A-Holes

A U.S. Census worker was found hanged with the word "fed" scrawled into his chest. I've always thought it downright foolish to ignore the violent overtones of the "blood of tyrants" shit that's been floating around lately, especially after Oklahoma City, but some memories are sadly short. After George Tiller's murder, Bill O'Reilly backpedaled from "Tiller the Killer" as fast as he could, claiming that he wasn't responsible at all for even some small part of the harassment that eventually ended Dr. Tiller's life. Right-wing extremism is real, it is dangerous and it is happening. No one brings semiautomatic rifles to presidential events to joyously celebrate the Constitution. They do it to intimidate and threaten the people around them. To assert their superiority with a subtle and powerful threat. To make it clear to others that they are not important, nor will they ever be. Force matters. You do not.

This responsibility question brings me to my next point, which is that the far right - not the right or the moderates or the conservatives, but the far right - consistently pushes these toxic views and then refuses to accept responsibility for the fallout. Mainstream conservatives stand back and let it flow. Conservative media figures have the gall to mock people who express alarm (Sean Hannity viciously opining on Nancy Pelosi's watery-eyed plea to tone it down comes to mind) and then, when shit goes down, they're nowhere to be found to stand behind that shit that they so lovingly fed and coaxed into bloom. If someone poisons Nancy Pelosi, would Glenn Beck make a public apology? Acknowledge his tacit role? Probably not. Nor would Rush Limbaugh make any attempt to rectify his hateful bullshit if Obama is ever shot at (personally, I think this more a question of when and not if).

For a party that has long claimed to nurture a culture of life, they're doing a poor job representing. The intense disregard for so many makes me incredibly sad, disregard like their resistance to the all-important reform, the death jokes about Democratic politicians, the impossible Republican-led war in Afghanistan that our Democratic president must now untangle. I don't expect a definitive victory and when that becomes apparent, Republicans will almost certainly blame Obama. Which hardly surprises me.

I would just like to know when opponents evolved from people with divergent opinions to mortal enemies.