Convincing the world that Anders Behring Breivik was a Muslim didn’t work. Backtracking on their Fox News media arm’s incessant calls for murder against liberals never worked, either.
The right wing’s latest effort to make us think the liberals are coming to get us with guns blazing? Ridiculously attempting to turn an enthusiastic call for Americans to get out and vote in November 2012 as an incitement of violence.
In a recent Labor Day speech, Teamsters president and labor union leader James P. Hoffa lambasted Republican strides in class warfare against American workers – referring to Tea Party members as “sons of bitches” who, from within the voting booth, “need to be taken out” in this ongoing “war.”
“We’ve got to keep an eye on the battle that we face – a war on workers. And you see it everywhere. It is the Tea Party. And there’s only one way to beat and win that war – the one thing about working people is, we like a good fight.”
Hoffa then added that, come November 2012, voters need to take action against class warfare waged by the Tea Party Republicans in Congress and vying for the Presidency:
“President Obama, this is your army, we are ready to march. But everybody here’s got to vote. If we go back, and keep the eye on the prize, let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.”
Sounds like some pretty standard political soapbox-talk to me, when taken in context – which arguably is a bit much for anyone siding with the Right these days (Fox News edited out the “got to vote” part).
But heaven forbid someone on the LEFT take an aggressive, verbal stance on ANYTHING the Right wing holds dear – like screwing over American workers – then all the right wingers are in a tizzy over Hoffa’s “thuggish,” supposedly-violent,“Tea Party bashing” and its apparent approval by another much-hated President Barack Obama.
In a statement, Tea Party Express chairwoman Amy Kremer demanded an immediate apology from Hoffa and urged President Obama to rebuke him for such “violent” rhetoric.
“Jimmy Hoffa’s remarks are inexcusable and amount to a call for violence on peaceful tea party members, which include many Teamster members,” Kremer said. “We have called on President Obama to condemn this inappropriate and uncivil rhetoric, which has no place in the public forum.”
Notice the absurdity – nevermind the reluctance to listen to the union leader’s actual words: everybody here’s got to vote. His speech was a clear and concise urging to vote anti-union, anti-worker Tea Party Republicans out of office.
But perhaps the singularity of right wing intelligence cannot grasp the concept of a metaphor – since they are far more adept at being super-specific when it comes to relentless, hostile and violent rhetoric against political opposition that has become standard issue from the right.
And with the exception of the post-Giffords-shooting media coverage, the vast majority of right wing originated violent propaganda has gone almost entirely un-criticized by Republican leaders. Such rhetoric has become commonplace to such an extent that its followers are so desensitized that it goes barely noticed, especially when cloaked in the red of partisan politics and mask of “American patriotism” and “exceptionalism.”
For comparison – at an April 2010 Tea Party event, Michele Bachmann invoked almost the same exact words as Hoffa:
“I am the No. 1 target for one more extremist group to defeat this November,”said Bachmann. “We need to have your help for candidates like me. We need you to take out some of these bad guys.”
Where was the backlash then?
That’s right, it didn’t exist.
But remember when – way back in January 2011 – Right wingers attempted to paint Jared Lee Loughner (Gabrielle Giffords’ would-be-assassin and crazed gumnan/murderer of six) as a LIBERAL, even though his personal manifesto recalled the majority of the basic tenets and violent propaganda of the neo-con movement running rampant in this country?
Remember when scores of Tea Party members sported signage of violent imagery – including guns – against Democrats?
Remember just a few weeks ago when a crazed, right wing religious extremist opened fire on a group of students in Oslo, Norway?
Remember when Republican presidential frontrunner Rick Perry said that his idea of gun control was to “use both hands?”
Remember when Sarah Palin urged supporters: “Don’t Retreat, Reload!”
Remember when Bill O’Reilly “joked” about decapitating Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank?
Remember when Nevada Tea Party senate candidate Sharron Angle suggested “Second Amendment remedies” (right to bear arms) against Senator Harry Reid?
Remember when Glenn Beck’s on-air death fantasies included killing filmmaker Michael Moore with his bare hands, hoping that Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D.-Ohio) would burn to death or acting out a mock-version of himself poisoning then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi?
Remember all the other piled-on violent rhetoric that has come out of the Right wing camp- specifically the Tea Party – since Obama took office?
Remember all of this?
It seems the right wing is having a bit of a PR situation with their “guns and religion” crowd taking matters to heart a bit much, so it only seems fitting to try to turn the tables on Democrats.
This post was originally posted on OneWhiteDuck.com.
Follow Joe Ascanio on Twitter @onewhiteduck as well as his personal feed @joeascanio.
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