http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/21339Dividing America with Hate
by Bob Burnett | April 17, 2009
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Since the inauguration, the tone of the anti-Obama discourse has become increasingly strident. Karl Rove described the President as a "fiscal radical" and suggested that Obama is a "divisive figure." Former Senator Rick Santorum berated the President's supposed, "disdain for American values." Leading this cacophony is Fox News where commentators rant that Obama has an "agenda" for gun confiscation and plans "a total police state." Recently Glenn Beck suggested the federal government is a "heroin pusher using smiley-aced fascism to grow the nanny state," concluding "{we have} come to a very dangerous point in our country's long, storied history."
This incendiary rhetoric is a throwback to the thirties, when conservative commentator Father Charles Coughlin used his national radio show to attack Franklin Roosevelt. A virulent Anti-Semite, Coughlin managed to derail initiatives such as support for Jews fleeing the Nazis.
Thirties hate-radio fomented white supremacy. Now, Fox News and conservative talk shows are again stirring up the lunatic right, who are more heavily armed than they were in the thirties. Writing in THE HUFFINGTON POST Eric Boehlert links several recent mass killings to hate-radio messages: Obama plans to take away your guns and kill all liberals.
At the least, Republican anger will delay Obama appointments and legislative initiatives, as GOP Senators use procedural gimmicks to block the President's intent. But judging from the experience of the thirties, it's likely that as the recession drags on, the conservative hate-media will inflame class, race, and ethnic tensions, as they blame specific minority groups, particularly undocumented immigrants, for social problems. A report from the Department of Homeland Security warns of the rise of right-wing extremism.
The most alarming trend is the increase in threats against the President. Since the election, the Secret Service has tightened security around Obama, responding to a disturbing number of warnings.
A recent Council on Foreign Relations report noted that in the last decade the vast majority of US terrorist attacks were carried out by domestic extremists. Now Republicans, through their media surrogates, are appealing to the hate that fuels domestic terrorism. During the Presidential campaign, Sarah Palin called Barack Obama a terrorist, stoking crowds who yelled threats. On March 29th, Republican Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, appearing on the Sean Hannity TV show, warned of dangers of tyranny under an Obama Administration and appealed for revolution.
Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes famously wrote, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." Now Republicans and their toadies are stoking the anger of their constituents, shouting fire in the theatre of American politics.
The GOP has gone too far. Congress needs to reprimand legislators who make extreme statements. And the FCC should punish Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, and other purveyors of hate, whenever they abuse free speech and fan the fires of insurrection.