Treatment of dissent at Bush rally

[jmknapp]

Here's a short video clip (about 50 seconds) I took at the Bush rally in Columbus, Ohio on September 1st. It shows a heckler being forcibly dragged out by the police. The heckler was giving "sieg heil" hand gestures and saying (I think) "Heil Bush!" while Bush was talking about the war on terror.

Bush at Nationwide Arena, Columbus (4.5MB zipped Windows Media file)

[NMDemDist2]

1. probably not the best heckle i've heard

"Where are the jobs" or "Where is Osama" are better I think

Calling Bush Hitler doesn't help our cause IMHO

[amber dog democrat]

2. It insults Hitler

to compare the two of them. I am in no way ever justifying or defending the Third Reich. Bush is a con artist and a front man - but i agree, even if bush supporters act like brownsirts, this is not the best stance

[Zynx]

4. With all due respect, Bush is not even close to as bad as Hitler.

One cannot "insult" Hitler. It's pretty hard to insult the most evil man who has ever walked the earth.

[wtmusic]

5. Give him time

Let's turn back the clock to, let's say. 1931...

[TahitiNut]

10. True. We have an obligation to wait until he actually commits genocide.

Heaven forbid that anyone examine the political similarities. It makes no sense whatsoever to examine the course of political behavior taken by Hitler, Mussolini, or any other fascist despot. Preemptive political assessments are invalid (but preemptive invasions are OK); the public has an obligation to let it go all the way before making such assessments.

</sarcasm> :eyes:

[amber dog democrat]

11. Most evil , maybe

Evil is evil. some do it on a larger scale. I tend to see bush as a kind of serial killer - regarding his war on everything that suits his handlers.
He still falls into the catagory of the end justifying the means.

My greater fear is how we may be trending towards a totolitarian theocracy.

[Zynx]

3. Comparing Bush to Hitler drives away moderates.

I've seen this first hand.

[Mika]

7. Indeed. Moderates kinda like hitler

:crazy:

[jmknapp]

6. Bush != Hitler

Still, I wonder on what basis you drag such a heckler out?

[liberalmuse]

8. If Bush were intelligent...

he would have confronted the heckler and let him know why the comparison to Hitler is unfair, as Kerry does and Clinton did, instead of having dissenters dragged out. That, more than anything bespeaks of a coward, a dictator wannabe who cannot tolerate dissent, a mini-Hitler.

While I think many 'pubs behave in a similar fashion to facist brownshirt thugs, and could almost be compared to Nazi's at times because of their willingness to believe the end justifies the means, Bush has not yet murdered over 6 million people in cold blood (more like tens of thousands so far), started a World War, opened up concentration camps, nor does he have the charismatic pull Hitler had with most of the populace. I do think if given the chance, he may try to follow in Hitler's footsteps in some small way, but let's face it, he is a puppet and a stupid one at that. Just let's not give him another 4 years to blow the Bush isn't Hitler argument out of the water.

[jmknapp]

12. Bush rally immune reaction

From what I observed, there were three incidents of heckling at the Columbus event, and in each case authorities (cops and/or secret service) moved in and marched (or dragged) them out inside a minute. The people in the section of the arena where the heckler was would all be pointing towards the culprit to facilitate the removal.

[buycitgo]

9. did you say sieg heil?