I’ve worked for political campaigns. There are people who are watching what happens on the rope lines, in the rally lines, at the rallies themselves. The kinds of things we saw during the last election were not uncontrolled random populous movements. They are semi-orchestrated, semi-managed events designed to turn political differences into seething hate (for political purposes). For instance, the things you see in this video do not happen without the knowledge of the candidate or senior staff, and there are efforts to control how people behave in these situations. What you see here is people acting as they have been encouraged to act by party activists.
Radical anti-government activism is often associated with conservative and libertarian politics. We’re not talking about healthy critique, but rather, sagebrush rebellion separatist ‘philosophy’ which is often little more than snotty nosed whining by people who got one more parking ticket than their psychotic selves could handle.
Sarah Palin was particularly intense in this regard. She even hated animals.
You will remember during the campaign the large number of cases of defacement, violence, threats, and so on by Republican operatives against Democratic targets. Here’s a sampling:
And we see the outcome of the talk and semi-organized hate manifest in other ways as well.
Including physical attacks that were once on Youtube but have subsequently disappeared.
And when we have an elected official calling for the organized repression of those who disagree with her (and getting re-elected by the morons of her congressional district!!!):
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Then there is race bating by the main spokes person of the republican party:
And all that mean spirited crap can lead to this, and this, and this, and .
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You’ve identified the problem. I just don’t know what the hell to do about it.
What to do about it? I think Chris Matthews did the right thing. (That was difficult to say, actually. Matthews is so often a big wanker, it feels weird praising him.)
But anyway… having the big names in the MSM call these people out, having them ask the leaders in the Republican party if they associate themselves with that kind of talk, this is important. High profile shame, humiliation and mockery. And it must be relentless! Refusing to let them skirt the issue. Refusing to move on until they answer the questions.
That would be a good place to start.
See update (above)
No, not that update. This update:
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/06/white_supremacist_shoots_guard.php
(sorry)
I was just thinking the same sort of thing this morning, though in a milder context. I was wondering if it were really true that there are more really nasty people in the Republican party, or if I just don’t get both sides of the story. In my own experience I hear Republicans make comments (jokes, threats, conspiracies) about Democratic figures that simply have no equivalent on the Democratic side:
1) Chelsea Clinton jokes: She was an awkward teenager; we ALL were awkward teenagers. Some of these were just pure nastiness, and just *wrong*. There was nothing even close to this sort of spite with Jenna and Barbara Bush.
2) I have twice overheard people speak (in jest, I hope) of assassinating Barrack Obama; once before the election in the context of a “Republican Conspiracy”, and once afterward. Neither was specific, and I accept they were not serious, but I would *never* say any like that even in jest, and neither would the liberally inclined people I know – it would be *wrong*.
I do not believe Republicans and Democrats can really be so far apart that we have different concepts of right and wrong.
So that’s up with this? Why do we see such different behaviors?