Tea Party turns violent

Written By: Eddie - Date published: 11:10 am, January 9th, 2011 - 220 comments
Categories: Media, us politics - Tags: glenn beck, tea party

Only one US Congressperson has ever been assassinated – Leo Ryan during the Jonestown Massacre. Gabrielle Giffords may become the second after a gunman shot her and others, killing at least one, in Arizona. This appears to be part of a rising tide of violence from America’s far-right Tea Party movement, driven on by Glenn Beck and others.

Ever since Barack Obama became President, and even before, the rightwing media in the US has been fomenting paranoia among their target audience. You’ve seen the youtube clips of Beck crying about his ‘fear for my country’ and drawing elaborate conspiracy theories on his blackboard – and you’ve laughed (hopefully). But a lot of Americans take the message very seriously and I’ve been worried for a long time about how they will act.

With Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limburgh, Ann Coulter, and others spreading fear that Obama is planning a socialist military coup and calling for opposition in quasi-militaristic terms to ‘defend the constitution’, it was inevitable that some of their audience would react with violence towards Democrats.

Congresspeople are receiving an unprecedented number of threats, mostly from this Tea Party Right. Last year, a man ‘expressed his constitutional right’ by openly baring an automatic weapon at a rally attended by President Obama. A man recently plead guilty to calling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and threatening to blow up her house. In July, a man got in a gunfight with police on his way to attack the leftwing American Civil Liberties Union. The architects of the Tea Party movement have encouraged their followers to want their opponents dead – it was only a matter of time until someone acted successfully.

Yesterday a gunman, identified as Jared Laughner (now in custody), a US, opened fire with an automatic weapon on Congresswoman Giffords, her aides, and constituents meeting her at a supermarket. At least one aide is dead and Giffords is in critical condition having been shot in the head.

In a sign of the times, Laughner left what he thought would be his last statement on Youtube. It’s a confused, ranting all-text message that calls the Obama and the Democrat’s laws are treasonous, talks about defending the Constitution, says the revolutionaries have taken control, and says that the currency should be backed by gold or silver. All these are regular themes of Beck and his peers.

The Tea party movement, a creation of extreme rightwing media outlets like Fox News and funded by rightwing billionaires the Koch Brothers, has brought a new level of hatred to the US political environment and incited violence. Perhaps this who movement is just an inevitable expression of the turmoil that always occurs when an empire collapses on itself but, as long as the rightwing elite continue to whip their followers into a frenzy, we will see more and more acts like this.

PS. the pic on the front page is of a Tea Party protester. His sign is a reference favoured by Tea Partiers to Thomas Jefferson’s quote: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

Update: illuminatedtiger has supplied links to two Sarah Palin messages that imply violence towards Giffords. A map with Giffords’ seat in the crosshairs and an event message saying “target victory … remove Gabrielle Giffords … shoot a fully automatic M16.”

220 comments on “Tea Party turns violent”

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Draco T Bastard 36

10 January 2011 at 6:19 pm

Climate of Hate
It’s an opinion piece by Paul Krugman about the shootings.

I’ve had a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach ever since the final stages of the 2008campaign. I remembered the upsurge in political hatred after Bill Clinton’s election in 1992 — an upsurge that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing. And you could see, just by watching the crowds at McCain-Palin rallies, that it was ready to happen again. The Department of Homeland Security reached the same conclusion: in April 2009 an internal report warned that right-wing extremism was on the rise, with a growing potential for violence.

So, even Homeland Security has been warning that right-wing extremism was on the rise and would lead to violence. The right, denying reality as per normal, denounced the report and now we have had some of that violence and the right are still denying that it’s due to the vitriol that they use.
The Voice of Reason 37

10 January 2011 at 8:10 pm

I put “loughner is a hero” in google and it didn’t take long to find a classic nutter. Reverend Fred Phelps, crawl on down:
:

http://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/010911_westborobaptistchurch
Irascible 38

11 January 2011 at 12:21 am

The logic of the Palin – Tea Party supporters can be seen in this circular sent to me by a GOP supporting Doctor from the States.
Why a Doctor would take the position that this piece argues is beyond me but….. here’s the piece. It might also show the sort of thinking that inspired the shooting in Arizona.

Need something to get your blood boiling???? Has anyone heard of this new word? Dhimmitude?

Amish and other religious groups may be exempt from forced purchase of healthcare policies under Obama care. You know what other groups this could include ???Muslims and Christian Scientists may be exempt from having to have government healthcare.

I had my doubts so I checked with Snopes. There is an exemption for “certain religious groups” in the Health Care Bill. Obama supporters check it out yourself.

Had never heard the word until now—Type it into Google and start reading Pretty interesting. Note that Muslims and certain other religions are exempt from the Obamacare penalties and it is supported by law. We are surrendering from within! The prez is leading us right down the path to total Muslim control and you don’t care! Maybe you voted for him but now the truth comes out. Maybe you should rethink what you have done.

Dhimmitude is the Muslim system of controlling non-muslim populations conquered through jihad. Specifically, it is the TAXING of non-muslims in exchange for tolerating their presence AND as a coercive means of converting conquered remnants to islam.

The ObamaCare bill is the establishment of Dhimmitude and Sharia muslim diktat in the United States . Muslims may be specifically exempted from the government mandate to purchase insurance, and also from the penalty tax for being uninsured. Islam considers insurance to be “gambling”, “risk-taking” and “usury” and is thus banned. Muslims may be specifically granted exemption based on this. How convenient. So I John Smith, as a Christian, will have crippling IRS liens placed against all of my assets, including real estate, cattle, cars and etc. and even accounts receivables, and will face hard prison time because I refuse to buy insurance or pay the penalty tax. Meanwhile, Louis Farrakhan will have no such penalty and will have 100% of his health needs paid for by the de facto government insurance at our expence. Non-muslims will be paying a tax to subsidize muslims. Period. This is Dhimmitude.

Dhimmitude serves two purposes: it enriches the muslim masters AND serves to drive conversions to islam. In this case, the incentive to convert to islam will be taken up by those in the inner-cities as well as the godless Generation X, Y and Z types who have no moral anchor or belief in God! If you don’t believe in Christ to begin with, it is no problem whatsoever to sell Him for 30 pieces of silver. “Sure, I’ll be a muslim if it means free health insurance and no taxes. Where do I sign, brother?” Now all you Obama voters get in line for your free stuff!…However, I suggest you don’t hold your breath!…

I recommend sending this email to all your contacts. This is desperately important and people need to know about it and what the past election has done to all of us!

PS Have you heard about the summit Obama is holding this month in DC for the future Muslim business leaders in the US? He wants to increase their ability to begin business opportunities in the US for the Muslim community! Better start looking for a country that doesn’t cater to the Muslims ~ Austrailia doesn’t because this country will be overrun by Muslims like Europe is currently experiencing.

[Bunji: put in quote for readability]
- higherstandard 38.1
  
  11 January 2011 at 8:39 am
  
  I’ll think you’ll find that’s actually a Ron Paul diatribe.
  
  http://www.dailypaul.com/node/140282
  - NickS 38.1.1
    
    11 January 2011 at 9:01 am
    
    Words fail to describe the shear fractal stupidity of that fully.
    
    And what’s really ironic is the citing of a Snopes article, which clearly states that it’s unlikely that a super majority will use the religious exemption clause, and like certain Christian sects (and cults) only a few sects will likely seek to avoid the health insurance clause…
    - higherstandard 38.1.1.1
      
      11 January 2011 at 9:16 am
      
      I’ll be kind and merely suggest that Ron Paul is rather odd.
  - Gosman 38.1.2
    
    11 January 2011 at 11:17 am
    
    I think you will find it isn’t a Ron Paul diatribe at all but one from a regular contributor to his blog.
    
    Just as the people involved with The Standard take a very dim view indeed of individual views being attributed to the collective I would expect your, (and others) linkage to Ron Paul to be frowned upon and perhaps even edited for correction.
    
    [lprent: We moderate for our cooperative and not for others. For instance we don't try to tell the No Minister cooperative how they should run their site (pity you guys don't follow that precept when looking at this site). Of course as individuals we do occasionally spend some time writing about what dickheads (or even rarely otherwise) some of your authors are.
    
    The actual request that can be asked for in this site is that the author of a comment links to quotes so others can look at the veracity. Irascible obviously didn't because it came via e-mail (as he noted). If he'd had a link then he probably wouldn't have quoted to the same extent because he will be aware that we're not much into cut'n'paste. HS gave a link to it on the web. People like yourself pointed out an error in what HS said.
    
    That is exactly what is meant to happen - why would a moderator get involved in the normal practice of the comments section? Readers that are interested in the thread will read down and find the additional info generated in comments. ]
    - higherstandard 38.1.2.1
      
      11 January 2011 at 11:27 am
      
      If that’s the case I apologise – I do find Ron Paul a bit odd though.
    - Gosman 38.1.2.2
      
      11 January 2011 at 1:39 pm
      
      I was expecting higherstandard to edit his own comments. He has essentially done so with his apology.
Irascible 39

11 January 2011 at 3:16 pm

The letter sent to me by the GOP supporting Doctor was unattributed by him. What is of concern to me is that an otherwise very bright and competent individual should accept the argument put forward in the circular letter and, based on that “information”, engage in a campaign to disassemble the Health Care programme Obama managed to get through the legislature.
Given the acceptance of such a specious argument by my Doctor friend I then find it difficult to consider the actions of the individual in Arizona as those of a “mentally deranged” individual and conclude that the young man has been persuaded by the rhetoric of the Tea Party and its ilk to take the actions their logic takes them to.