A cat belonging to the family of Jake Burris, an Arkansas Democratic Campaign Manager, was found killed with the word “Liberal” painted on the carcass. Burris and his four children found the cat on their doorstep when they returned home last night. One side of the head had been smashed, an eyeball hanging out of its socket.
Jake Burris is the Campaign Manager for Democrat Ken Aden who is running against incumbent Republican Steve Womack in the 3rd Congressional District, a heavily conservative ward won by Womack with 72% of the vote.
Can the timing of this story be more ironic! It happened on the same day as this announcement, Gabrielle Giffords will resign from Congress to focus on her recovery.
Let us segue to July 27, 2008: Jim David Adkisson entered a Unitarian Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, brandishing a shotgun. He killed two people and wounded seven others. While searching Adkisson's house, investigators found three books: The O'Reilly Factor, by Bill O'Reilly; Liberalism is a Mental Disorder, by Michael Savage; and Let Freedom Ring, by Sean Hannity. The motive behind the crime: Hatred of liberals and Democrats.
Let there be no mistake. There is an ugly pattern of rightwing violence that targets liberals and Democrats. It is born of an undercurrent of rightwing talk radio raised to the level of hate speech. The message is chillingly clear: If you are a liberal or a Democrat, you are demonized as unpatriotic, as an enemy of the state - and therefore undeserving of rights, respect, or protection under law. It is the same kind of inflammatory rhetoric used for centuries to scapegoat minority groups for the failings of society - leading to persecution, ethnic cleansing, murder, death camps, and slavery.
The proper historical reference is blood libel - not in the context used by Sarah Palin to justify herself after the Tucson massacre - but in the truest sense of the term. When partisan speech rises to the level of hate speech, it means the end of civil discourse and the beginning of violence. Eliminationist rhetoric is the signature trait of fascism.
Update (under the fold):
Your prescient Octopus half expected a vituperative response from the lunatic fringe. Earlier this evening, my expectations came true in the form of this comment from an anonymous troll who said:
“As soon as Gabby Giffords was shot by a deranged lunatic you fucking idiot progressives started screaming "Sarah Palin Target List." So much for civility. The dead cat story's obviously a hoax --- and you dumbshits went ahead and exploited it for crass political game. God, you freak leftists should just die. Fuck you” (Posted by Anonymous to THE SWASH ZONE at 11:07 PM, January 24, 2012).
Fact: The cat mutilation was not a hoax. Local law enforcement and the FBI are investigating the incident as partisan hate crime.
Fact: The Aden campaign NEVER accused Republican incumbent Steve Womack of having any role in the incident.
Fact: The Womack campaign condemned the attack with this statement: "The thought of brutalizing any animal for the sake of making a political statement is beyond any standard of decency and the person or people responsible for this act should be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," said Beau Walker, Womack's chief of staff.
Of course, the anonymous troll was not clever enough to consider that such opprobrium would merely prove the point of this post. Witness: “So much for civility" and "you freak leftists should just die. Fuck you" [my bold].
'Sick' is the only word I can think of that applies to this that's not obscene.
ReplyDelete"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too. Otherwise, they will turn out to be outright traitors." -- Ann Coulter is quite keen on this tactic as well.
ReplyDeleteI don't think we have seen this level of animosity, incivility and outright evil since the early days of the civil rights movement. remeber those days when gangs of white men could go around killing, raping and burning without fear of reprisals - happy days are here again and I for one am very worried...
ReplyDeleteI think that the key term is "lunatic fringe." However, I don't discount that those who are the calculating purveyors of the call for violence bear the blame for feeding the lunacy of those who take the violent rhetoric as a call to action.
ReplyDeleteBeyond reprehensible, despicable and truly sickening.
ReplyDeleteYes, and this is but one face of a fascist. There are many.
It's amazing to me how well and often the true face of the "anti-Liberal" movement can reveal itself and avoid having the country turn on it, but the world liberal has been made to stink, to sound like a hissing, a sneering and a curse. Who could defend it?
ReplyDeleteBut people who can do this lack only a bit of courage to do it to a human and that courage may come if they're ignored long enough or avoid being detected for long enough or if we are polite and understanding enough and willing to talk things over with monsters.
We've let them get away with defining good as bad and most every other Orwellian contradiction and it's time to stand up against it, time to be the reprisal. It's time to shout them down, shut them up, make their lives as miserable as possible.
If any low-life Freeper troll targets our community again (please see update after the fold), here is more evidence of their violent-prone, fascist proclivities:
ReplyDeleteMissouri Democratic Senators Targeted With Crosshair Stickers:
“Missouri Capitol Police have launched an investigation after several Democratic state senators' offices were defaced with stickers depicting rifle crosshairs.
The bright orange stickers were found on the doors and exterior walls of offices belonging to three female lawmakers: Sens. Jolie Justus and Kiki Curls of Kansas City, and Sen. Marie Chapelle-Nadal of St. Louis.
(…)
Justus added that when some senators removed the stickers they were replaced later in the afternoon by even larger crosshairs.”
From the Quincy Herald, this detail: “The stickers were placed next to the doors of at least five Democratic state senators.”
My point: There is no more plausible deniability. The threat is real and pervasive. For my part, I intend to treat Freeper trolls as domestic terrorists and report them to law enforcement.
Politics is just an excuse for the sick SOB who killed that poor cat. You've got a dangerous sociopath there, one who could — and very well might — advance to the Jared Loughner level of evil madness. I don't go around wishing a painful, early demise on anyone. For this culprit, I'll make an exception.
ReplyDeleteAnyone that can do this to an innocent animal, can also kill a human! Sick is all I can think of, not only is the cat dead but the children traumatized...now that really works in politics.
ReplyDelete