Does anybody else (who remembers Clinton's Presidency)

[Proud Liberal Dem]

not feel an eerie parallel to what happened around approximately this same point in Bill Clinton's Presidency in regards to extremism? This country experienced the same intense buildup of hatred and extremism directed towards President Clinton (and the Democrats) literally from the moment he was elected POTUS in 1992, which not only culminated in the Democrats suffering massive electoral losses in the 1994 midterms and saw the Republicans become the majority in Congress the following year but it was around this same time too that the OKC bombing occured. Granted, what happened this past weekend was not comparable per se to the tragedy of the OKC but the fact that the same kind of climate of fear, hatred, and intolerance towards the President that fed that attack is being seen again with the attempted assassination of a Democratic Congresswoman can't possibly just be a coincidence, can it? :shrug: Is it somehow coincidental that we didn't see this same climate of fear, hatred, and intolerance directed towards President Bush and the Republicans when they ran things in Washington for most of the past decade?

[Jamastiene]

1. GMTA

It's eerie how this is happening...again. I remember what you are talking about. I remember it well. I called it domestic terrorism then and I still call it that now.

Unless our government finds some way to put a stop to the violence, I'm afraid the right will keep right on terrorizing us throughout any Democratic presidency we ever have. It is an established pattern now.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

4. Exactly my point

Even if this guy can't be pinned down to a specific (right-wing) organization, recognizing the foul climate that's been created by hate radio and other extremist organizations and spawning actions such as these and calling for more civil (and less heated) rhetoric in response is entirely appropriate IMHO.

[doc03]

2. Who was it that warned Bill Clinton not to come to

North or South Carolina?

[Proud Liberal Dem]

3. North Carolina

Jesse Helms (R-obviously)

:puke:

[nemo137]

15. I remember my grandmother, a Catholic Dem of the generation that elected Kennedy

being absolutely fucking furious about that. The words "how dare he" and "jackass" may have been heard at the dinner table that night.

[William769]

5. Faux news started airing in October of 1996

That was icing on the cake.

[doc03]

9. Faux can't even do a weather report without making a

political statement about global warming.

[justiceischeap]

6. I mentioned something like this in a post yesterday

This RW hatred started in the Clinton era. The ReThugs were sore losers and when they took control of the house and senate, became quite hateful and it's just gotten worse from there.

[OHdem10]

7. There were some bad moments but this Sustained Divisiveness

to the point of Hate on the ground was never evident.

The Radio Hate Talkers blassed the airways about Clinton
but there was never the show of guns, the Religious Right
were more in evidence but their attacks were with words.

Never the DEGRREE of Intimadation from the Right.

[WI_DEM]

8. The atmosphere is far worse today, imo.

[kwolf68]

10. I remember

I often wondered why the right-wing crazies would 'take arms' after winning a huge election.

that would seem to be a time of happiness and joy for them. Not a time for armed revolt.

However, go back and read some Nazi history. The Nazis only got more aggressive when they were embolden with more power. Sounds like the exact thing here in 1995 and the same thing happened this weekend.

Ann Coulter said she wished McVeigh had gone to the NY Times building. Basically, Conservatives are ON RECORD as wanting to kill people. So the fact that some of their more estranged brethren actually do it should come as no shock.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. It was more of a surprise attack back then. Scary because the people

who launched the attack looked clean-cut and wearing their church clothes. But make no mistake, it was very concerted and organized.

Now, this latest wave feels like a zombie attack. Still dangerous, but we know now not to back off the way that everybody wants us to back off, because they will never stop.

[mikekohr]

12. If You Think The Hatred Is Bad Now, Wait Until 11/2012 When President Obama Wins Re-election

[bemildred]

13. It's the "crazy guy" strategy, it's got a long history.

But yeah, it's not an accident, and the similarity is not a coincidence.

[JustAnotherGen]

14. Yes

I do. . . And it is eerie. :-(

[GoCubsGo]

16. Not "eerie". Expected.

I remember it, and I am not at all surprised to see a repeat performance. Nor, am I surprised that it is even worse this time. And, it will not surprise me if we see some sort of Oklahoma City bombing-type even in the next two to six years. None of this is coincidental. It's the republicans' M.O. It's how they operate. See: Lee Atwater, Southern Strategy, right-wing talk radio/cable TV... Nobody should have been caught off-guard by any of this. The only thing that surprises me is that it is not worse than it is.