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OneAngryDemocrat

(2,060 posts)
Sun Aug 5, 2012, 06:59 PM Aug 2012

The Sikh Temple Massacre and A Primer on the 'Tone' of Today's Political Discourse

Contrary to what you are about to hear from the mainstream media over the coming days and weeks, the "tone" of political discourse had absolutely nothing to do with the Sikh Temple Massacre.

Discussing the "tone" of the political landscape, today, is, instead, putting the horse ahead of the cart.

It was the psychology of modern conservative philosophy that gunned down six innocent Wisconsities, my friends - not the "tone" of our political speech.

Conservatives will blaming anything and everything for the Massacre except for modern-day conservatism, which preaches that the LGBT community, Muslims, liberals and democrats are all enemies of America and a bona fide threat to the nation's very existence.

And it is that same fallacious conservative belief that the LGBT community, Muslims, liberals and democrats are out to destroy America that is setting the "tone" of our current political discourse.

As long as this remains the case, as long as modern American conservatism puts forth the precept that liberals and democrats are the enemies of America and a bona fide threat to the nation's very existence, the bodies will continue to pile up.

Only the most naive of political observers could ever fail to see the obvious consequences of proclaiming that any group of Americans was a "threat" to their existence or the existence of the nation and not realize that different people would deal with that "threat" in different ways.

Furthermore, even discussing the ''tone'' of today's political discourse merely leads into the false moral equivalency argument about how "both sides do it."

Both sides do NOT, emphatically, "do it."

Pretending that the LGBT community, Muslims, liberals and democrats are busy shooting conservatives (when they are not) directly plays into the false conservative mind-set that the LGBT community, Muslims, liberals and democrats are all a threat to conservatives, which is precisely why conservatives are, in fact, killing liberals, in the first place!

Therefore, we must reach the conclusion that even discussing the ''tone'' of current plitical discourse reinforces, in today's conservative psyche, that we're are out to get them.

It is the conservative belief that the LGBT community, Muslims, liberals and democrats are a threat that HAS to be dispelled, and that will not happen by RE-INFORCING conservative fallacies.

When conservative leaders finally stand up and tell their more fanatical followers that we will not destroy America, that the LGBT community, Muslims, liberals and democrats are not out to "get" republicans, the murders of innocent liberal democrats will come to an end.

But not until then.

Conservatives will not speak out.

They will blame the lone, solitary, shooter…

They will blame liberal society…

They will blame anything and everything but modern-day conservatism, which preaches that liberals and democrats are the bona fide enemies of America and a threat to the nation’s very existence.

And as long as that is the case, the bodies will continue to pile up.

And that leaves it up to us to speak out.

We need not mince words – it is vital that we speak clearly and succinctly but most importantly, firmly.

Conservatism must change.

It must evolve.

To believe otherwise is to help pass around the nails for the next coffin in which the next liberal democrat will be buried in.

No one was out there speaking about the radical right-wing elements that threaten our civil society until Janet Napolitano issued a DHS report warning about extremists that might resort to violence – a report which conservatives across the country demanded to be immediately rescinded. Now that we have seen a series of right-wing assassinations take place, the original DHS report looks, in hindsight, to have been very timely and prescient.

We have seen Jim David Adkisson open fire upon the congregation of the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church with a sawed-off shotgun, killing two, simply because he opposed the all-inclusive nature of the church, and of the church’s liberal teachings. Adkisson wrote in a letter which he assumed would be his last, “I thought I’d do something good for this country — kill Democrats ‘til (sic) the cops kill me.” His hatred for his fellow Americans could not be contained: “Liberals are a pest like termites, millions of them … the only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets, kill them where they gather.”

James von Brunn, a radical right-winger from Maryland sought to turn the nation’s Holocaust Museum into a symbol for his particular brand of racism, when he went there with the intent to kill blacks and Jews, as an example to the rest of white America to emulate. Luckily for those visitors inside of the museum, the first man von Brunn decided to open fire upon was a black man who had the ability to return the favor, and so no one besides than the very heroic Stephen T. Johns died that day.

Shawna Forde, and two other members of the anti-immigrant Minutman group which she founded, the ”Minutemen American Defense,” decided that one way to finance her burgeoning organization was to dress up as law enforcement agents, and to rob Mexican immigrants. When Shawna and her compatriots illegally entered the home of Raul Flores, and demanded money, the head of the family ordered the trio to leave, prompting the radical right-wingers to put a bullet into the head of little 9 year old Brisenia Flores, and into the head of her father. Unluckily for the conservative killers, Brisenia’s mother was able to barricade herself in her bedroom, where she kept a handgun, and she was able to keep at bay her would be assassins until the real police arrived.

Richard Poplawski opened fire on police officers during a domestic disturbance call, in April of 2009, killing three of them.

Why?

The 23 year-old right-winger feared that the President was poised to take away his hand guns.

Just a few days after that shoot-out, two sheriff’s deputies in northern Florida were shot and killed by Joshua Cartwright who later was fatally shot by other deputies. The reason, according to Cartright’s wife, was because Joshua “believed that the US Government was conspiring against him,” and, according to her, he had been severely disturbed that Barack Obama had been elected President.

Passing the hate down from one generation to the next, the father and son team of Bruce and Joshua Turnidge blew up a homemade bomb in December of 2008 which killed state police bomb technician William Hakim, who was trying to dismantle it, and Woodburn Police Capt. Tom Tennant, who was helping, at a bank in Woodburn, Oregon. The completely unrepentent Turnidges’ plan was to rob banks to finance an anti-government militia group, and killing two police officers was small beans compared to what they really wanted to do to the Democratic majority in Washington DC.

The list of victims from right-wing terror does not stop there.

Doctor George Tiller.

Arkansas Democratic Chairman Bill Gwatney.

It goes on, and on.

For moderate conservatives to hide these blood-thirsty radicals within their ranks behind the legitimate dissent of the anti-abortion lobby, or of that of any other conservative movement, be it anti-immigration, or advocates for 2d Amendment Rights, and to deny any responsibility for help in fostering these lunatic’s bizarre views, doesn’t help the moderate conservative lobbies attain their aims and goals…

It, instead, helps the radical conservative terrorists attain theirs.

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The Sikh Temple Massacre and A Primer on the 'Tone' of Today's Political Discourse (Original Post) OneAngryDemocrat Aug 2012 OP
Comments? OneAngryDemocrat Aug 2012 #1
I think between George Zimmerman and CFA the Right-wing is really enjoying their coming out! Anansi1171 Aug 2012 #2

Anansi1171

(793 posts)
2. I think between George Zimmerman and CFA the Right-wing is really enjoying their coming out!
Sun Aug 5, 2012, 07:58 PM
Aug 2012

This is who they are and they are proud of their bigotry and their anti-intellectualism. The rich are proud of their wealth and revel in their contempt for everyone else as well as their hold on their red-neck, pit-bull foot soldiers. They just cannot see the truth for their noses that Capital globalized and brought about their(still inevitable) decline in relative living standards. Being that they insist on losers in this casino, they'd just as soon point their guns at their noses, and on days like today I am sure that's the only place those guns should be pointed.

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