There has been a lot of talk today about threats to those Dems who voted for the health insurance reform bill, and rightfully so. Where you are not hearing any voices of concern coming from is the leadership of the Republican Party. And that is exactly why we should be afraid.
I'll explain more after the jump.
For the past several years Republican have mastered the art of creating, and then manipulating fear in this country. It started with the reign of Reagan and has continued non-stop to this day. At the same time it has undergone a sort of metamorphis. Early on, the dog whistles coming from the Republican leadership were more subtle with the stronger preaching to fear coming from the underlings. Today, the underlings, i.e. Beck and Limbaugh, do their best, but sometimes they are out done by the Republican leaders. This was most obvious during the Bush Presidency.
Yet, even during the Bush debacle, actual calls for violence, either explicitly by the Malkins of the world, or implicitly, by the Cheneys, were somewhat limited. That has changed. Sure, the calls for violence are couched in terms that allow for plausible deniability. Saying that a Congressman could be a dead man is not the same as saying, "Somebody ought to kill him". Giving out the home address of a Congressman, just so people could "thank" him is not the same as saying, "Here's his address, do something to him." Sure, using rifle scopes on a map to indicate those Dems who you want defeatd in the next election is not the same as saying "Just shoot these people."
The Becks and Limbaughs of the world will continually say that they are not urging violence, while at the same time declaring that this country needs to be saved from the creeping totalitarian, fascism, socialism, communism of the Democratic Party. While saying that somebody has to stop Obama now, before it is too late. Reminds me of Henry II saying aloud "Won't someone just rid me of this man" in reference to Thomas Becket. Of course he was dismayed when somebody went out and assassinated him, he never meant those words in that way, etc.
But, you know what, that isn't the reason I am afraid. It isn't even the fact that some people, ever since Obama was elected, have been acting on the basis of this rhetoric. From the shooting of the policemen in Pittsburgh to the shooting at the Holocaust Museum, to the killing of an abortion perfoming doctor to the flying into the IRS ofices, the important thing is not that they happened but the total lack of complete outrage not just at the acts, but at the rhetoric which has no doubt played a role in the actions.
Not only has there been a lack of outrage, there has been, if not approval at least a condoning of many of these actions by members of the Republican Party. And, even worse, to some degree there has been insufficient demands from Democrats for Republicans to either condemn the actions or the rhetoric.
I came of age in the 60'[s and 70's. I am familiar with societal violence. Yet I have never been as frightened as I am today. Last June, at a blog that was a place where people of all political leanings could come and discuss things, and only occassionally would people get out of hand, I mentioned this fear I had. I mentioned that the undercurrent of violence I was seeing and feeling made me much more afraid than I was back then.
The response, quite honestly, amazed me. Oh sure, the righties poked fun at me, as I expected. But what surprised me was how many of those who represented the left scoffed at me, pointing out the actual violence of those times, including a couple assassinations. Despite my pointing out the differences, and there are many, no one (not one single person) seemed to get what I was saying.
And to some degee, that just increased my fear. Unfortunately, nothing that has happened recently has given me reason to relinquish that fear. I still haven't seen any Republican leaders condemn either the rhetoric or the random actual violent acts. Not have I seen much in the way of outrage from the Democrats as a group. Nor have I seen a major issue of this made in the MSM.
It is this lack of recognition of where the real threats are to this country that causes my fear. At the same time, I don't feel hopeless. I think there are some steps each of us could take that might help change the climate of this country. In the next couple of days, I will try to post a diary outlining those steps.