Violent Republican extremism?! What violent Republican extremism?! Oh, this violent Republican extremism…from just the past one week alone…
• A campaign manager for a Democratic congressional candidate in Arkansas came home to find his family’s cat killed, with the word “LIBERAL” painted on it. His 5-year old son made the gruesome discovery.
• Five Democratic Missouri state Senators — four of them African-American women — discovered rifle crosshair stickers placed on the door of their capitol offices. (Maybe they’re just “surveyor’s marks” though. Right Sarah Palin?)
• A veteran 14-year police sergeant from Peoria, Arizona (near Phoenix), proudly posted a photo he took of a bunch of guys with automatic rifles holding a bullet riddled t-shirt featuring an image of Barack Obama on it.
No, we didn’t go looking for these stories, just happened to come across them. So perhaps there are others out there that we missed this week. Perhaps there is evidence of Democratic extremists similarly targeting Republicans with brutal violence and threats of brutal violence. If so, we haven’t seen it.
This all takes place on the very same week in which Arizona’s Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords was finally forced to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives while she attempts to continue recovering her brain function after being shot in the head and nearly killed just over one year ago this month in Tucson, AZ (Not far from where the cop near Phoenix proudly posted the bullet-ridden photo of Obama). While six others were killed during the same incident in Tucson, as the shooter used a legal weapon allowing him to get off some 30 shots per clip, federal and state lawmakers have failed to do a damned thing about any of it.
And the election year is just beginning.
Now, now. Be civil. (snark)
I don’t understand why they are so stupid to believe this will never catch up with them. O’Keefe and the Teahaddist stomping heads and other illegal actions will boomerang.
One of the most dismaying, though not particularly surprising, set of reactions to the news of Giffords’ resignation…as I was reading both the Yahoo! homepage story, and the story in my local paper here in WA, is the wingnuts who are proud to openly post that, for instance, it’s a good thing she was shot, because at least now she is out of office. There are plenty of people who are just fine with violence against elected officials…and the plain truth, as I have encountered it, is that the vast majority of those people are right-wing.
This is a sad thing or situation these days,but all these are not happening by chance. This happens cos it is written.
Thanks for revisiting the evolution from left to right in this post.
Violence flows within American blood, and so does peace:
(General Butler, 1933). General Butler is the one who stopped the literal violent coup against FDR.
Video of the first 99% occupy of D.C. is here, General Butler stating that such protests are pure Americana.
Great post Dred! And Brad, thanks for not ignoring this factual issue!
The mindset so powerfully and painfully conveyed in Mark Twain’s timeless short piece The War Prayer, applies also, I believe.
http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_War_Prayer
Hey Lasagna, I LOVE Twain and have never read that. Unfortunately, my Saturday schedule is a bit busy at the moment, so I’ll have to read it later…but thanks for sumpin to look forward to! 🙂 Oh, and I’ve got a bit of personal OT to share…I’m to be Auntie Titi again! And this is my niece I helped get off of heroine. I’m bursting with joy as you can tell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Your quite welcome, Ancient. You’re gonna dig it. And congratulations on your expanding Auntiedom.
Hey David, I’ve got a wee bit more OT…has anyone gotten scalia, alito and kennedy on record as to why they saw fit not to be at the State of the Union?
I mean really, isn’t that what thugs do…ignore your pleas for decency?
Obama kills thousands without any sort of due process, and we’re supposed to get upset when a shirt with his picture gets riddled with bullets? This reminds me of the Billy Joel tune about not having started the fire as it was already burning. Barbarians engage in barbaric behavior, while extremely few people can actually be said to engage in civil behavior because that’s almost impossible given the nature of the global political-economy as its fundamentally based on exploitation driven by greed. Until that fundamental basis changes, most of us will continue to behave barbarously despite thinking we are being civil, and the dysfunction within humanity will continue to deepen.
As I wrote on my blog (Mo Rage) for tomorrow morning’s post, I hope these don’t get more prevalent–or worse–as we get closer to the election.
Karlof1 @11–
I’d say the appropriate response would to be upset at both killing without due process and the creating of images that enable/encourage more violence. They’re not mutually exclusive so much as interrelated, as you sorta get at in the rest of your comment.
Whooaa David, I wonder what would happen if that piece of literature was taught in all high schools.
David Lasagna @13: Would domestic politics be so laden with extremism if the US Empire wasn’t trying to control the planet, given all the lies, euphemisms and violence that has entailed? Actions of congressional Democrats are easily as extreme as those of their Republican counterparts; and while Gingrich and Romney try to outdo the other in their declarations of the additional countries they’d wage war upon, Obama’s already ahead of them, but the focus is all on those “wacky” “extremeist” Republicans.
As a historian, I’m trying to recall a period in US history devoid of extremist politics/politicos and must admit failure: Partisan passion quickly becomes violent when liquor is involved as it is almost always. A Barbarian polity breeds Barbarian acts, especially when egged on by Barbarian politicos, regardless of party. We can/should be outraged, but we shouldn’t be surprised.
Karlof1 @14-
You’re pretty much preaching to the choir in what you write there. Where there’s an area of disagreement, perhaps, is when you say the focus is all on those wacky extremist Republicans. I think the post here is written at least in part because the focus is NOT on those people in as much as Palin, Angle, et al indulge in that sort of violence espousing rhetoric as if it’s not and then act all offended and/or refuse to respond when called out on it.
There is nothing about the post or anything I’ve written that’s at odds with your overall evaluation of the situation, I don’t think.
God you libs are whiners and pussies
Where were you when union thugs were beating up tea party members? Silent as usual you fucking hypocrites
1) The dead cat – anyone could have done that. Where’s the proof this is political intimidation
2) The crosshairs – are sure they didn’t piss off one of their drug dealing, welfare cheat constituents?
3) The Obama shirt – who the fuck cares?
Toughen up fag
TC @ 17–
Sounds like a Rushbot. Is angry like a Rushbot. Makes no sense like a Rushbot. Complains like a Rushbot. I’m thinkin’, Rushbot.
If America had a “I have a gun, you know” party. Which of the two parties would that be?
3…2…1…
Bingo!
David @18,
Rushbots descend from The Universal Smedley, as we all do, but some of us resist, they don’t.
All I can say is this “Liberal” if I came home and some reich wing nutbag had murdered my cat and I knew exactly whom did it, I would not bother calling the police which wouldn’t do anything about it.
I would grab my baseball bat and go over to said teabaggers house and proceed to deliver some brutal justice.
Which BTW is the ONLY thing the usual Christian lunatic teabagger would understand.
You can not reason with crazy, and if you don’t fight back then just like all animals and yes humans are animals they take that as a sign of weakness and will continue to up the crazy.
I guarantee a severe beat down with a bat then spray paint Nutbag across his wife beater T shirt will get the point across.
I would literally explode if this happened to me.
The cowards who did these actions will never be known – except for the bastards who shot the Obama tea shirt.
Let’s get ourselves together and work for peaceful resistance until it is no longer possible. It will take a whole lot of patience, but someday they will know who won.
If anybody killed MY cat,I would be hard pressed not to shatter the fucker’s scull.
kapeesh
I, presently don.t have a cat.
But if I did!
The Secret Service should have put the smackdown on brewer…..she got too close, what if she had been armed!?
This kind of outright hostility from the extreme right-wingers in the repubulican party should not be tolerated! Did you see the new crosshair stickers some radical rightie is putting on democrats? Did you forget Gabby Gifford’s horrific attack just a year ago?
I say tell the Secret Service to protect their charge, and keep enemies, both foreign AND domestic at more than ‘arms length’ from our Commander-In-Chief.
apparantly, some right-wingers didn’t learn anything over the past year since this tragic event….
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/01/25/cross-hair-stickers-placed-outside-missouri-lawmakers-offices/
I think these yazhoo’s justify my argument perfectly.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46159633/ns/us_news-life/
Hey their 17, you make our case too easy. Reactionary emotional smallness is actually the weaker stand!
And oh yeah 17, if your still looking for a fight, I suggest you read this and understand its not a person we’re fighting, but a corrupt system that includes both sides.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/Sundering-the-Social-Contr-by-Danny-Schechter-120128-226.html
Try to be useful tough guy.
I don’t want to feed the trolls, but TC’s post further deepens my belief that most right-wingers simply are incapable of making an intelligent thoughtful post/comment.
those cops arent holding automatic rifles there semi automatic assault rifles with 30 round magazines
Now we are seeing the real demeanor behind the right-wing extremist walker supporters.
http://crooksandliars.com/kenneth-quinnell/facebook-page-threat-or-warning#comments
Holy Shit Freedomof Info, that’s just flat out criminal on several levels and must be prosecuted. It should be brought into the national discussion and not dropped until our laws are applied! Paging Rachael and Ed.
Not to worry, The Secret Service and Feds are monitoring the extremist right-wingers’ online actions.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/story/2012-01-31/secret-service-monitors-internet-threats/52924196/1?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+usatoday-NewsTopStories+%28News+-+Top+Stories%29
Ok, so let me get this straight. If I’m an operative willing to do anything to discredit the party I hate, then all I have to do is “attack” the party that I love with some stickers on their doors and a dead cat? Wow! Cool! That’s the easiest thing in the world to do!
yeah DD, the bullet riddled shirt or the aggressive offensively hostile attack by brewer or last years shooting of Gabby Gifford had ‘nothing to do with’ extremists in the right-wing.
Hey dd, again the pitiful attempts using twisted logic that only allows for a win or lose mindset doesn’t come close to addressing our world’s problems. It just shows how stunted your thinking is. Humans being can disagree without violence and still have respect for all creation…including that which you disagree with. Didn’t they teach you that in your home?