Are Teabaggers terrorists?

[KonaKane]

Not a day goes by when I don't hear of, or read in the news, about a Teabagger or group of them who have threatened a public official, or implied and advocated violence against them by others. They wave their guns around, spit on Congressmen, call them "N*****" and "F*g", and their proponents like Sean Hannity celebrate the acts of Timothy McVeigh to the wild cheers of the listening audience.

Recently a group of them were arrested for planning to assassinate police officers.

Now from every understanding I have of the word, this behavior can be described in no better terms than terrorism. The act of using force or the threatened use of force, to coerce compliance. This nation has supposedly been at war with terrorists for years now. Two wars on the other side of planet were started because of it (or so they said). We now have a Department of Homeland Security because of it. It's getting nearly unbearable to fly anymore because of increasing security protocols due to terrorism. So why, for the love of all things holy, aren't the Teabaggers being dealt with like the terrorists they are?

Instead of harrassing American Muslims and their organizations, or profiling MidEast looking people at airports and bus terminals, why isn't DHS actively dogging this group and dealing with them appropriately? Can you imagine the uproar if a group of Brown people with Arabic accents had delivered a letter to the nation's governors telling them to step down "or else"?

I call on the Obama administration to stop pussyfooting around with these jackasses and treat them like what they are...terrorists. Investigate, make arrests and convict for it. Bullshit time is over.

[saltpoint]

1. I don't know if the driver who bumped Mr. Duren and his daughter

because they had an Obama-Biden sticker on their car was affiliated with the Baggers or not.

http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2010/03/30/police_tenn_man_rams_car_with_obama_sticker/


It is disturbing that Reisiger's selfish political sensibility eclipsed his consideration of other citizens' opinions in a Constitutional republic, and while driving on roads paid for by everyone, he decided to visit violence upon a father and his daughter. It might be considered a terrorist act. Certainly it suggest vigilante aggression. And definitely it is sucky citizenship.

[Gidget1900]

11. Yes they are terrorists

And my children can attest to that, with their Obama/Biden bumper stickers in NC. My 20 yr old daughter was run off a main road by a 40-50 yr old woman with McCain/Palin/Confederate bumper sticker on her big ole pick up and flipped the bird to my daughter as she did it. This wasn't an accident. She made a point of letting my daughter know it wasn't.

I was advised to call the local police...A joke.....I guess.

[saltpoint]

14. I hope your daughter is ok.

The first order of business is her safety.

After that, I don't have any idea what to do with drivers who road-rage their politics around on the nation's highways.

[Posteritatis]

2. I think we should start nailing them with the variety of on-the-books stuff

Having our word choices and political slogans and actions determined by 9/11 started to get old before Bush's first midterm elections. Going all hyperbolic and bringing out the most emotive word in the American conversation strikes me as a little redundant when there's a small mountain of laws about harassment, uttering threats, assault, various flavors of incitement, and so on.

[KonaKane]

3. Great points. So where is the will?

You've made a great case against hyperbolic fears of terrorism and for the use of laws dealing with more mundane but prescient crimes - but it brings up the question as to why this group of loud, violent mostly WHITE people are being treated with kid gloves compared to how they would be treated if their skin tones were somewhat darker, and their grammar better.

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. They want to be

[jotsy]

5. Anyone who willingly harms the innocent to influence policy is a terrorist.

Regardless of their origin.

[KonaKane]

6. I agree! So why are these Boston tea party clowns being given a pass?

I seriously don't get it.

[jotsy]

12. The short answer, hypocrisy.

The scary answer is chaos is being deliberately brewed.

I believe an independent media would use the term, the one we have is clearly not. Why the PTB doesn't want these zealots labeled as terrorists, (which in my opinion is exactly what they are) I don't know. Don't think I'd much care for the answer if I did.

[proteus_lives]

7. Sure, if they commit a terrorist act.

[kestrel91316]

8. Threatening to harm someone if they don't change their politics is

one of the purest expressions of terrorism I can think of. That's really what it's all about. And the threat of physical violence is sufficient - carrying out the threat is not a requirement to qualify as terrorism.

[Bitwit1234]

9. You are correct and doesn't "conspiracy " carry more weight for

prosecution than just plain threats. Because if one of more agrees to the same line of talk, they are conspiring to commit.

[KonaKane]

10. Precisely.

Which again, tells me that there is a racial tinge to America's handling of "terrorism" given the specifics around the Teabaggers.

[tavalon]

13. Not yet

[howard112211]

15. Not generally. The teabaggers are a very in-homogeneous group.

The terrorist militias represent only one faction.

[Anakin Skywalker]

16. Oui, Monsieur!