA fall back into a new fundamentally dogma Dark Ages?

-3 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:31

Patty--Fascism and Socialism are one and the same with the minor exception that the government controls the companies in fascism rather than the outright ownership in strict socialism. Your reference to how poorly fascism worked last time (Hitlers Germany?) was matched death for death and then greatly surpassed by Stalin's morbid reign.

We need to do better than either.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 13:17

The mistake that you make Esteban, is that you equate Stalin with socialism. Stalinism doesn't even vaguely compare with modern European democratic socialism. And fascism and socialism are simply incomparable. As ALL states are welfare states, the difference simply being whose welfare is regarded as the most important, with fascism, the welfare of corporations has primacy. In socialism it is the welfare of the social whole, the commonweal. That's a pretty major difference I'd say.
The dichotomy of fascism vs socialism is an entirely false one. In fact, the "either/or" aspect of much discourse is simple minded to the point of being stupid. We do need to do better for sure.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:38

The repuclicans support the insurancew companies, banks, big businesses, give tax breaks to the super rich and make unnecessary wars that cost 1 trillion dollars to date. and they say they are worried about the deficit? Bull

+11 # Guest 2010-03-25 06:46

The rise of fascism in the US is too real. If you visit the holocaust museum in DC, the first part shows how the vast majority of what was happening was legal. With the recent Supreme Court decision making corporations "human beings" with human rights to make unlimited campaign contributions, we are but a hop, skip and jump away from giving the big corporations unbridled power. I can see the Republicans whipping up another Kristallnacht with their Tea Party rhetoric. Be alert my fellow citizens!!!

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 07:02

I believe we should be labeling the Tea Partiers for what they have become and that is TERRORISTS. Domestic Terrorists! From now on, I will only refer to them as The "Terrorist Tea Baggers" and they need to be treated as such by the FBI!

+8 # Guest 2010-03-25 07:24

What we are seeing is the start of the second civil war. The flames are being fanned by major media outlets on both sides and the people will be caught in the middle. History is ripe with examples of small fringe groups taking actions that lead to further response of those not as radicalized. My hope is that people will begin to see real reform in their own healthcare standing or this will spread. Obama is a smart guy so let's hope he has some plans in place to allow cooler heads to prevail.

-10 # Guest 2010-03-25 07:33

How can anyone in all conscienceness condemn radical people who attended the Tea Party without condemning the actions of an Obama- sponsored group, paid for by the SEIU, of about 60,000 pro-amnesty people right around the corner? The Democrats want to give citizenship to those people who threatened bodily harm and reacted like savage barbarians carrying-out whistle-blowing assaults against genteel people who tried to talk to them peacefully about the 25 million US. unemployed citizens--people whose children depend on them for sustenance--while at least 8 million illegal aliens have good-paying U.S. jobs. Please Obama fans complain about that too. Americans are suffering from unemployment after sixteen years of Clinton and GWB and now Obama who is following in their footsteps. Some call it Socialism; other call it Marxism. People have lost their patience and want to reinstate democracy in this country. Unfortunately, some go off the deep end.

+6 # Guest 2010-03-25 07:50

I really think we need to call these people what they are. TERRORISTS! They label themselves as Patriots and we need to void that identity with tagging them more accurately the TEA BAGGER TERRORISTS. Take their puffed up importance away and let others see them as they truly are. DOMESTIC TERRORISTS.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:04

These people are reactionaries. If they had to think, there would be no republican party. They don't think about consequences--for instance, this vandalism, causing dems to hire extra security, is coming out of their pockets too. Should they ever "think" about that, they'd be screaming about their taxes increasing! It's all nonsensical.

+7 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:07

Let me throw in a phrase here.

"Righteous Anger." A therapist nailed me with this term a few decades ago, and I haven't forgotten it. It is a toxic mix, and one ignites the other to where if you feel anger, you Must Be Right, because of the emotional power of the anger. And if you are RIGHT, then you have the RIGHT to be angry.

The next step is to feel justified in whatever behavior (breaking windows, displaying nooses, spitting, beating your kids or pets). If others are just as angry (and right), if it's being extolled by Glen Beck and others, then "it" must be real.

You know, Teapartiers, I have Photoshop, and I can morph any of your faces into the Heath Leger Joker image. I can march around with the image, I can duplicate it hundreds of times. And I put a title under it. Hey, how about "PETTY TYRANT"?

It doesn't mean it's TRUE. Well, maybe the "petty tyrant" part.

I know people say this a lot, but GROW UP!!

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:09

These Teabaggers are TERRORISTS in every sense of the word! They should be arrested, locked up, and sent to Guatanamo. How how they aren't????? If people did this to bush and the Repukes, they would have been arrested indefinitely without trial! People were arrested for wearing Kerry pins for Pete's sake. These people are NOT Activists -- they are DOMESTIC TERRORISTS!!

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:14

Paul Krugman ('Fear Strikes Out' 3/22) is an economist by training, and not particularly qualified to enlighten your readership in regards to American history and heritage. Many- dare I say most- of this country's founding fathers were indeed often 'callous cynics' by Mr. Krugman's standards, and we Americans today still enjoy the countless advantages and benefits of our forefathers' having had the courage to NOT submit to bad and unconstitutiona l legislation. They did not approve of King George the 3rd's intolerable corporate cronyism. They did not pass bills of attainder or waive 5th amendment rights to their constituents. And they most certainly did not attempt to mandate the then-popular medical practice of 'bloodletting' (which caused the death of George Washington among many others). Can you imagine what America or the world would be like today if bloodletting had been enshrined as the law of the land, under force of arms and prison sentences, for the past two centuries? I don't think so.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:15

Who says it was ever about humaneness and empathy and our social contract with each other, about compassion, or about fairness and equity? In all probability, it was never about any of those things.Facism has always been alive and well in America. America has always been a facist society from its very beginnings. To steal and paraphrase a cliche, "facism is as American as apple pie." The tea party folks are Americana; they comprise the unwashed masses of sheep we call "ordinary folks." To think otherwisae is to delude one's self.

-1 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:15

Fortunately, the US constitution- not short-term political vagaries or economic rationalization s- is the law of this land, and it will be defended, in its own words of eternal wisdom, "against all foes, foreign and domestic." We should not expect Mr. Krugman, an economist, to know that Article 1, Section 9 of our Constitution expressly forbids bills of attainder- i.e. the government acting as collection agency for private (at the time the were often called 'royal') interests. I can understand how an economist might see the overcoming of this traditional American prohibition as "progress." To students and scholars of the American heritage, however, it can be nothing other than regress.

+7 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:21

Howard Zinn was right: People can only effect change if their voices and actions are loud enough to hit the powers that be where it hurts. In this case, where it hurts is their pocketbooks. It's up to us to fight this cancer that's killing our country. Our politicians won't do it. The corporations themselves won't do it. For starters, we can boycott ALL of the companies that sponsor Rush Limbaugh and his seditious radio show. But it's not enough just to boycott; the sponsors need to be told.

Here's a link to a list of Limbaugh's sponsors: http://www.examiner.com/x-448-SF-Radio-Examiner~y2010m1d13-Rush-Limbaughs-sponsors-Let-them-know-what-you-think-of-his-misusing-the-deaths-of-thousands

Please pick up the phone or send an email to these sponsors saying you refuse to buy their wares and will spread the word unless they stop sponsoring Limbaugh's broadcasts permanently.

It's a start. Next: Sponsors of every Fox program. If enough people do it, they WILL listen.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-25 08:37

These are all "spot-on" comments, but alas, as with nearly all we do, we are just writing to each other... preaching to the choir. These sentiments must be communicated effectively to the masses. Otherwise, "isolated incidents of a few crazies" will become (if it already hasn't) a staple of their rhetoric and will be written off as harmless and matter-of-fact behavior, rather than horrific stamp of truth that it really is.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:11

Maybe health care reform started out about humaneness and empathy and our social contract with each other, compassion and caring for one another like we would do unto ourselves, health and healing and caring. But those were not the principles that threw single-payer out of consideration and single-payer advocates in jail on both sides of the aisle. Many of us fear that this "reform" will do more harm than good, forcing people to purchase products that are not affordable and do not guarantee healthcare from an industry that cares more about profit than about health, and then penalize them when they don't. Many of us fear that this vote was more about saving a presidency and a Democratic Congress, while keeping pharma and insurance company money flowing to both sides of the aisle.

+5 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:17

People have already been killed by wackos encouraged by right wing rhetoric. Over the last 4 years, Bill O'Reilly referred to abortion provider Dr. George Tiller at least 29 times on his show, and described the doctor as “Tiller the Baby Killer” and “a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida.”

On July 31, Dr. Tiller was shot point blank while at church.

-1 # Guest 2010-03-25 13:32

Spot on Mark Thomas...and my question to the powers that be is simply this: What does it take to hold people accountable for their actions? Did O'Reilly participate in inciting a homicide? Isn't he at least civilly liable for the consequences of his words? If screaming fire in a crowded theater when no fire is happening is the standard sample of speech that is NOT free speech, how is it that O'Reilly's words are? Are they?

This is just one example of the abuses of public speech that should be vigorously prosecuted. And O'Reilly declaring anyone a moral equivalent to NAMBLA and al-Qaida is as ridiculous as a fan of his calling him the moral equivalent of Mother Theresa.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:23

Well, they (the tea-partiers) are not "Domestic Terrorists" quite yet. But with Boehner and Bachmann talking about "a new American revolution" and "civil war" and all these racist birdbrains getting worked up into a tizzy by the Limbaughs and Becks, how long will it be before we start to see bombings, shootings, armed insurrection in the streets in the name of "defending their freedom"? Who knows, the Army might even have to be called out to defend the government. I hope they don't try to bring Blackwater into it.

+4 # Guest 2010-03-25 09:31

We may be seeing the effects of the bad food & drugs, foisted on Americans by the reign of the corporations, on the thinking and emotions of these mobs. Reasoning capacity may be fatally compromised by these effects. This shows us another area in which we need a counter-revolution. Boycott as far as possible the product of agribusiness & big pharma; promote local food production & bring a healthy skepticism to bear on the incessant drug-pushing on tv & elsewhere.

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 12:26

In today's parlance "fascism" simply means something that is considered distasteful.

What it no longer means is government by and for the benefit of corporations which is what the GOP strives mightily to achieve.

We have instituted a legal means of bribery and the highest court in the land has defined money as a form of speech and coporations as citizens with rights but citizens which can't be jailed, exiled or executed when they break laws. In other words some citizens are more equal than others.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-25 13:01

While I agree with most of what has been said here, I have to express some optimism to counter the idea that we are headed towards civil war or insurrection.

Mitch McConnell is not an idiot--possibly a master political manipulator, but he's not stupid. As the putative leader of the GOP, I would guess that he is grinding his teeth over how the opponents of healthcare reform behaved inside and outside the Capitol over the past few days. Most of the electorate is moderate and are probably repelled as much as or more than most of the liberals, Democrats, progressives, etc. who have posted here concerning the right-wing's behavior during this episode. McConnell knows that if things took a violent turn, the GOP's hopes for electoral victory this November and beyond will be dashed. He, and his fellow Republicans have to dial it back NOW or be tarred as aiders and abettors of violence, which I don't believe for one second they want right now. They'll turn in those who break the law willingly.

+3 # Guest 2010-03-25 13:06

Single-payer; no corporation is a person; no monopolies, such as the Fed, a private corporation; I guess I'm the party of no?

+2 # Guest 2010-03-25 17:19

love your neighbor, but stock up on food, water, medicine, and ammo. share, be aware, and care for your fellow creatures.

+1 # Guest 2010-03-26 16:01

Two things: Maybe Nigel Coleman's address should be posted on the net too - after all fair is fair....collateral damage and all like that. Realistically though, the hate mongering "bomb" throwers, be they elected or otherwise, should be charged with 1) Sedition, 2) Treason and 3) Terrorism under the PATRIOT Act. Then they too can be extraordinarily rendered to a Black Ops prison and "questioned" without access to due process. The last part was just a pipe dream
- however charging them with their crimes is not.

-1 # Guest 2010-03-26 20:39

And what should we do with members of the current administration--from Obama on down--who acted AGAINST the Greater Good, and indeed, against the wishes of the public, by making this backwards "reform" MANDATORY, funded by confiscatory taxes if they wouldn't pay fr it willingly?
At the very least, Obama could be nailed for False Advertising, if not GROSS Dereliction of Duty! He's made the deficits WORSE, Unemployment HIGHER, our borders LESS secure, and still hasn't unleashed our troops to Fight To WIN, rather than fight to...continue fighting, I guess?
And what about the savagery of the illegals--the rejects the Third World keeps dumping on us? Are we supposed to ignore that our country is being invaded by people even dumber, more gullible--and more VIOLENT--than our own?

0 # Guest 2010-04-01 11:38

Hmmm. That's funny. The same was said of Teddy Roosevelt when he:
1. Set aside so much National Park Land
2. Busted the trusts of powerful corporations who were sucking the country dry.
Roosevelt was an advocate of Universal Health Care.)

I remember my Mother, a member of a a Native American nation saying jokingly to me one day, "We ought to have been firmer w/ those people who came here from across the seas, They ruined our country and people!" Most of the people who immigrate to the U.S, are honest people. I teach at a school and the children who are having the most emotional issues and problems are not minorities!!!
It seems those who are currently in the majority in the country have lost touch w/ what it means to be an educated informed citizen as well as with one another.
P.S. Read your history books. You shame yourself w/ such nonsense!

+2 # Guest 2010-03-27 22:17

The GOP controlled congress from 1994 until 2006. Many of these ignorant folks have known nothing but power for fourteen years, six of them with a GOP president who was even more ignorant than those members of congress. They cannot stand to be out of power. And to have a black president as their opposition is a call from the Strom Thurmond racist wing of the party. Now with racist Rush Limbaugh being the spokesman for the GOP (no GOP member of congress dares to confront him with his hatred and his lies) preaching hatred of democrats, progressives, liberals college professors,etc., there is no GOP member of congress who can show enough decency to call for call for and end to the vitriol. The party will continue to kiss up to the lowest moral and intellectual level of our society. The GOP has learned the lesson of -- "play with dogs, and you may end up with fleas". (My apologies to the canine world)

0 # Guest 2010-04-11 08:20

GOP leaders are not necessarily racists, themselves, but (worse) they use the old Dixiecrat racists as a base for votes in the South and in the rural areas of much of the rest of the country. They will move slightly away from racism as the elections draw near, especially in 2012 leaving their base swinging in the wind. These will forget that betrayal next time. Had to write in acclaim for the wonderful and meaningful pun.

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