Men With Guns

I had not seen MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Show until a week or so ago. It wasn't that I had avoided her. I simply don't watch lot of TV.

But, a while back I did tune. It was quite impressive. In this particular episode, she listed the seemingly endless stream of insults, injuries, and even violence that Democratic (and some Republican) Congressmen have suffered at the hands of the Right Wing during the ongoing Health Care debate. She concluded with the remarkable case of the man who appeared at an appearance of Barack Obama with a gun strapped to his leg and carrying a sign that was a more or less overt death threat to the President. (He was later presented, rather sympathetically, by certain elements of the conservative press.)

That most of this chaos has been orchestrated by a combination of corporations that would be impacted by any health reform and the GOP is more or less universally known. That the leading "moderate" elements of the Republican party have stood apart from the excesses of the "Birthers" and the "Deathers," while being more than willing to encourage, organize, and exploit it, is also well known. It is, in fact, nothing more than the standard program of dirty tricks, lies, hysteria, demagoguery, smear, and blatant disregard for civility which has been characteristic of certain (albeit, not all) circles within the Republican party since Joseph McCarthy's witch hunts of the 1950s.

What I had not thought, but which Maddow pointed out, is that there is something new going on here. The GOP is now using proxies who are not just confrontational, but who more or less openly calling for violence against elected officials. They are not just calling for impeachments or recall elections. They are openly talking about killing people. And, more, they are doing this with the support of not only fringe politicians but senators and representatives. Maddow went on to compare the current situation to the Abortion debate, which is now no longer a debate but rather a controlled war in which anyone supporting the procedure may well find themselves in the cross hairs of a sniper rifle.

She noted that the pro-life/pro-choice discussion too began in relative civility, then moved to aggressive confrontation, and then ended with firearms as anti-abortion mainstream activists discovered that they could use "extremists" to silence dissent while still remaining on the moral high ground. (In a genuinely just society, those who incite violence would share the blame with those who carry it out. As such, indictments for the murder George Tiller would begin in Rome and the offices of Operation Rescue and work their way down.)

Maddow concluded that it is all too likely that we shall see the Rightists following exactly the same course. I fear there is some truth in it. Simply put, terrorism works and certain people within the GOP have discovered that fact. If you cannot "Swiftboat" your rival, or cheat him of his electoral victory by manipulating the vote, or shout him into silence at town hall meetings, then encouraging an extremist (and then disavowing his actions) is cheap, effective, and relatively risk free. It's all too likely that within 20 years or so, we will see violence (or at least the threat of it) implemented as a regular part of Republican strategy.

Which is frightening—for all of us, and, indeed, even the Rightists who today employ the technique. It is a game anyone can play. Eventually, Democrats, too, will follow the Republican lead. And, after them, still other actors, perhaps more dangerous than we can imagine.

For you see, the Bible is quite right. The Republicans have sown the wind. The peril is that they, and we, shall harvest the storm.




Copyright © 2009 Michael Jay Tucker