Republican House Candidate Calls For Violent Government Overthrow If GOP Loses Election

[jefferson_dem]

Republican House Candidate Calls For Violent Government Overthrow If GOP Loses Election

Stephen Broden, a “constitutionalist pastor” from Texas who won the Republican nomination for Texas’ 30th Congressional District, made a vaguely threatening statement at a Tea Party event last year. He described the federal government as “tyrannical” and said that “we have a constitutional remedy. And the Framers say if that don’t work, revolution.”

Yesterday, a political reporter for WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth asked Broden to explain whether he was actually calling for violence against the federal government. After a “prolonged back-and-forth,” Broden said a violent overthrow is “on the table”:

“If the government is not producing the results or has become destructive to the ends of our liberties, we have a right to get rid of that government and to get rid of it by any means necessary,” Broden said, adding the nation was founded on a violent revolt against Britain’s King George III.

Watson asked if violence would be in option in 2010, under the current government.

“The option is on the table. I don’t think that we should remove anything from the table as it relates to our liberties and our freedoms,” Broden said, without elaborating. “However, it is not the first option.”

Watch it:

Broden’s comments were chastised by local Republican officials, but they continue to endorse his run for office. Jonathan Neerman, head of the Dallas County Republican Party, said “it is a disappointing, isolated incident,” and that he planned to “discuss” it with the campaign. Ken Emanuelson, a leading tea party organizer in Dallas, said he did not disagree with the “philosophical point” that people had the right to resist a tyrannical government, but added, “do I see our government today anywhere close to that point? No, I don’t.”

Republicans and the national press already made a great deal of commotion over this race, when Broden’s opponent, Eddie Bernice Johnson, became involved in a scandal over the distribution of scholarship money. Broden’s stunning comments seem to deserve at least as much attention.

http://thinkprogress.org/?p=125902

[Kdillard]

1. Lovely. Why are they so scared when everything in the news has been saying

the GOP will make massive gains especially in the House? I am so sick of these creepy, crazy people. I really hope the message they get on Nov 2 is that crazy doesn't work and will be rejected by a sane majority.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

2. Makes you wonder

but perhaps they're not so certain of a massive Republican "tidal wave"?

Or perhaps they're just addicted to hate and fear because, really, that's all some of these people seem to have and to cling to? Rush, Fox News, et. al didn't exactly "dial down" the hate during the last six years of Clinton's Presidency even though the Republicans controlled Congress nor during the first six years of Bushco when the Republicans controlled Congress AND the WH (and had a more or less conservative majority on SCOTUS). If anything, it only got worse IMHO.

The right has gone completely bonkers with irrational hate and fear since Obama's election as POTUS and the Democrats' return to control of Congress in 2007. I can't even imagine what might happen if the Democrats manage to retain control of Congress (even partly) let alone when Obama gets re-elected in 2012.

:shrug:

[struggle4progress]

3. "If we can't steal elections, then we'll just have to resort to violence"

[BootinUp]

6. Exactly .nt

[CakeGrrl]

4. Even the Teabagger is more sane than this guy

But the bottom line is that they're still supporting him.

Johnson's campaign ought to figure out a way to point out the real danger in this guy compared to what they're trying to use against her.

[Doctor_J]

5. A live possibility, as Frank Rich noted last Sunday

There will be violence if we hold the House and Senate, and my prediction is that we won't do anything about it, and neither will the government. OTOH, if they do win, they'll take that to mean that that moving farther to the right is the winning strategy. Either way, we're going to be under attack, with almost no remedy

[JaneQPublic]

7. Plotting to overthrow the government: Isn't that sometimes called "Treason"?

It's so ironic that these are the same characters who believe they are the "true" American patriots, yet they want to destroy their country as soon as elections don't go their way. It's kind of the childish "I'll take my bat and go home" syndrome.

It seems that GOPer patriotism is directed toward their Republican party, not the USA.

But then, what would you expect from the crowd who claims they are all about defending the U.S. Constitution but then turns around and argues for the repeal of one of the Amendments (14th)?

[Yeshuah Ben Joseph]

8. Texas wackjobs talking about secession and/or revolution are nothing new.

The odd thing though is that they never seem to do so when a Repuke is in the White House. :crazy: