This rapid escalation among the right-wing is downright SCARY

[Hugabear]

I cannot think of any time in my life that I have witnessed such a rapid escalation of political violence in this country as I have over the past few months. What began as "tea parties" has quickly turned into mob violence at town hall meetings across the country. Of course most of us recognized that these "tea party" movements were not the "grassroot" movements that they claimed they were, but rather a well-organized movement with thick racial undertones. Now they are openly trying to bully and intimidate our elected leaders, shouting down any attempt at rational discussion, even resorting to physical violence in some cases.

This has all escalated in just the past few months. We still have three and a half years left in Obama's first term.

[ellie]

1. I don't know

I think they were pretty crazy during the waning days of the 2008 election with Palin whipping them up into a frenzy.

[Jennicut]

4. They are getting worse then that. Now its possible mob violence toward others they

disagree with.

[FreakinDJ]

2. So when does the ground war start?

[KittyWampus]

7. I don't want a war, personally. But do want law enforcement to treat rightwing disrupters

the same way they treat Democratic protesters.

[lapfog_1]

17. Don't count on it. If anything, the police will side with the people

that like authoritarian rule. That would be the right wing nut jobs.

[kevinbgoode]

56. The GOP trades in fear. . .that is their stock.

If you let yourself become afraid of them, then they win.

[misanthrope]

58. I don't think there will be a "ground war" per se...

...on the scale of the Civil War, but I wouldn't be surprised to see some acts of violence from various groups. All it took was a couple of dozen foreign religious extremists to cause a hell of a lot of heartache in September of 2001.

[Skittles]

3. racist bastards

that's what they are

[Neecy]

5. I don't find them scary at all

I find them ignorant, racist, and ridiculous. Uninformed and proud of it. Just real loudmouths making asses of themselves in public and they're too stupid to know it.

If you find them scary, they've won.

[Hugabear]

Individually, they're a bunch of cowards. Together, they're a dangerous mob

This is typical of how cowards act. They get together with other cowards, until they feel they have sufficient numbers, and then go about bullying and intimidating others. Given that they've already escalated so far so quickly, I don't think it will be too long before they're not satisfied with merely shouting down people at town hall meetings.

[HughMoran]

11. I agree - they're whiny pathetic redneck morons

I kind of chuckle thinking that this is the new Republican base!

:rofl:

[whathehell]

46. I know what you are saying...but you have to remember one thing..

-- The availability of GUNS in this country, and the unrelenting voices of division and hate, calling Obama everything from a Nazi to a Communist ..I believe it's gotten to the point of "incitement to violence" and I am frankly freaked...

When a congressperson stands on the House floor and actually says that our president's Health Care is meant to KILL old people, we're in big trouble -- A crazy internet rumor is one thing...But this was an older adult...A member of Congress....I had to pinch myself like...WTF?!!..Am I living in a land of the even MARGINALLY Sane?

On top of that there are the increasingly frequent "random shootings" such as the one the other day in Seattle....It's getting so common it barely causes a ripple anymore and THAT, along with the lies, race-baiting and ridiculous gun laws, is frightening.

On top of this we have Non-stop Hate Radio, the Christian Dominionists, "The Family" and our own mercenary army run by Christo-Fascist, Erik Prince, currently implicated on charges of murdering wittinesses to Blackwater's illegal acts.

I thought I was through with being scared when Bushco left office...I didn't imagine Obama to be a progressive miracle...but I honestly believed I no longer needed to be afraid.

I've been around for awhile...I was of age during the Cold War, the Sixties, The Assassinations, Vietnam, Watergate..and of course, Bushco...and I've never been more afraid than I am now.

I'm afraid for Obama, I'm afraid for myself and I'm afraid for our country as I see the last tattered remnants of our "civilized society" falling away.

If it doesn't begin to abate, I'm seriously thinking of leaving the country.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. I said that this was coming and people here on DU said I was nuts

this pattern is familiar to those who study civil wars and yes, you should be scared.

It is becoming increasingly clear to me that what I said was possible, might very well be probable by now. Not still assured, but we are moving in that direction...

And I for one do not relish being right...

They tell me Cassandra didn't have it easy either.

[lonestarnot]

29. I've been seeing stages of polititheid for some years now.

I am coining the word, apartheid along political lines is my definition.

[nadinbrzezinski]

40. And these are the stages that lead to a hot civil war

:-)

Why those who are paying attention should be concerned.

[lonestarnot]

42. Can't say that I'm not concerned.

[RandomThoughts]

62. It may be required to remove the entire system to remove unjust control.

Although I do not believe it is the current administration that is blatantly unjust, but the creation of anarchy and removal of all laws by Bush administration has made nothing illegal. And without the reestablishment of laws by maintaining an equal and just system of law, anarchy is the rules that are in effect.

Systems of control that claim authority take many forms, and I do not think the governmental one is the problem, but one that is using control not for the good of society.

So if things do not get fixed by legislation and enforcement it is logical to assume different patterns that will achieve those ends.

Nobody listened to Cassandra, but she fulfilled her role of warning to remove her responsibility for the effects.

[conscious evolution]

65. Those who don't learn from history

are doomed to repeat it.

[Rex]

8. Repukes that fear Obama, because of his skin color

are batshit crazy. I live around a lot of them in south Texas. Scary freaks with an arsenal of guns and a bible in every room.

[ThoughtCriminal]

9. Alabama and Mississippi in the early 60's

Much worse. But it was the violence and extremism of the racist-right that ultimately brought about its political downfall.

[Lil Missy]

10. Reminds me of the mob scene in Florida 2000. That was staged to

whip the wing nuts into a frenzy. These people are fucking dangerous. What is pitiful is that most of the rabid right base probably could not pass a basic civics test.

[Birthmark]

12. Scary? In what way?

I think it's pathetic posturing. Nothing more than a feeble attempt to intimidate the government into adopting policies that they cannot win through legitimate means.

They don't have the stomach for much else.

However, under the law, many of their actions are terrorism. Terrorists should be prosecuted. Their leaders, too, should be arrested and upon conviction thrown into prison.

[Hugabear]

16. I'm sure that many people in 1920s Germany thought the same thing

Just a bunch of rabble-rousers, nothing to worry about... :sarcasm:

[Birthmark]

23. Maybe.

Is that what you think?

[nadinbrzezinski]

Actually they did... the brown shits

the SA, were seen as a bunch of rabble rousers. Hell, Time referred to them as nothing more dangerous than boy scouts in 1929.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

13. Maybe this means

we who are here have to step away from the PC and go to the local meetings to make sure there are more of us than there are of them at any given event...... :shrug: I think this is a very vocal minority that can be exposed as having been planted ala the Gore/Bush recount in 2000 when we found out all those 'outraged' citizens were hired by the RNC.

[Fuzz]

14. Scary how some people are so easily whipped into a frenzy.

I see frenzy online, and that's one thing. Mostly harmless.

But these people go live and personal over the bullshit they read on the internets, and their exploiters know it and take advantage of that.

Beer hall putsch here we come!

[lapfog_1]

15. I was just thinking about this...

We are coming close to re-fighting the civil war. The only thing that is keeping a lid on it is two factors.

1) we aren't regionally defined anymore. There are liberals in the south, there are conservatives in the north, east, and west.

2) We haven't had a "Lawrence Kansas" or "Harpers Ferry" event yet, where the violence comes to the surface.

But we are getting close to it. When I keep watching these town hall videos, and after attending one and seeing the radical right up close and personal... I have fantasies of going to these events with a bunch of union guys with axe handles and start taking care of business old school.

We are reaching a point where we need to split the country... allow the south to "win", but only if they take all of the republicans and conservatives from the rest of the nation... and the properties vacated by the conservatives that move to the south are distributed to Democrats and liberals that currently live in the south.

I don't see any other way around it.

Of course, they don't get any military assets, especially nukes... as we would most likely have a war with them in the near future... and we can't have them threatening our security with their idiot ideas.

I really don't like this... but it's either this or shipping 10 million of them off to the FEMA camps for re-education (well, education at least, since most of them don't HAVE an education presently). And that idea, while appealing, has a set of drawbacks as well, mostly having to do with the fact that they can't be educated.

But I can't live with them anymore... and I'm very much afraid that one of these nutjobs will mount an attack on our elected leaders soon... just like Dr. Tiller.

[Hugabear]

18. Texas Gov. Perry might be willing to oblige you

What with all his hints and threats about seceding...

Isn't it somewhat ironic, that the rethugs who claim to want a stronger America are the ones who want to literally tear the country apart (Todd Palin, Rick Perry)?

[nadinbrzezinski]

19. Tiller's shooting is just one of the last

events that we have seen. They have been lone wolves but they are connected.

And yes, we are going down the road of civil war...

[lapfog_1]

26. So far, the targets have not been obvious political targets.

and none have been "hard targets". But when I went to my congress persons "event", she had NO security except for a policeman that was 20 yards away from her and watching the crowd (without doing anything to stop the disrupters either). And since her meeting was a series of one on ones with everyone standing in line (well, setting on folding chairs in a line), it would have been easy for one of the crazies (and there were a number of them) to get close and either knife her or shoot her. No secret service, no personal security, no uniformed security. And she is a Dem in a very Red State (Arizona), one that has concealed carry and open carry for nearly anyone. It's not unusual for me to be in line at the grocery store with 2 or 3 armed people in front of me... most are trying to look like Wyatt Earp (I live near Tombstone, btw).

But the primary target of their anger seems to be President Obama. They hate him with a passion. Many had the Obama/Joker signs and more had other racist signs or Nazi/Obama signs or Hammer/Sickle Obama signs. I do worry a great deal that eventually one of the O'reily/Hannity/Beck/Rush crowd will become the next "lone wolf" and make the attempt, even if the target is difficult.

So many things in the "West Wing" are coming true...

Like the fact that Obama just got the first Hispanic on the Supreme Court.

Also... does anyone know what the new term for the President means... TOTUS??? I've seen it on their signs and now on a few comments from conservatives...

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. In that sense you are right

but as much as we have parallels history does not repeat itself 100%... but the pattern is there for anybody who can and will recognize it.

[lapfog_1]

33. Funny you should say that.

I view history as a set of Mandelbrot functions, infinitely repeating but never exactly the same.

[nadinbrzezinski]

37. As a historian I heard my teachers say over and over again

history does not repeat itself.

These days I go... BULLSHIT!

After all if they meant 100% they are correct. But patterns... we are an animal that keeps jumping over the same damn obstacles.

[kestrel91316]

44. I am thinking they mean "traitor" of the United States (TOTUS),

because they call him a traitor and call his actions treason pretty much nonstop (when they're not calling him a socialist or communist).

By using that term, IMHO, they are signaling to the "troops" that he is fair game for assasination.

[lapfog_1]

51. Wow... I'm glad I didn't know that until now.

Because I was standing in line to meet my congressperson with one of those morons right behind me, carrying the TOTUS sign. I might have grabbed it and whacked him with it had I known.

[crickets]

55. No. It's Teleprompter of the United States.

A google of TOTUS brought that up. Given the climate right now, it's understandable that something so silly wouldn't be the first thought that came to mind.

[AndrewJacksonFaction]

54. It is a child of their juveinlle critcism, it mean Teleprompter of The US.

[givemebackmycountry]

27. That's a bit extreme, but I admit that there is a certain degree of truth...

In what you say.

I'm in Florida, and when you engage these people, even those that are your co-workers and friends, their attitude is "we're right, and you are wrong, so sit down and STFU".

And when I laugh in their faces, and tell them to put down their bibles and go on the "internets" and use "The Google" and do some research, they get enraged and curse at me.

They are stupid and ignorant, yes.
Potentially dangerous?
Yeah, maybe.
But, fuck 'em.

I ALWAYS make it a point to remind them that, "liberals own guns too and you would be surprised how many".

[lapfog_1]

30. But no matter how much you get in their faces...

they will ALWAYS have the opinion that liberals are wussies and that we won't stand up to them...

And that attitude leads them to believe that they CAN intimidate us. And the match will be lit when they intimidate the wrong liberal (like me, for example) and people WILL get hurt. I can't tell you how angry I am and how much I hate these people. Worse than Mike Malloy.

[XemaSab]

59. The thing of it is that liberals are outnumbered in HUGE swaths of the west

If it were a block-to-block battle, the conservatives would take all of inland California, Oregon, and Washington, as well as much of Arizona, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, and so forth.

These people are the heirs of the militia movement, and they have a lot of power in the west.

[misanthrope]

61. Libs are pretty much outnumbered in the Deep South as well...

...and the more violent and well-armed of the populace is very conservative.

[misanthrope]

60. A couple of things...

...there were plenty of folks in the mid-19th Century South who didn't give a damn about slavery. Hell, Winston County, Alabama seceded from the state after it seceded from the USA. Most of those people were poor and rural, scratching out a living from the hills that weren't suitable for plantations. Problem was, wealth controlled politicians just as it does now and the wealth stemmed from Big Cotton. The people who were ambivalent to Big Cotton's concerns were sold on defending the South by tales of marauding invaders coming to pillage and destroy all they loved.

To that end, they could be compared to today's liberal Southerners.

Secondly, this post has a lot of questionable fantasies in it that reek of the very thing that conservative rabble rousers exploit to great effect.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

20. How many injuries have there been at the tea parties or the town halls?

I haven't heard of one yet.


David

[Hugabear]

31. Key word - YET

The most recent incident down here in Tampa shows that these mobs are becoming more unruly, I believe it's only a matter of time before someone does get hurt.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

35. Nah.

[lapfog_1]

49. Have you been to a "town hall" meeting and seen these freeping idiots up close?

I have.. and more than a few are unhinged. And very angry.

We are wrong to think this is a repeat of the Florida 2000 "Brook Brothers" riots.

They ARE astroturf, but the astroturf stops with the local organizer. The rank and file are angry white folks, middle aged, many are bible thumpers, some should be on meds and in the mental wards. They listen to right wing radio night and day (one had a portable radio tuned to the local hate radio and set on LOUD volume for the entire event).

They hate us. With a passion. And they are only pointed in the general direction by the astroturfers.

It's only a matter of time until something more happens.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

50. We'll see.

[dgibby]

36. Happened today at a Town Hall in Tampa.

Fight broke out inside, protesters (about 1,000) outside screaming, beating on the windows. Police called in to break it up.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4003961

Someone is going to get seriously injured or killed before it's over. One of the Dems in NC cancelled his Town Hall due to a death threat.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

38. Who got arrested and who went to the hospital?

[Hugabear]

43. Do you always rush out of the Gungeon to defend these brownshirt thugs?

I never said anyone had been injured, merely that there has been a rapid escalation over the past few months. Tonight was a prime example of just how far things have escalated, yet you seem to want to downplay it as if it's no big deal.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

45. That's why I didn't ask you. The hysteria is just silly.

[dgibby]

53. I don't know. n/t

[SaintLouisBlues]

64. 6 arrested, one teabagger hospitalized at St. Louis meeting Wed night

Dems showed up in force, things got ugly. Cops used pepper spray. A Post-Dispatch reporter arrested. Teabagger beaten up "by union thugs" as the right wingers are claiming.

[kestrel91316]

47. I give it a week. Unless you want to count the injury to our rights to

meet with our representatives in the manner and time and place of our choosing, which for the people of Florida has definitely happened TODAY.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

48. I doubt it.

[grasswire]

21. some years ago, Chuck Colson made waves by stating that violence..

...would be required to end judicial activism. He stunned the conservative world. And so the modern trend toward acts of agitation and inciting violence didn't start this year.

[mullard12ax7]

22. A large segment of the population is literally controlled by propaganda now

Propaganda is a huge success and has been for 100 years running. Back in the 1930s even Hitler recognized it and used it in almost the same manner as the republican party. Then there is the racist element, strongest in the South. Don't forget the religious element, the "uneducated white underclass" as described by a former fundamentalist. Combine them all and we've got a huge problem which most people refuse to even identify as a problem, accept as the cruel reality it is and name it for what it is: propaganda.

[BlooInBloo]

24. I'll be damned. We really are wusses.

[scheming daemons]

34. Nah... just the OP and a few others.

[bluestateguy]

25. Some people just can't do democracy

It's like they weren't cut out for it.

The framers had in mind a debating society among gentleman, not unhinged wackos who spew their bile and incoherent rants.

[starroute]

52. No, the framers worried a lot about mobs

It was one of their biggest uncertainties in wondering if they could hand the country over to a system of democracy. That was why there were laws for so many years restricting the vote to property owners, and why senators were originally chosen by state legislatures and not be popular vote. It was also one reason for putting state capitals outside the major cities -- not just to get them away from powerful commercial interests but also to avoid the city mobs.

Universal free education and a general tone of civility in the 19th and 20th centuries kept things a lot more stable than many of the framers feared. It's only now that things are breaking down, both because of the lapsing of civility in general and also because the right got overly influenced by the specter of Communism back in the 1950's and decided it was okay to act as though they were living in an occupied nation. That's really the model they're applying to Obama -- casting him as some sort of foreign communist puppet -- and in their minds it justifies any kind of assault on the fabric of the nation.

[scheming daemons]

32. Nah... you must be young.

This is minor compared to what we've seen over the course of 200+ years in this country.



Relax... after September, they'll move on to their next outrage-du-jour.

[Kievan Rus]

39. I worry about -- and pray for -- everybody the radical RW hates

The radical right wing is a very intolerant movement that despises anything that does not fit its mold; i.e. wealthy heterosexual white Protestant men. And I fear for everybody I know that does not fit that mold. Recent events have seemingly shown that nobody is safe, and it's only going to get worse.

I worry for all the African-Americans and Hispanics that I know. I worry for all of the women in my life; female family members and female friends, especially those actively engaged in the feminist movement. I especially worry for all of the gays and lesbians that I know. I worry for my one aunt that works in a big government building in Chicago. I worry for all of those whose religious faith is anything other than ultra-conservative Protestant; after what happened in Knoxville in 2008, it's not a paranoid worry. I worry for all of those that have the chutzpah to criticize unrestrained capitalism and unchecked corporate power. I worry for all of those that want to make life better for those that aren't at the top 0.5% of the income pyramid in America.

The radical right is getting worse and worse. I hope and pray that cooler heads will prevail.

[kestrel91316]

41. Well, what did you expect? Sweetness and light? These are the people

who have come right out and said we should all be killed, and who express support for killing our elected leaders.

I took them at their word from DAY ONE. They want us dead. If they can't kill us with guns then they will kill us with deprivation of medical care and starvation and exposure.

You really DON'T understand these people yet. But I do.

[misanthrope]

57. Well, when you have a nation that was founded and cultivated on racism...

...it's bound to happen when the tables start turning.

I'm not surprised in the least.

[voc]

63. not surprised either...

but also do not see the tables turning.

[stuball111]

66. Most of them are rabid racists... KKK types

and they are, like MSNBC has been saying,pissed that a person with African heritage is in the White house. JFK took lots of flack for being catholic. This is it plain and simple. They are trying to hide it behind PR that says it's policy, but look around at the protests. Do you see an ethnic mixture? no, just a sea of gray hair and white skin. But the good news is, they are losing this battle and will lose it. The majority of Americans do not condone it. They are the type who were comfortably smirking the fact that they had 8 years of Bush,and when they got blown out of the water, and had no real leadership of intelligence, they could only resort to childish tantrums like they are doing now, because they have no other legitimate platform to bring to the table except the same old tired crap like taxes, deficit, abortion, and attack Obama because he won! What they are doing is crap that will further alienate the right from the rest of America and I predict even greater loses in the next election for the right.

[ljm2002]

67. It's corporate free speech...

...at least that's how they see it. They are free to purchase all the speech their marketing slush funds can handle, and the nitwits who do their bidding are either scared, ignorant, greedy, or downright deluded -- often all of the above.

What we need to do is show up in greater numbers and mock them. Just sincere laughter. The people who hold the events should get an excellent sound system -- it doesn't even have to be that big, for many of these venues -- so they can make themselves heard. Then they need to start by projecting the memo, with the tactics, and say these tactics are out of bounds, and anyone engaging in them is subject to expulsion from the meeting. When we see this behavior, we should point at them and mock them; and the organizers should flash the item from the memo up on the screen, then superimpose the red circle with the dash through it. Tell people who engage in disruptive behavior, you get one chance. Second time, you're out. And have the security back it up.

They complain, just point out that the rules are the same for everyone. Everyone gets to speak their piece. Yelling and shouting and thuggery will not be tolerated.

It's an old rule of thumb: the one who is shouting the loudest, is losing the argument.