Now, About that Extremist Right Fringe
Monday, March 29, 2010
Follow up to: Dear Senate Republicans
Dear Republicans,
Thank you for a few of your responses to my previous post about your obstructionism.
Yes, I am guilty of holding you, a party at large, responsible for the actions of a few of your members.
I definitely know that you, like all parties, has an extremist fringe. I know that there is an ultra-left fringe that does some equally crazy stuff too.
I definitely know that we can’t hold you responsible for all the atrocities of your fringe party extremists that do things like:
- spit on members of Congress that voted for reform
- advocating handgun violence in response to the reform
- fax Rep. Bart Stupak a drawing of a noose with his name on it
- give Stupak death messages saying “You’re dead; we know where you live”
- smashing windows and threatening to assassinate the children of Democrats who voted in favour of the bill
- smashing more windows and spraypainting the word “DORKS”
And I definitely know that I shouldn’t be worried that all that happened in just the past three weeks.
And, yes, I know it’s not the honourable Republican party that’s to blame — instead it’s the ultra-right fringe that are the ones:
- claiming “Obama is taking cues from Lenin”
- saying Obama “wants his country to fail”
- calling Pelosi “a Bolshevik b—h“
- calling African American Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and openly homosexual Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) a “n—-r and a fag–t respectively.
Glenn Beck Too?!
I know that the Republican Party and Glenn Beck are not one in the same, and therefore you’re not responsible for the claims that “Health Care is just like the 9/11 attacks”, and then saying Health Care is like Pearl Harbor“. Even when Republican Senator Lindsay Graham agrees with Beck, it’s not the entire Republican Party.
We know you can’t be responsible for your entire base. And I definitely agree the ultra-left does some crazy things too. We won’t even make you officially denounce this violence and hate speech, even though a few of your leaders won’t because the “Democrats are just fanning the flames” and “the real victims are the taxpayers”.
The Delusional Bachmann
And I’ll be nice. I’ll count Michele Bachmann, a democratically elected Republican from Minnesota who was supported by the Republican Party and is now a member of the Republican’s caucus, as a “fringe” ultra-right extremist too. That way your party won’t be responsible for her hallucinations — the ones that talk about how we need to oppose “Obama’s outrageous gangster government” that “will do nothing less than socialize our economy and turn every citizen into a ward of the state”.
And yes, these are the same Bachmann hallucinations about how “Barack Obama has embarked on the most radical presidency in America’s history” and “is advancing a far-left agenda of Socialized Medicine, government takeover of the private sector, higher taxes, increased welfare spending, censorship of conservative talk radio, and empowerment of radical community groups” because… the real ticket: “HE WANTS TO ANNIHILATE US!”
And don’t forget that annihilation, because “[t]hat’s the purpose behind ObamaCare, too. Obama’s goal with ObamaCare is to make every American utterly dependent of Big Brother Government for health care.”
And lastly, if your not responsible for Rep. Michele Bauchmann, you’re not responsible for accusing the media of treason for not reporting her delusions about deem and pass.
But Wait, There’s More! It’s You!
When it comes down to it, there’s violence on both sides. We know your Conservative bloggers have found scary Tweet threats from the ultra-left, as well as flashbacks to the violent anti-War demonstrations in 2000. We get it.
But I’d like to highlight a very key difference between ultra-left violence and ultra-right violence. The difference is it’s you guys — the Republican Party at large — who are doing the damage. It’s honestly you guys who aren’t being the good role models — and a few of you aren’t even pretending to be civil.
You’re leaders like RNC Chair Michael Steele and sweetheart Sarah Palin are unknowingly re-enforcing the gun violence with lines like “put Nancy Pelosi on the firing line” and that conservatives should reload and aim for Democrats.
I fully admit that this kind of speech isn’t violent itself, but it can easily be misconstrued. But saying “put Nancy Pelosi on the firing line” isn’t the end of it, when RNC Chair Michael Steele is also raising money in fundraisers that depict Nancy Pelosi on fire. Again, innocent, but certainly not the rejection of violence we want to see.
Also, the GOP isn’t fighting the smears with logic either. Extremists are talking about how “Healthcare is the devil” and how “Healthcare will destroy the world”, but it’s RNC Chair Michael Steele who is saying that “Healthcare is the armageddon”.
It was Sarah Palin that started this whole blatant lie about death panels.
It’s not just Michele Bachmann but also elected Republican from California, Rep. Devin Nunes, saying that the Democrats “will finally lay the cornerstone of their Socialist utopia on the backs of the American people” and “[f]or most of the 20th century people fled the ghosts of communist dictators. And now you are bringing the ghosts back into this chamber.”
It’s Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) calling Healthcare “no different than slavery”.
it’s Republicans in Congress who are being uncivil by shouting out “You Lie!” and “Baby Killer!”.
It’s not just Tea Partiers, but Represenatives like King who are comparing Obama to Hitler.
It’s Fox News that is rationalizing the violent threats with comparisons to the American Revolution and calling it no different than Weather Underground bombings.
And then it’s Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) echoing the rationalization of the radical violence, saying “Yeah, well I think that when you use totalitarian tactics, people, you know, begin to act crazy.”
The problem is exactly what Obama told you guys — “very little room to work in a bipartisan fashion because what you’ve been telling your constituents is, this guy is doing all kinds of crazy stuff that’s going to destroy America”.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is I’m not blaming the party for the actions of it’s individual members when the GOP is at the front line of all of this.
And the sum total of every-time a member of the GOP has called Obama a socialist, a radicalist, an extremist, a Muslim, and/or a terorrist is what has lead this Harris Interactive poll to ask 2,320 randomly selected Republicans and find that:
- 67% of Republicans believe Obama is a socialist
- 57% of Republicans believe Obama is a Muslim
- 45% of Republicans believe Obama is not an American Citizen (and was not born in the United States)
- 38% of Republicans believe Obama is doing things Hitler would do
- 24% of Republicans believe Obama is the Antichrist
Is that really what you, as a Republican, want to be promoting?
You have some re-educating of your party to do.
I fully understand there are some problems with the Healthcare bill, but instead of decrying “socialization of America” and comparing “Obama to Hitler”, can’t we just have a reasonable debate about this?
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Since their inception the Teaparty crowd (not a movement since they do have the numbers or clout) have been “haters not debaters”. In my opinion this is what the small portions of the republican party of “birthers, baggers and blowhards” have brought you. They are good at “Follow the Leader” of their dullard leaders, they listen to Beck, Hedgecock, Hannity, O’Reilly, Rush and Savage and the rest of the Blowhards. Are you surprise at what they do when you know what they think? The world is complicated and most republicans (Hamiliton, Lincoln, Roosevelt) believe that we should use government a little to increase social mobility, now its about dancing around the claim of government is the problem. The sainted Reagan passed the biggest tax increase in American history and as a result federal employment increased, but facts are lost when mired in mysticism and superstition. Although some republicans are trying to distant themselves from this fringe most of them are just going along and fanning the flames.
Dear Peter, I am scared to death of my republican neighbors now that I has seen all of your percentages and figures! how stupid can a party be? I have one question though, where did you get all them? I would love to look though it my self. there is no way in hell any responsible American would think Obama is a socialist, even if he has already taken from the rich to give to the poor. that does not make him a socialist, it makes him a good person!
Peter thanks for the link, but I have one problem….your anti-Christ thing, the site says that 24% of republicans says “MAY be the Anti-Christ” but your says that 24% says HE IS the Anti-Christ. I am not one who thanks Obama IS the anti-Christ, but when I read the bible, I can almost see why people think that, the comparisons are similar. but with that said, I doubt anyone truly believes that he is. I think you may have been tricked.
I actually can’t really see how the descriptions in the Bible are that similar.
You might like reading from Snope’s “Is Barack Obama the Anti-Christ?” http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/antichrist.asp
The way he is turning on Israel? He approves of gay marriage and abortion don’t he, the way people flocked to him, the way he came to power (quick and precis)…..I am with you Peter, I think those who think he is are NUTS, but I can see why people think it is kinda strange how they are similar.
Except he’s not anti-Isreal, just pro-stern-talking-to-about-Settlements. Yes, Obama believes that “Abortions should be legally available in accordance with Roe v. Wade”, but his stance on gay marriage is much less clear.
Obama did support legalizing same-sex marriage when he first ran for the Illinois Senate in 1996, but then became undecided about legalizing same-sex marriage when he ran for re-election in 1998. By the time he ran for US Senate in 204, he supported civil unions but not same-sex marriage. The same was when he ran for President in 2008.
Also, although Obama voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment which would have defined marriage as between one man and one woman, he stated in a 2008 interview that he personally believes that marriage is “between a man and a woman” and that he is “not in favor of gay marriage.”
I guess people could see Obama’s views as anti-Bible, but there are parts of the Bible that many people don’t currently follow (most of Leviticus), and Obama’s actually fairly moderate — his beliefs are definitely no more radical (or socialist) than a vast majority of Democrats — even me.
And, of course, no where in the Bible does it say what political views the Antichrist has.
But I get what you’re saying. It’s just more of an unfortunate instance of people telling other people “Obama is the Antichrist” and those other people believing that stuff, more or less blindly.
Gosh, there certainly seem to be one Hell of a lot of Antichrists running around these days. They should have get-togethers and stuff. Or all fight one another, like Highlander or something. “There can be only one!”
Also, I am confused as to how Obama can be both a Muslim and the Antichrist – that seems, well, slightly contradictory. To my knowledge, Muslims are not generally Satanists as well, the two often being considered mutually exclusive. Although I guess it is debatable if one takes the view that the Devil is Christian or whatever.
Lastly, I would point out that Obama is doing all sorts of things that Hitler would do: breathing, eating, sleeping, talking (though in English and not German, of course!), taking walks, reading, etc. The list goes on and on, frankly, and this is coming from a ridiculously liberal fellow. It is disturbing.
Amen.
Hey Pete, I was wondering about this “Crazy Right idiots believing that Obama is an ilagentament (sp? sry) president” thing. The Republicans have taken major heat for that right?……But isn’t that the SAME EXACT THING Dems did when Bush was in office. I remember hearing cries about how Bush STOLE the election, and that he was the ilagentament President. which is the same thing that republicans are doing. 1 difference though….no one saw Obama being born, but everyone saw that Bush won the presidency. but no one really cares about people crying about Bush…I guess it comes down to people expecting the Republicans to be the grown ups, and kinda except Dems to act like childern right?
Move to Europe
More like move to your face!
BURNED.
This article of full of lies and half-truths. You should try researching your “facts” before posting something like this. Example: nobody said that healthcare was like slavery. Check. Your. Facts.
Hey, Preston:
How about this guy?
http://disinter.wordpress.com/2010/03/16/free-health-care-slavery/
Or this guy?
http://www.sodahead.com/united-states/healthcare-slavery/blog-285977/
And Joseph Cao (R-LA) did compare support of abortion to support of slavery, railing against nonexistant “federal funding of abortions” in the Healthcare bill.
FACTS.
I CHECKED THEM.
A) Health Care =/= Forcing people to provide health care.
B) If you view abortion as murder, a common view among Republicans, then yes, it’s easily on the same level as slavery.
And so no, you really didn’t check your facts. You ignored the actual arguments in favor of the way you could best twist another’s words to fit your stereotypical rant.
The fact remains that the Health care bill was still brought up in the same context as slavery.
And even if you don’t think that one point is strong enough, what about the other 25?
What about the general premise? The idea that Republican leaders are fanning the flames rather than dispelling the mistruths from the extremist members of their base?
I think extremist provocation is common on both sides of the aisle at Capitol Hill… this shouldn’t come as news to anyone who pays attention to politics. The point is more that your blog is so biased and this post in particular is so dishonest that I don’t really get the point. If all you wanted to do was rant about the “evil Republicans,” there are a lot of better ways to do it.
As for the other points… some of them aren’t even a concern at all. It’s no secret that many members of the left are pushing for a general socialization of American society. Heck, most of us know that has been true for decades. As for the comparison of Obama to Hitler, it’s a fair comparison (on a historical, not a moral, level). I didn’t really believe it either until I looked at it, but I can say that it’s an honest critique.
And while we’re at it, I agree with Nunes on this one. There are some VERY totalitarian things being done by Obama’s administration, the only question being why the same people who were up in arms about the Patriot Act are quietly going along with it this time?
But hey, think what you will.