Blast from the Past: What happens when Obama is elected?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

October 10, 2008, 1:43 pm
Paul Krugman

The (financial) crisis isn’t the only scary thing going on. Something very ugly is taking shape on the political scene: as McCain’s chances fade, the crowds at his rallies are, by all accounts, increasingly gripped by insane rage. It’s not just a mob phenomenon — it’s visible in the right-wing media, and to some extent in the speeches of McCain and Palin.

We’ve seen this before. One thing that has been sort of written out of the mainstream history of politics is the sheer insanity of the attacks on the Clintons — they were drug smugglers, they murdered Vince Foster (and lots of other people), they were in league with foreign powers. And this stuff didn’t just show up in fringe publications — it was discussed in Congress, given props by the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal, and so on.

What it came down to was that a significant fraction of the American population, backed by a lot of money and political influence, simply does not consider government by liberals (even very moderate liberals) legitimate. Ronald Reagan was supposed to have settled that once and for all.

What happens when Obama is elected? It will be even worse than it was in the Clinton years. For sure there will be crazy accusations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some violence.

The next few years are going to be very, very tough.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/10/not-about-the-financial-crisis/

[BeHereNow]

1. Violence WILL escalate.

With the appalling number of people convinced
that Obama is a Muslim with a plan to turn the USA
into a communist/socialist country and the
hate talk show hosts, that never sleep, urging
the fearful to fight for their country- violence
is sure to ensue.
This is a very bad time to be a "Brown" person, or a "Librul"
in America... cause the mob mentality is out there
and they are desperately looking for some one
to blame.

BHN

[RKP5637]

2. I've always thought this was a very violent country just under the surface. This country

is always engaged in violence about one thing or another. I've spent my whole life with this country violent about one thing or another. For a country that supposedly loves peace, equality, the whole bit, it sure goes about it in a strange way.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

3. ...

[zbdent]

4. and back when the Clintons came into the White House, there was no

24 hour news cycle ...

I remember the "family tree" of the "trashed offices" "scandal" ...

posted on Drudge ...

reported in Washington Times that it was on Drudge ...

reported in a real news source that it was in the Washington Times ...

reported on Drudge that it was in a real news source ...

:silly: :eyes: ...

[Maccagirl]

5. As another (wise) Duer posted about a week ago

There will not be a revolution-it will be a civil war.

[B Calm]

6. Good news is, if McCain had won there wouldn't be a country left!

[AnArmyVeteran]

7. Religious fanatics would have killed McCain so Palin could be president.

Never in my life have I heard a person at a campaign rally scream out "Kill him!" meaning 'kill Barack Obama'. Even as politically turbulent as it was in the 1960s no one screamed out with such a vile threat. Even without public displays of life threatening statements we lost three great men, JFK, MLK and RFK. There were several other attempted assassinations.

But now there are open public threats and violence-provoking rhetoric being spewed out of every right wing radio and Faux Newz every day. The internet has become a cesspool of disinformation, outright lies and a place where even the most demented in our society regularly suggest committing violent acts to achieve their political goals. Even Palin and Angle have talked about using 2nd Amendment remedies against the government if people in their tea bagging movement fail to win at the polls. From the top of the right wing to the bottom there is a common thread of hatred and a willingness to use violence against anyone who stands in their way.

The level of hate keeps rising and absolutely no one is being responsible by trying to stop the hate rhetoric. Republican leaders are even validating the hatemongers' beliefs by not condemning all of the insane right wing displays of rage, racism, fear and intolerance.

There is not one responsible adult in the right wing. They want to see as much hatred, racism, fear and anger in their followers as possible. They know in the short run they can capitalize off of the rage in society. And as soon as a lot of people begin getting attacked and killed there won't bd one right winger who will accept responsibility for it. Hell, it's already happened. Beck paranoia about guns caused a Pittsburg guy to murder three police officers. Dr Tiller was murdered in his church by a demented right wing religious fanatic because of constant condemnation by the evil thug Bill OReilly. Another man went into a church and killed a couple of people who reportedly listened to the insane right winger Michael Savage.

This madness won't end anytime soon because there isn't one right wing leader who is capable of acting like an adult. They want to see blood. They want to see violence. We're at a point where it's too late to stop this insanity. There are too many right wing extremists who have their weapons locked & loaded and ready to strike out against any of their perceived enemies. And among that list is every American who isn't as extreme as they are. Why are we spending trillions of dollars fighting terrorism abroad when our country is awash with terrorist thinking radicals who are chomping at the bit to kill someone?

But so far no leader is speaking out to condemn the merchants of hate like right wing radio hosts and Faux Newz talking heads. Obama had a golden opportunity to condemn Faux immediately after they aired a clip of Shirley Sherrod accusing her of being a racist. But instead of even calling Ms Sherrod to get her side of the story she was fired by the Obama administration, and when they did that they lost the opportunity to condemn Faux Newz as a fake news organization. How could they condemn Faux Newz after they were just as guilty of persecuting an innocent person as Faux was. It was just one more golden opportunity lost by the Obama administration. In the past 18 months I've seen one golden opportunity after another lost because of a lack of courage to do the right thing.

When the hell is the Obama administration going to wake up and start to lead? By doing nothing, not even rebutting the insanity from the right wing, they are actually enabling right wing hatemongering with their complete silence. In the end both the leaders in the democratic and republican parties will be just as guilty of the violence that is certain to come.

[RKP5637]

8. Well said! I don't think in the 50's and 60's this behavior would have been tolerated. I don't ever

recall this level of threats openly directed toward a president.

The RW hatred in this country is getting out of control. I do wish Obama and republican leaders were more outspoken about it... I don't know where it stops, but it appears to be being almost condoned and enabled.

We have free speech, but this outright promotion of hatred by Fox News and the like is way over the top to me. A lot of really on the edge people are being enabled by this endless hatred IMO. It is RW contagious and dangerous. Frankly, I think this crap is more of a danger to national security than outside threats.

[AnArmyVeteran]

9. When you add their constant talk of violence to their hopes Obama, the US & Americans fail is enough

RIGHT WING TERRORISM
Not only are right wingers using threats and constantly talking about using violent methods to achieve their goals they also have stated they want the president to fail, the country to fail and the American people to fail. Even Glenn Beck said he hoped and prayed that the US would go into a depression even worse than the Great Depression, because as he explained it, it would mean the US could start all over again under conservative rules.

No one should be surprised by Beck's desire to have everything in the country fail. It is a common far right wing christian belief that to be 'reborn' a person has to fail, be killed, or feel like they are dead. Beck's wanting the US to fail is right out of the Bible. Deluded Christians believe 'life' can come only after death just like Jesus died and presumably came back to life. It has been a constant theme throughout the history of Christianity. And the more fundamentalist Christians believe that particular belief the most. That's why they are so fascinated with people who say they are 'born again'. Dolts like Beck are dangerous to our country. They want unemployment to skyrocket. They want the market to fail. They want homelessness to rise. They want to see people being foreclosed on. They want to see our national debt worsen (look at their position on the tax cuts for the rich. They want to continue them and further harm our bottom line). Right wingers want everything in the country to fail just because they hate a black president and anyone who is progressive and wants to make this country a better place.

I'm not making up the right wing's lust for failure. If you listen to any right wing radio program they laugh and cheer when any bad news about the economy comes out. They cheer as people are losing their homes because they believe if people lose their homes they will somehow become a conservative. Republicans in the senate and the house are also wanting the US to fail. No matter how good a bill is or how it will improve the lives of Americans they want those bills to fail and die. They couldn't care less about the welfare of their fellow Americans. They want to see them lose their jobs, their homes, their health insurance, their unemployment and their lives. I have never witnessed such evil in my country in my entire life as what's in the conservative movement. They aren't rational, or even sane.

What's worse and more threatening to the US? A lot of home grown people like Glenn Beck essentially espousing 'death to America' or foreign terrorists who have no resources to even get here? The right wing is full of extremist militants who would make a typical Islamic terrorist look good in comparison. And these home grown US terrorists are actively trying to cause the US to fail. They want to gut our Constitution. And they want to eliminate some of rights. They hate everyone who doesn't look like them, talk like them or act like them.

If the leaders of this country don't wake up soon there will be nothing left to save. The failures the right wing lust for will come to pass and this country will be history.

[RKP5637]

10. I wish more would call it exactly as you did. RW Terrorism and no less. I wish the

democrats were not so damn complacent. Hopefully they are learning that cuddling up with republicans is not going to get them any votes in congress or in the country. The Eisenhower republicans one could work with for a better country are long gone.

[BeHereNow]

12. Excellent summation of who the REAL enemies are.

They scare the hell out of me.
Much more so than the Pentagon stated enemies.
Like you said, how exactly are they going to get here?
Swim? Rowboats?

BHN

[BeHereNow]

11. You are so right about that.

Frankly, it's the domestic terrorists that scare me.
The gun totin' bible thumpin' army for Xhrist types.
The actually believe they are in a spiritual war
and guess who the enemy is?
Everyone outside their circle, including you and me.

BHN