It's teabags now but later it will be bullets.

[angrycarpenter]

Usually when any group comes together and exercises their rights to assemble and protest I feel a certain pride in my country and it's people. But not this time. This corporate sponsored, RW radio push to stir up the mob against the president will lead to bloodshed.

During the run-up to the elections last year my heart swelled with pride when people came together and elected a man of the people in one of the most powerful and successful grass roots efforts this country has ever seen. To some this ultimate display of democracy was a serious threat.

The people out on the street are sincere enough but they have no idea of how to successfully protest. It is a bunch of selfish individualists trying their hand at collective action. They are trying to come together like the liberals did to elect Obama and failing miserably. These people have always seen collective action as silly and their protests show that. Just look how silly their antics are. How could anyone take people in goofy hats seriously? Who could sympathize with the plight of upper middle class white people right now? The fact that they think that they represent the majority of Americans shows just how self-centered they are.

The thing that amazes me the most is that they are trying to have a grass-roots movement around an idea that most people are stupid and deserve to be punished for electing a _________ to office, add your own label. This movement is clearly exclusive. They are not trying to make life better for all Americans, just themselves. All of those signs should say "I got mine, I don't care about yours" or "I love America but I hate Americans".

I worry about what will happen when these people see their movement for what it is, a silly exercise in futility. Reality can be a bitch and violence will follow. I believe that within months there will be events like Oklahoma City or Waco. At some point the government will have to take action against some nutjob and that some nutjob will take action against the government. When it happens I guarantee it will be someone who is right now wearing a funny hat and waving teabags with murder in their heart.

[MineralMan]

1. I'ts teabags now, but it'll always be mullets.

That is all.

[L0oniX]

2. Another reason to carry.

[spanone]

4. carry? weapons?

[Carni]

3. I think you give them too much credit

I don't find them to be very impressive in general.

[Mari333]

5. The Michigan Militia seems to think so

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbVi0vJUgXU&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.michiganmilitia.com%2F&feature=player_embedded

these guys are soooooo weird. and Tim McVeigh was one of them.

[bdamomma]

6. aren't people tired of being manipulated by those at FOX

and don't they realize this is just a set up.

[starroute]

7. The best outcome would be if they finally had to choose

The liberal left had to choose 60 years ago to dissociate itself from the Communists -- and while that has led to a certain amount of trying to cravenly disavow anything that even remotely looks like socialism, on the whole it was probably both necessary and useful.

The right, on the other hand, has *never* had to choose. With a few very limited exceptions -- outright neo-Nazis and violent racists, mainly -- almost no right-wing position is too extreme to be acceptable in polite conservative company. This is why the center of gravity of the Republican Party has been able to move further and further to the right. They just never get called on it-- and the rewards for catering to the extremists in their base are far greater than the limited penalties for pissing off those few moderates who might (1) be listening and (2) know how to decipher the dog whistles.

I hope more than anything that they will finally have to make a choice. That the extremists will become too extreme, and the general voting public too aware, for the Republicans and rank-and-file conservatives to continue having it both ways.

That would be a good thing for everyone -- for thinking conservatives, for the Republican Party, and for our two-party system of democracy. The alternative -- a GOP that increasingly becomes hostage to its own most radical elements -- may seem worth a chuckle now, but in the long run it would be incredibly devastating for our society.