RSS Feed MenuA man bearing a sidearm appears outside President Obama’s Aug. 11 town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., under a sign proclaiming, “It is time to water the tree of liberty.”
That phrase of course references a famous statement of Thomas Jefferson’s, from a 1787 letter: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.”
Earlier that same day, another man is arrested inside the school building in which the president will speak. Police found a loaded handgun in his parked car.
At an event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona last week, police were called after one attendee dropped a gun.
Nobody has been hurt so far. We can all hope that nobody will be. But firearms and politics never mix well. They mix especially badly with a third ingredient: the increasingly angry tone of incitement being heard from right-of-center broadcasters.
The Nazi comparisons from Rush Limbaugh; broadcaster Mark Levin asserting that President Obama is “literally at war with the American people”; former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin claiming that the president was planning “death panels” to extirpate the aged and disabled; the charges that the president is a fascist, a socialist, a Marxist, an illegitimate Kenyan fraud, that he “harbors a deep resentment of America,” that he feels a “deep-seated hatred of white people,” that his government is preparing concentration camps, that it is operating snitch lines, that it is planning to wipe away American liberties”: All this hysterical and provocative talk invites, incites, and prepares a prefabricated justification for violence.
And indeed some conservative broadcasters are lovingly anticipating just such an outcome.
Here’s Fox News’ Glenn Beck clucking sympathetically that white males are being driven into murderous rage by “political correctness.”
Here again is Beck chuckling as he play-acts the poisoning of Nancy Pelosi.
Just yesterday, the radio host Sean Hannity openly contemplated violence—and primly tut-tutted that if it occurs, the president will have only himself to blame.
Hyperbolic accusation and fantasy murder may well serve a talk-radio industry facing a collapse in advertising revenues—down 30–40 percent over the past two years, reports FrumForum.com’s Tim Mak.
As revenues dwindle, hosts feel compelled to intensify the talk-radio experience, hoping to win larger audience share with more extreme talk. It’s like the early days of the pornography industry: At first a naked woman is thrilling enough, but soon a jaded audience is demanding more and more, wilder and wilder.
For the radio hosts, it’s all mostly a cynical marketing exercise. But the audience? Not all of them know better.
In April, the Department of Homeland Security released a report warning of the danger of right-wing political violence in the United States, and mainstream conservatives erupted in offense.
National Review’s Jonah Goldberg wrote: My real objection to this report is that its source material amounts to “everybody knows.” Everybody knows the right is full of whack-jobs, hatemongers, and killers, and if we don’t remain vigilant, bad things will happen.
Michelle Malkin asked in her syndicated column: What and who exactly are President Obama’s Homeland Security officials afraid of these days? If you are a member of an active conservative group that opposes abortion, favors strict immigration enforcement, lobbies to protect Second Amendment rights, protests big government, advocates federalism or represents veterans who believe in any of the above, the answer is: You.
Newt Gingrich tweeted: “The person who drafted the outrageous homeland security memo smearing veterans and conservatives should be fired.”
I don’t think the former speaker could tweet such a thing today in good conscience. The person who drafted that homeland security memo has gained very good reason to be worried. The guns are coming out. The risks are real.
It’s not enough for conservatives to repudiate violence, as some are belatedly beginning to do. We have to tone down the militant and accusatory rhetoric. If Barack Obama really were a fascist, really were a Nazi, really did plan death panels to kill the old and infirm, really did contemplate overthrowing the American constitutional republic—if he were those things, somebody should shoot him.
But he is not. He is an ambitious, liberal president who is spending too much money and emitting too much debt. His health-care ideas are too over-reaching and his climate plans are too interventionist. The president can be met and bested on the field of reason—but only by people who are themselves reasonable.
Originally published in The Week.
Read David Frum’s follow-up post here.
ottovbvs // Aug 14, 2009 at 7:20 pm
85 ireign // Aug 14, 2009 at 5:31 pm
“” you happen to copy and paste the NY Times bestseller list ”
…….And when did Max Weber, Ivo Daalder or Roy Jenkins last appear on the NYT best seller list I wonder…..you can spend the evening researching it….wouldn’t want your brain to atrophy from insufficient use
joedee1969 // Aug 15, 2009 at 9:45 am
If you know of other calm conservative sights out there. Please let me know. I want to find more conservatives to fight Rush and Sean from destroying conservatism and turning it into a cartoon. The writer C. Rich is the best but I need to know if there are more voices out there:
http://americaspeaksink.com/?s=government
ottovbvs // Aug 15, 2009 at 10:18 am
joedee1969 // Aug 15, 2009 at 9:45 am
…….try Bartlett the conservative economist who writes at Forbes……he’s actually got an article link up on this blog at the moment where he details how most conservatives don’t have a clue what they are talking about when it comes to Keynesianism …….he’s conservative but just doesn’t buy into the usual right wing boilerplate fantasies…..I think he’s just about to publish a book that is full of apostasy on Reaganomics although he actually worked in the Reagan white house…..it will be nuanced of course not the bumper sticker diet on which most right wingers exist ……another alternative is Judge Richard Posner who is an appeals judge on the 7th I think in Chicago…….He’s something of a polymath writing on subjects as diverse as music and economics……he’s published a book called a failure of capitalism which is probably the best layman’s guide to the financial crash and subsequent recession I’ve come across (although I believe a financial journalist at the WSJ has just published a very good one)…..it’s in layman’s language, nuanced of course and very good although I don’t agree with all Posner’s conclusions some of which seem skewed to propping up his long held Chicago school theories…..that should keep you busy for awhile
ottovbvs // Aug 15, 2009 at 10:26 am
joedee1969 // Aug 15, 2009 at 9:45 am
……..I just followed your link to Rich and must confess to being somewhat underwhelmed…..he has a piece whining because “the poor” have been cut out of the cash for clunkers program…..how the hell would he know……does he have any data……no just a theory……cash for clunkers is a cheap and cheerful program to inject some demand into the economy and has an environmental/reduced oil dependancy side benefit…….give me a break…..he’ll be complaining the poor are squeezed out of buying at Tiffany’s next
barker13 // Aug 15, 2009 at 10:56 am
Re: Ireign // Aug 15, 2009 at 10:44 am (#92) –
” Bartlett isn’t much of a conservative. He has posted on this blog…”
Yeah. Bartlett was/is a HUGE disappointment to me. I used to love reading his stuff in the Journal, but now…
(*SIGH*)
He’s also thin skinned and frankly nasty. I tried to engage him in serious debate and just couldn’t get the man to engage.
(*SHRUG*)
Ireign. Let me ask you… do you (like me) question to an extent whether Frum and his merry band are “quite right” in the head?
I’m being serious here.
They actually try to portray themselves as “journalists,” as “reporters.” They keep on trying to pass on this illusion that NewMajority.com is a “press” site, a “news media” site.
I mean, sure… it could be just arrogance and wishful thinking… but a few of these folks are starting to worry me!
(*GRIN*) (*CHUCKLE*)
BILL
ottovbvs // Aug 15, 2009 at 11:37 am
ireign // Aug 15, 2009 at 10:44 am
…….Still NOT a jingoist, fundamentalist, movement conservative, but DEFINITELY an all too obvious liar, alas
“Posner- Since his underlying assumption is that markets are efficient (which isn’t accurate) much of his conclusions are incorrect. ”
………So you reject one of the central tenets of the Chicago school……that’s fine, so do I(or at least assumptions of their absolute efficiency), hence my comment:
” and very good although I don’t agree with all Posner’s conclusions some of which seem skewed to propping up his long held Chicago school theories”
…….for someone who gives lectures on comprehension you seem remarkably shaky in your grasp of it
“I just had a problem with the Internet so my much lengthier post was lost. ”
…….we must be thankful for small mercies I suppose
“And yes, Bartlett in addition to being a hack–came as somewhat thin-skinned in his comments on this blog.”
……..this one made me titter…..from the thinnest skin I’ve ever seen
barker13 // Aug 15, 2009 at 3:41 pm
Re: Ireign // Aug 15, 2009 at 11:15 am (#94) –
“I think David Frum is perfectly rational.”
OK. Me too, when it comes right down to it. (*GRUDGINGLY SMILING*)
But how’bout these kids and that Elise (???) woman and a few other of his “contributors” who seriously seem to believe they’re “reporting” and that NM is some sort of authentic journalistic enterprise…???
I mean I can understand how “nicer” folks than I would yearn to give these people the benefit of the doubt, but, jeez… resume inflation is one thing… these folks actually seem to believe they’re “reporters” and “editors” in a journalistic sense.
(*SHRUG*)
Wouldn’t you love to be a fly on the wall when (if) these people get together in person?! (*CHUCKLE*)
BILL
ottovbvs // Aug 15, 2009 at 5:16 pm
barker13 // Aug 15, 2009 at 3:41 pm
“and that NM is some sort of authentic journalistic enterprise…???”
………..If you feel NM has no merit one wonders why you spend so much time here boring us all to death with your kudzu like prose (complete with stage directions)…….Why don’t you go and bore for your country elsewhere?
rrpjr // Aug 15, 2009 at 9:13 pm
What an old maid.
Why even bother asking where Frum was over the past eight years and the fever swamps of Leftist rage and hate. No matter. This extraordinary movement that vexes Frum is overwhelmingly civil and informed and emerging as one of the most astonishing irruptions of legitimate outrage in our history. Frum doesn’t get it, and moreover resents it. It is indecorous and threatens the world he knows and inhabits as a well-schooled and dutiful elite. He resents those who do get it, such as Palin, who, channeling Orwell and Reagan, can nail the innate duplicity and lethality of the Left in a few well-chosen lines and drive Obama into a corner.
Tough. Anyway, we’ve long since reckoned with the uselessness of those such as Frum. We’ll do just fine without them
rrpjr // Aug 15, 2009 at 9:15 pm
Oh, and by the way, there was no violence until Obama, employing classic Stalinist tactics, fomented the thuggery in St. Louis. He’s the one courting the violence. He’s the one who wants it.
Harford for Obama // Aug 15, 2009 at 9:39 pm
[...] By harfobama NewMajority [...]
SFTor1 // Aug 16, 2009 at 1:26 am
rrpjr: “Oh, and by the way, there was no violence until Obama, employing classic Stalinist tactics, fomented the thuggery in St. Louis. He’s the one courting the violence. He’s the one who wants it.”
Hello rr—can I call you rr? I have news for you: you just disqualified yourself from being taken seriously.
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