Remember "Nothing better than a dead liberal" ?

[kpominville]

After a political season marked by the rhetoric of violence, why is anyone surprised that we see violence? Why do public figures who go around using violent rhetoric always act surprised when there is violence?

I filmed this in 2009 at a local "tea party" protest in St Clair Shores, MI. At the time I found the casualness with which this woman started chanting "Nothing better than a dead liberal!" and the nonplussed reaction of the other protesters around her, chilling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpzeI8sgIHU

This was after we had already seen politically motivated assassination attempts against liberals, like Jim D Attkinson in 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knoxville_Unitarian_Universalist_church_shooting

Is it any wonder that the shooting yesterday took place in Arizona, the same state we heard Sharon Angle proposing "second amendment solutions" to her "Harry Reid problem"?

Once again we see those who espouse the ideology of "personal responsibility" refusing to take ANY responsibility for their own use of violent rhetoric. For now, the Radical Right is feigning surprise and sympathy but they will be back out fomenting anti-liberal, anti-Democratic hate and violence again Monday morning.

The best way for the left to fight against this is to shine a huge spotlight on those doing it and expose the hate mongers for what they are. Shine a light the real effects their violent rhetoric has on society. Shine a light on the mindset that spawns these people who mistakenly think they have "second amendment remedies" to their electoral losses in a civil democratic society.

[dkf]

1. Except she wasn't a liberal.

"Giffords, 40, is a political centrist who voted with her party less than half the time and opposed Nancy Pelosi as the party leader in the House after Democrats lost the majority in November.

"The federal debt is the single biggest threat to our economy and national security today," is emblazoned on her Congressional website. She wears the label centrist proudly."

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=12573162

[wndycty]

3. Now is not the time for those internal distinctions. To those who hate a Democrat=Liberal

:kick:

[deutsey]

4. I think that distinction is lost on those who are on the right. n/t

[dkf]

12. Apparently he had spoken to her in person before and found her to be lacking in some way.

It may be his sick mind latched onto something about her he didn't like.

[Chorophyll]

5. She might not seem liberal to you or to me,

but we're dealing with paranoid Teabaggers here -- people who routinely call President Obama a socialist.

[Rex]

6. Dem, liberal, what difference does that make to an unstable Teabagger?

None, that is what.

[fascisthunter]

10. to them every democrat is a liberal

and you know that

[progressoid]

11. Right wing loonies with loaded weapons don't make that distinction

Nor do right wing talking head loonies on the radio and TV.

[Jackpine Radical]

13. Neither is Obama,

which doesn't seem to slow down the RW in labeling him as a "socialist."

[Paladin]

16. She Is Too Liberal For One Of Our Very Own DU Gun Enthusiasts...

...who within hours of the shooting, posted a listing of the Congresswoman's voting record on gun issues, and pronounced her insufficiently supportive of the Second Amendment, as far as he was concerned.

Honest to God. I'm not making it up.......

[bottomofthehill]

17. in her district, she was a liberal

[progressivebydesign]

2. that's just the tip of the iceberg. it's been a right wing staple.

The culture and language of violence has been around since Bill Clinton was in office. I remember guys with bumper stickers saying "Lee Harvey Oswald, where are you when we need you?" People like J. Gordon Liddy, Newt Gingrich, Limbaugh, Coulter, Beck, Palin, O'Reilly, have perpetuated this language of violence. Read the tea party signs at any rally, and you can see how it's become okay to speak of death and violence to the opponents.

The Left simply does not do that. We don't trade in the language of violence or death. And until the media is not controlled by the same people bankrolling these people, we will never be able to call them out on it.

I am going to call them out on it by contacting the advertisers of people like Palin, Beck, etc, and tell them that I'm through buying their products as long as they're supporting and enabling these people.

[LiberalEsto]

7. Your last paragraph is great!

"The best way for the left to fight against this is to shine a huge spotlight on those doing it and expose the hate mongers for what they are. Shine a light the real effects their violent rhetoric has on society. Shine a light on the mindset that spawns these people who mistakenly think they have "second amendment remedies" to their electoral losses in a civil democratic society."

The speakers and promoters of violence need to face consequences.

Every place they go, they should be followed by large crowds of decent people who protest silently, holding appropriate signs and photos of the victims.

[The Wielding Truth]

8. I just want to sit and cry. Where is goodness? Beck is horrid.

[Takket]

9. Wow quite a video

I live in Michigan, not far from SCS........ seeing that makes me want to move to the middle of the ocean somewhere.

[robdogbucky]

14. I agree with what you wrote except...

"...Is it any wonder that the shooting yesterday took place in Arizona, the same state we heard Sharon Angle proposing "second amendment solutions" to her "Harry Reid problem"?..."

Angle and Reid? They are both in Nevada, not Arizona, no? Were they both at campaign appearances in AZ? Not that this same thing could not have happened there, to him. The unbridled dissemination of violent rhetoric is carefully planned to incite just this kind of action. Fucking Brownshirts, with national media giving it their blessing. OMFG


America as we all knew it growing up: RIP





Hands off my Social Security!
Hands off Latin America!



Just my dos centavos


robdogbucky

[kpominville]

18. Mea Culpa

You are right. They are in Nevada. My mistake.

[demmiblue]

15. Let's Impeach the President by Neil Young is playing in the background.

What eejits!

:crazy:

[SDuderstadt]

19. Angle ran in Nevada, not...

Arizona.