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Greg Sergeant at the Plum Line blog has an interesting story of Teabagger overreach. The Danville Virginia TEA Party Patriots were all set to take the level of vitriol and hate to new and nuttier levels. Their plan was to hold a rally and burn the Speaker of the House and Representative Tom Perriello (D-VA) in effigy as the crowning touch to their rally.
Last week the plans for this, ahem, rally were put out in a press release by Nigel Coleman of the Tea Party Patriots. He had been walking the idea back, as early as today he was saying they were rethinking. Now the property owner has made them cancel the whole event, because he does not want the public attention it would bring.
To quote Mr. Coleman
““I’m disappointed that the story got out of hand and people misinterpreted something we thought would be a little historical lesson. They made people believe that we were committing an act of violence,”
Of course the “They” is the liberal bloggers, he even says that in the article. The question becomes, is burning someone a historic lesson as Mr. Coleman thinks (he is referring to the founders burning King George in effigy) or is it more an intimidation tactic more like the cross burnings of the Ku Klux Klan?
The second question is the Right so far removed from reality, between Talk Radio, Fox News and the rest of the echo chamber that they cannot see the obvious problems with burning elected officials in effigy?
The floor is yours.
9 Comments
Um…Only one problem with your Klan invective. Nigel Coleman is African American. I didn’t think it was a very good idea, and I work against it. If as an activist in the TEA Party can be reasonable enough to accept this a bad idea (and everyone I talked to and worked with shared that sentiment), then can you PLEASE kindly drop the racist references. The only sheets in my house are on my bed.
Michael, I didn’t take this post as an accusation of racism against the tea party activists. The Klan reference was used to draw a comparison to the fear tactics that are being used. And I don’t think you can deny the fact that some of the tea partiers are trying to scare people – what with the semi-automatic weapons and the frequent references to “watering the tree of liberty.”
The fact that the effigies they would burn was going to be politicians, It’s not racist.
We don’t have the money to get Pols to do the right thing, so I’m not opposed to this, as long as guns don’t come out when these kind of crowd incitements are used.
I wish Tea Partiers weren’t being led by lobbyists and adopting their causes and talking points for themselves. They are not your friends, really.
michael24503, do you know there was no relation to true socialist programs, and the National Socialist Party don’t you? They were fascists, totalitarians, and they suspended democracy and instituted a police state.
Pastor Martin Niemöller was there and he wrote this:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me.
SKF,
You don’t seriously think I’m niave or stupid enough to charge down that rabbit hole, especially on a liberal blog messageboard with no support, do you? :) I was simply using that as an example of rhetoric that is deliberately incindiary and how it takes places on both sides of the conversation. Why not use other examples of actions that are meant to incite rather than always moving to the Klan. Its intellectually dishonest. Were the Bush effigies being burned IN THIS COUNTRY a few years ago any less inciting or rancourous? I mean, you guys, especially you, MarkH, have an opportunity to see that some of us on the right can be honest within our side and call wrong behavior wrong behavior. Where was this clamour when the left was burning in effigy, and why can’t you admit that the race baiting on every issue needs to stop?
Michael, this isn’t your ordinary liberal blog. the bots are at DKOS.
Burning in effigy has the aspects of pagan ritual that seem appropriate associations with the ‘armed and dangerous’ pose of the right wingers. Will there be pins stuck in the effigies, too?
See, here’s where I genuinely disagree. And I take a lot of flack from my fellow conservatives over this. While I personally believe that the Obama Adminstration historically is mimicking many of the traits of German National Socialism, I believe it is wrong to compare the man to Hilter. This is because the statement is never truly meant to be a legitmate comparision to the political philsophies of either man or a discussion of the parallels, but rather a purely hyperbolic statement meant to incite both sides. In the case of the left and the KKK comparisons, it tends to be the same trend. The use of this symbiology is only meant to invoke the idea in an exaggerated way that all TEA Partiers are racists. I do not believe that most reasonable people on the left believe that any more than most reasonable people on the right believe Obama is Hitler OR a foreign born citizen. We both have our fringe elements, and no extremist should be used to blanket either side of the issue. Just my two cents.
The Entire Conservative movement has become fringe. Just my blanket.
Bill, first of all, I am not a “Tea Partier”. I am a progressive.
This looks like a top down attempt to divide and conquer, sew discord. It keeps us powerless.
First, Smear the protestors with guilt by association or racism, paint them as crazy, delegitimize their concerns, and then build up the animosity against “They” as in “liberal bloggers” painting them as the ones afraid of the violence.
The effigies weren’t liberal bloggers. “They” were Nancy Pelosi and Tom Perriello. To tell you the truth sometimes I could probably derive joy out of things worse than this when they throw us under the bus..
I think we have more in common with our own “classes” and should try to bridge the gap and not fall for this crap.
I say Burn Away…