Right Wing Roundup
The level of conservative paranoia in this country is rising fast. In the span of just a few days the media has reported on a wide range of threats to the President. Some are small, others are blatant, but all have the potential to be dangerous. Here’s a round up of just some of the extreme political posturing that is currently going on in right-wing America:
• The United States Secret Service investigates an online Facebook poll that asks if “President Barack Obama should be killed.” The Facebook application has been suspended while the poll is being looked into.
• Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ), in a speech Saturday at the How To Take Back America conference, called President Obama an “enemy of humanity“. He also suggested the President provide his birth certificate (something Obama has already done) to prove his constitutionally eligibility to hold office. Franks later clarified his remarks saying he should have made it clear he was speaking about Obama’s abortion policies. So Obama is still an enemy of humanity, just the unborn humans.
• Conservative author John L. Perry writing for Newsmax postulates a “Military coup to resolve the ‘Obama problem’ ” is not unrealistic”. Perry, obviously not content with the normal process of democracy in the United States theorizes that the President may have to be removed from power prior to the next lawful election.
• Conservative speaker Kitty Werthmann recently led a workshop called “How to recognize living under Nazis & Communists.” She warned her audience to get their guns ready for “Bloody Battle” with Obama the Nazi.
UPDATE: Media Matters provides its own round up of extremist right-wing rhetoric and it’s not pretty. Meanwhile at Pleade The First, my friend Anthony rightfully calls out conservatives and dems alike to stand up to this subversive speech and denounce it out for what it is – treason.
Great Americans, all.
Well, it’s also coming from the Left too. In a recent interview with the Times of London, wacko Gore Vidal predicted that the United States is ripe for military dictatorship “fairly soon, on the basis that nobody else can hold everything together”.
It sounds to me that he’s advocating that the military can do a better job than the Obama administration at running the country.
You can’t really call any of it treason. Treason is actually doing or planning to do illegal actions against the government. If one did speak of an illegal act expressing intent to perform, then that would be treason. The closest thing to illegal would be the people who answered the facebook poll in the affirmative, I suppose, but even they are just answering a question with an opinion – not a threat or statement of intention.
I think that these people are kooks and represent a tiny fraction of a percentage of the population – maybe less than 1/10th of a percent. Maybe I’m wrong, but I think you’re giving way to much attention to the nuts.
Ben,
I’d love to believe you but when the Secret Service reports that threats against the President are up 400% compared to during the Bush Administration, I sit up and take notice. You should too.
Ben, your propensity for mushy equivocation is pathetic. If you cannot see the difference between someone making an unthinking case for a military coup and someone warning of its possibility because of a dying intellectual class… well, I mean, really, can you think for once before rushing to your safe little corner where you never have to take a stand?
I didn’t realize that threats are up that much. Anyone making a threat obviously gets a vist from the SS. Anyone engaging in the nutty talk above gets my opposition and ire if I hear of it.
Roch, Wow, I didn’t realize that my propensity for mushy equivocation, my never thinking, my safe little corner and my never taking a stand were so obvious. Do you launch personal attacks on everyone that you disagree with?
At any rate, of course these people should be loudly opposed in their opinions, and frankly, ridiculed. If I was present when any of those statements were made, I would angrily oppose them and do my best to persuade others that they should not listen to these people, (including Gore Vidal, he should have been chastized for that statement). Misguided, outrageous, and hateful statements all. But treason? Not that I can see. I call things what they are, I don’t exaggerate the charge.
A military coup in this country is impossible, there are too many checks on it. It’s just plain crazy talk and anyone who engages in it is ignorant. It would require a vast majority of our military officers and troops who take a solemn oath to support and defend the constitution to go against that oath and break all faith and bonds with everything they’ve been trained to be. And it would require the heavily armed citizenry to do nothing. Do you imagine our republic to be that fragile? Only 80 years into the nations life, it endured one of the mightiest civil wars the world had ever seen. Yes, a couple of generals are going to whisper into the Presidents ear and he’s just going to crumble and cry and hand the country over.
Trent Franks is an idiot for saying that and his district should remember that. That Kitty Werthmann woman is raving. And the Facebook poll is being dealt with I believe. What more do you want?
Ben your points about the strength of the President and the government are well taken. I don’t seriously consider such a coup would be possible which I am grateful for.
You end your comment by asking “What more do you want?” What I’d like is a bit more of what conservative commentator Joe Scarborough did today and stand up to the shills on the right who are spreading hatred, fear and ugly rhetoric about our newly elected President simply because he’s not “their guy”. That plus a little less hypocrisy would be awesome.
“Trent Franks is an idiot for saying that and his district should remember that” — Ben
Do you always launch personal attacks against those with whom you disagree.
The problem, Ben, that you repeat in your subsequent comments is that you try to put Vidal’s warnings on the same plane as the nut job contemplations. One is a danger the other is a warning of danger. One cannot see the difference without taking a stand.
No, I don’t launch personal attacks against people I am in direct discussion with. I might against a public figure who is not directly in the discussion, especially if it’s a shortcut and general in nature. I find that personal attacks between posters on message boards kind of clutter up the discussion.