Throughout the last presidential campaign I was pretty much content to laugh at Sarah Palin and to stand mouth-agape at the stupidity of the Republicans for choosing her. I did find it hard to believe that so many average Americans liked her because she was "just like us." For my money I want someone a hell of a lot smarter than I running the country. But I couldn't get too agitated about her; she was a pesky gnat, not a threatening predator.
Now though she has become truly dangerous. Her admonition to her supporters to "reload" and her use of cross-hairs to indicate targeted districts on her Facebook page makes me realize just how serious a threat she is. Sure, most people will take her comments as rhetorical flourishes, but not everyone. I guarantee you that right this minute there are people out there -- very likely young males -- who are trying to decide just what exactly to do with the rifle that their heroine ordered them to reload. This is not far-fetched; this is real.
As he so often does, Frank Rich says all this better than I ever could. Speaking of men smarter than I, maybe we need to work on getting Mr. Rich to follow President Obama into the White House.
I wasn't around in 1776 but I'm guessing that a lot of what I might have heard in the taverns and kitchens of colonial America would have sounded like we're hearing today from the far right. Is another revolution brewing?
One of the things pretty much covered up in the history books about 1776 is that, for all intents and purposes, it was a civil war. People used the chaos and rhetoric to settle old scores, to chase off those they did not like, simply by accusing them of being Tories. This was often enough to cause people who had been here for hundreds of years, in some cases, to flee to Canada or back to Great Britain.
ReplyDeleteYou are right, someone will take the rhetoric and interpret it literally. This will lead to serious consequences. Those speaking will, of course, say they didn't mean THAT and they have the right of Free Speech, etc. It will be a mess. Freedom of Speech does NOT make the speaker immune to consequences, however.
We all know the uproar over Health Care is not about Health Care, just as keeping black students out of an all white High School in Arkansas was not about "States Rights". Nor is the present law about "States Rights". It is about change. A Black Man in the White House who is not a Steward; A Gay Man as head of a Congressional Committee; A Woman as Speaker of the House. These are what the *real* protest is about.
The Health Bill has just delivered the Insurance Industry 32 Million new customers. It is not "socialist".
It will make it possible for me to get coverage if I need another hip. I have one, so it is a "pre-existing condition", even if it were the other one, not the one that I already have.
No, this is about change. White men are losing their ability to run things. They resent it and they will do all they can to regain "control".
A cautionary tale would be the 1898 "Race Riot" in Wilmington, NC. White people with rifles and fire, destroyed the black middle class and the duly elected Republican administration of the city in an afternoon.
The Governor of North Carolina was attacked on his train while going from Wilmington to Raleigh. He was afraid to speak out about the "coup".
They saw it as a God Given Right for white men to be in charge. They used (and abused) the poor whites and unemployed whites to be the front line of the riot. Later, there were *still* no jobs for these whites, since they were, for the most part unskilled and the blacks run out of town were skilled workers.
Sorry about rambling on but I see this as seriously as you do and while I don't have a gun, if things get a lot worse I will think of buying one; Unless my being a registered Democrat would mean I was on a list of those deemed *too dangerous* to own one. Then, I would have to go to the criminals, who don't care about that sort of thing......