"What is a little bit disconcerting and concerning is the inability for sporting goods stores to keep ammunition in stock," she said. "That tells me the nation is arming. What are they arming for if it isn't that they are so distrustful of their government? They're afraid they'll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways?
"That's why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don't win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?" (via TPM)
That's Sharron Angle, Harry Reid's Republican opponent in Nevada. Now, read that again and picture a Black person or a person of Arab descent saying it.
Sharron Angle, along with the entire Tea Party, and its champions like Glen Beck and Sarah Palin get away with spewing bizarre violent, hate-filled rhetoric that no coloured person could dare to say without serious consequences.
Sharron Angle used to be a member of the Independent American Party - until she decided to run for an Assembly seat. It's a far-right fringe party that among other things
- published an ad claiming HIV could spread through the water:
- brought signs to political rallies that said: "If Guns Are Outlawed, How Can We Shoot the Liberals?":
- promoted an effort to add a clause to the state constitution stating that "objection to homosexuality is a liberty and right of conscience and shall not be considered discrimination relating to civil rights,"
Now, to steal Tim Wise's line: "Imagine if the Tea Party was Black".
Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government?
...
Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired.
...
Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.”
...
Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” ... or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.”
Imagine. Imagine. Imagine. Being crazy and dangerous is a white privilege. There are no consequences. You're dismissed as being a crackpot while projected to have an 11-point lead over your opponent. (Unless you're a 90-year old liberal journalist called Helen Thomas.)
If you're a left-wing radical called Bill Ayers who advocated a violent overthrow of the government during the Vietnam era, you're bit more than a crackpot. You're a "dangerous crackpot". However, if you happen to attend a get-together in Bill Ayers' home and happen to have one Black parent, you are a highly dangerous "terrorist sympathiser".
If the Tea Party was Black ... one can only imagine.