By: Melissa McEwan
[Trigger warning for violent rhetoric of many different stripes.]

Both sides are, in fact, not “just as bad,” when it comes to institutionally sanctioned violent and eliminationist rhetoric. An anonymous commenter at Daily Kos and the last Republican vice presidential nominee are not equivalent, no matter how many ridiculously irresponsible members of the media would have us believe otherwise.

There is, demonstrably, no leftist equivalent to Sarah Palin, former veep candidate and presumed future presidential candidate, who uses gun imagery (rifle sights) and language (“Don’t Retreat, RELOAD“) to exhort her followers to action.

There is no leftist equivalent to the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a group which was created from the mailing list of the old white supremacist White Citizens Councils and has been noted as becoming increasingly “radical and racist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center, which classifies the CCC as a hate group—and is nonetheless considered an acceptable association by prominent members of the Republican Party, including a a former senator and the last Republican presidential nominee.

There is no leftist equivalent to Glenn Beck, host of a long-running nationally syndicated radio show, former host of a show on CNN and current host of a show on Fox, best-selling author, DC rally organizer, and longtime user of eliminationist rhetoric, including equating universal healthcare to rape, joking about victims of forest fires being America-hating liberals, comparing Al Gore to Hitler, condoning the murder of Michael Moore, accusing Holocaust survivor George Soros of being a Nazi collaborator, joking about poisoning Nancy Pelosi, equating immigration reform with burning US citizens alive, publicly endorsing violent revolution, and winkingly telling his viewers not to get violent, all of which amounts to a speck on the tip of a very big iceberg.

Playlist: Glenn Beck – Fox News’ Fraudulent in-House Baboon

Playlist: Sarah ‘Death’ Palin — The ‘DISASTA’ From Alaska

There is no leftist equivalent to Ann Coulter, best-selling author and syndicated columnist, who has been a panelist on Fox’s Hannity 28 times and was on Hannity & Colmes an additional 18 times, who has been a guest multiple times on The O’Reilly Factor, Geraldo at Large, Larry King Live, Huckabee, Your World with Neil Cavuto, Hardball, and other cable news shows, has made appearances on The Tonight Show, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Daily Show, and Real Time with Bill Maher, and has co-hosted The View, and has also said that a baseball bat is “the most effective way” to talk to liberals, as well as: “We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too.” And: “My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building.” And: “In [Clinton's] recurring nightmare of a presidency, we have a national debate about whether he ‘did it,’ even though all sentient people know he did. Otherwise there would be debates only about whether to impeach or assassinate.”

Playlist: Ann Coulter — Compost Throwing Psycho-Talker

There is no leftist equivalent to Bill O’Reilly, Fox News television show host, nationally syndicated radio show host, and best-selling author, who has appeared on The Tonight Show eleven times, The Late Show with David Letterman six times, The Daily Show six times, Live with Regis and Kelly five times, The View four times, Good Morning America three times, and Real Time with Bill Maher twice, among other national shows, and has lied about and stalked his critics, said that progressive bloggers should be dealt with “with a hand grenade,” said Air America hosts were traitors and should be “put in chains,” as well as: “And if Al Qaeda comes [to San Francisco] and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead.”

Playlist: Bill O’Reilly (Osama Bin O’Reilly)

There is no leftist equivalent to Rush “I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus—living fossils—so we will never forget what these people stood for” Limbaugh, nationally syndicated radio show host and invitee to the Bush White House.

Playlist: Rush ‘FAT’ Limbaugh

There is no leftist equivalent to Pat “Hitler’s success was not based on his extraordinary gifts alone. His genius was an intuitive sense of the mushiness, the character flaws, the weakness masquerading as morality that was in the hearts of the statesmen who stood in his path” Buchanan, a regular MSNBC contributor and syndicated columnist.

There is no leftist equivalent to Michelle “In Defense of Internment: The Case for ‘Racial Profiling’ in World War II and the War on Terror” Malkin, a regular Fox panelist, best-selling author, and prominent conservative blogger.

There is no leftist equivalent to Pat “The feminist agenda is not about equal rights for women. It is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism, and become lesbians” Robertson, host of The 700 Club, who was a guest on Fox’s Hannity & Colmes five times.

There is no leftist equivalent to Michael “Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the Iraq war” Reagan, or Michael “Smallpox in a blanket, which the U.S. Army gave to the Cherokee Indians on their long march to the West, was nothing compared to what I’d like to see done to these people” Savage, both nationally syndicated radio show hosts.

There is no leftist equivalent to the Minutemen and other radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-immigration groups, some of whom have been subcontracted to work the border by the US government.

Playlist: American Anti-Immigrant Xenophobia

There is no leftist equivalent to radical and eliminationist-spewing anti-choice groups, who openly target doctors and call for their assassinations—and had a success just last year in the murder of Dr. George Tiller—and whose leaders get featured in whitewashing profiles in the Washington Post.

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

This is not an argument there is no hatred, no inappropriate and even violent rhetoric, among US leftists. There is.

This is evidence that, although violent rhetoric exists among US leftists, it is not remotely on the same scale, and, more importantly, not an institutionally endorsed tactic, as it is among US rightwingers.

This is a fact. It is not debatable.

And there is observably precious little integrity among conservatives in addressing this fact, in the wake of the attempted assassination of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Palin takes the absolute cake for audaciously asserting that her rifle sight imagery was really “a surveyor’s symbol,” and not even having the decency to sheepishly acquiesce that, even if that were true (and not evident bullshit), it’s understandable how a reasonable person could look at her “surveyor’s symbol” alongside the word “target” and get the wrong, ahem, idea. No, it’s all just a wall of total denial in the Palin camp, when she’s not whining about being a victim herself of people who have the temerity to actually hold her accountable for her carelessly casual violent rhetoric. It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt. And then it’s deny and play the martyr.

But it’s not like Palin’s ideological allies are covering themselves in glory, either. There’s no call for accountability, no call for reflection, not among conservatives. Just the usual game of deflection and projection, as they desperately try to find a way to make this liberals’ fault.

Bill Kristol took to the airwaves this morning to call criticism of Palin “a disgrace” and accuse liberals of “McCarthyism.” Commentators on Fox News, meanwhile, blame President Obama for not changing the tone in Washington, like he promised. Which would be hilarious, were that redirection of blame not a key part of conservatives’ strategy to dodge responsibility for the eliminationist rhetoric that certainly contributed to the tragic events of this weekend.

When, a few months ago, there was a spate of widely-publicized suicides of bullied teens, we had, briefly, a national conversation about the dangers of bullying. But in the wake of an ideologically-motivated assassination attempt of a sitting member of Congress, we aren’t having a national conversation about the dangers of violent rhetoric—because the conversation about bullying children was started by adults, and there are seemingly no responsible grown-ups to be found among conservatives anymore.

Faced with the overwhelming evidence of the violent rhetoric absolutely permeating the discourse emanating from their side of the aisle, conservatives adopt the approach of a petulant child—deny, obfuscate, and lash out defensively.

And engage in the most breathtaking disingenuous hypocrisy: Conservatives, who vociferously argue against the language and legislation of social justice, on the basis that it all “normalizes” marginalized people and their lives and cultures (it does!), are suddenly nothing but blinking, wide-eyed naïveté when it comes to their own violent rhetoric.

They have a great grasp of cultural anthropology when they want to complain about progressive ideas, inclusion, diversity, and equality. But when it comes to being accountable for their own ideas, their anthropological prowess magically disappears.

Only progressives “infect” the culture, but conservative hate speech exists in a void.

That’s what we’re meant to believe, anyway. But we know it is not true. This culture, this habit, of eliminationist rhetoric is not happening in a vacuum. It’s happening in a culture of widely-available guns (thanks to conservative policies), of underfunded and unavailable medical care, especially mental health care (thanks to conservative policies), of a widespread belief that government is the enemy of the people (thanks to conservative rhetoric), and of millions of increasingly desperate people (thanks to an economy totally fucked by conservative governance).

The shooting in Tucson was not an anomaly. It was an inevitability.

And as long as we continue to play this foolish game of “both sides are just as bad,” and rely on trusty old ablism to dismiss Jared Lee Loughner as a crackpot—dutifully ignoring that people with mental illness are more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators; carefully pretending that the existence of people with mental illness who are potentially dangerous somehow absolves us of responsibility for violent rhetoric, as opposed to serving to underline precisely why it’s irresponsible—it will be inevitable again.

Let’s get this straight: This shit doesn’t happen in a void. It happens in a culture rife with violent political rhetoric, and it’s time for conservatives to pull up their goddamn bootstraps and get to work doing the hard business of self-reflection.

This is one problem the invisible hand of the market can’t fix for them—unless, perhaps, it’s holding a mirror.

Playlist: Republican | Tea-Party Racism

[ More Playlists Here ]

About The Author(s): Melissa McEwan — is the founder and manager of the award-winning political and cultural group blog Shakesville, which she launched as Shakespeare’s Sister in October 2004 because George Bush was pissing her off. In addition to running Shakesville, she also contributes to The Guardian’s Comment is Free America and AlterNet. Melissa graduated from Loyola University Chicago with degrees in Sociology and Cultural Anthropology, with an emphasis on the political marginalization of gender-based groups. An active feminist and LGBTQI advocate, she has worked as a concept development and brand consultant and now writes full-time. She lives just outside Chicago with three cats, one dog, and a Scotsman, with whom she shares a love of all things geekdom, from Lord of the Rings to Lost. When she’s not blogging, she can usually be found at her piano or dancing like no one is watching to a Smiths’ tune.

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   Roberto Dr. Cintli Rodriguez
Republicans, who continue to be rejected by the U.S. electorate at the polls, have decided that the party of Lincoln needs an extreme makeover. Yet Republicans seem to think that the GOP simply needs to change its image, as opposed to fundamentally changing the party itself.

Some Republicans believe that the GOP must broaden its tent, and change its mantra of “Guns, Gays and God.” Others seem to think the party should strengthen its conservative base, and that the new message should include: “Go home!”

Enter the National Council for a New America (NCNA), a series of town hall meetings launched on May 2 in a suburb of Washington, D.C. Its primary objective seems to be to determine what direction the party should take — and to question those in the party who would like to see it become a European-style anti-immigrant party. Leading the effort of this council are Jeb Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Eric Cantor.

This council appears to be cognizant that a shift in that ultra-nationalistic direction has the potential to change not simply the GOP’s narrative, but the national narrative itself.

They are up against the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Lou Dobbs, Dick Cheney and other extreme right-wing forces who fear that the nation — not simply the GOP — is in danger of losing its national narrative, the myths and legends that have been part of the national psyche and character since its founding.

Arguably, the more conservative wing of the American political spectrum is correct: the old America they cling to no longer exists. And yet, the narrative that the more moderate council longs for — one that views America as the beacon of the world, as the land of truth, freedom and liberty and justice for all — is also a myth.

That narrative has always downplayed genocide, land theft and removal, slavery, segregation and legalized discrimination. Nowadays, it downplays border walls, racial profiling and an ever-expanding racialized prison system. The narrative has also downplayed the notion of empire and militarism, instead converting these imperial projects with the notion of a God-given right to “civilize” or dominate the world. This is the idea of Manifest Destiny. It is what drove our recent president, George W. Bush in his war against the Arab and Islamic world; he was on a mission from God. This is why U.S. and international laws were easily ignored or discarded; he was answering to a higher authority.

In this sense, both wings of the Republican Party are similar; both want to promote great American mythologies. Ingrained into the national psyche is that this is a “nation of immigrants.” With the browning of America, some within the GOP rightly fear that a Dobbs-immigration obsessed nation — which clamors for 2,000 miles of militarized walls along the U.S.-Mexico border — will drive moderates away from the Republican Party. This is where the struggle over image takes place, though it is difficult to discern a difference. The Dobbs wing is brazenly anti-immigrant, though it is always insistent that they are only anti-illegal immigrant — not anti-immigrant.

Yet Romney’s views are very similar to Dobbs. Even McCain, always touted as a moderate on immigration, buckled under extreme right-wing pressure during his 2008 presidential bid.

Whether they are conservative or moderate, Republicans seem to agree that the United States has the inherent right to wage war on the world. The only difference is that some believe that this right comes directly from God, whereas the others believe it is simply a cultural or even genetic right — due to American exceptionalism.

The real question is whether Democrats present different views on this topic. Some observers are quick to note that on the issue of the national narrative, there is little or no difference between the parties. These same observers are quick to note that President Barack Obama is but the latest steward for the military-imperial interests that control the nation.

While it is true that change does not occur overnight, there is little doubt that whoever is at the helm does make a difference. Yet, we know that positive change generally comes from the bottom. Whether one president can change the national narrative is another matter.

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Recommended Reading: Republicans on Immigration: The War Within – The claim of some Republican apologists that the party is “against illegal immigration, but for legal immigration” does not accurately represent the whole party. There are at least four identifiable factions within the GOP. They are, in the order of permissiveness to immigration — [ READ MORE ]
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The relentlessly harsh Republican campaign against immigrants has always hidden a streak of racialist extremism. Now after several high-water years, the Republican tide has gone out, leaving exposed the nativism of fringe right-wingers clinging to what they hope will be a wedge issue.

Last week at the National Press Club in Washington, a group seeking to speak for the future of the Republican Party declared that its November defeats in Congressional races stemmed not from having been too hard on foreigners, but too soft.

The group, the American Cause, released a report arguing that anti-immigration absolutism was still the solution for the party’s deep electoral woes, actual voting results notwithstanding. Rather than “pander to pro-amnesty Hispanics and swing voters,” as President Bush and Karl Rove once tried to do, the report’s author, Marcus Epstein, urged Republicans to double down on their efforts to run on schemes to seal the border and drive immigrants out.

This is nonsense, of course. For years Americans have rejected the cruelty of enforcement-only regimes and Latino-bashing, in opinion surveys and at the polls. In House and Senate races in 2008 and 2006, “anti-amnesty” hard-liners consistently lost to candidates who proposed comprehensive reform solutions. The wedge did not work for single-issue xenophobes like Lou Barletta, the mayor of Hazleton, Pa., or the former Arizona Congressman J. D. Hayworth. Nor did it help any of the Republican presidential candidates trying to defeat the party’s best-known voice of immigration moderation, John McCain, for the nomination.

Americans want immigration solved, and they realize that mass deportations will not do that. When you add the unprecedented engagement of growing numbers of Latino voters in 2008, it becomes clear that the nativist path is the path to permanent political irrelevance. Unless you can find a way to get rid of all the Latinos.

What was perhaps more notable than the report itself was the team that delivered it. It included Bay Buchanan, former adviser to Representative Tom Tancredo and sister of Pat, who founded the American Cause and wrote “State of Emergency: The Third World Invasion and Conquest of America.” She was joined by James Pinkerton, an essayist and Fox News contributor who, as an aide to the first President Bush, took credit for the racist Willie Horton ads run against Michael Dukakis.

So far, so foul. But even more telling was the presence of Peter Brimelow, a former Forbes editor and founder of Vdare.com, an extremist anti-immigration Web site. It is named for Virginia Dare, the first white baby born in the English colonies, which tells you most of what you need to know. The site is worth a visit. There you can read Mr. Brimelow’s and Mr. Buchanan’s musings about racial dilution and the perils facing white people, and gems like this from Mr. Epstein:

“Diversity can be good in moderation – if what is being brought in is desirable. Most Americans don’t mind a little ethnic food, some Asian math whizzes, or a few Mariachi dancers – as long as these trends do not overwhelm the dominant culture.”

It is easy to mock white-supremacist views as pathetic and to assume that nativism in the age of Obama is on the way out. The country has, of course, made considerable progress since the days of Know-Nothings and the Klan. But racism has a nasty habit of never going away, no matter how much we may want it to, and thus the perpetual need for vigilance.

It is all around us. Much was made of the Republican mailing of the parody song “Barack the Magic Negro,” but the same notorious CD included “The Star Spanglish Banner,” a puerile bit of Latino-baiting. It is easily found on YouTube. Google the words “Bill O’Reilly” and “white, Christian male power structure” for another YouTube taste of the Fox News host assailing the immigration views of “the far left” (including The Times) as racially traitorous.

White-Supremacists on TV — Sanctioned Immigrant Hate-Mongering on Cable

And it takes only a cursory look at a worsening economic climate and grim national mood to realize that history is always threatening to repeat itself. Last week on Long Island, the authorities in Suffolk County unsealed new indictments against a group of teenage boys accused in a murderous attack against an Ecuadorean immigrant, Marcelo Lucero. Since that crime last year, many more victims have come forward with stories of assaults in or near the same town, Patchogue. The police in that suburb seem to have made a habit of ignoring a long and escalating trail of attacks against immigrant men, until the hatred rose up and spilled over one night, fatally. | Originally posted in NYTimes.com |

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I keep my TV on CNN all the time; I’m surprised the CNN logo hasn’t been permanently etched on my screen. I’m a political news junkie, and when I’m not watching CNN or MSNBC I’m reading the online news sites.

   McCain and Palin [ Enlarge ]
But even I was surprised when John McCain selected a virtual unknown, Sarah Palin, as his vice-presidential running mate. Like millions of other Americans I googled Palin to find out everything I could about her.

The most shocking and disturbing fact that I learned is that Palin is totally unqualified to be one heartbeat away from assuming the mantle of leader of the free world. The sum total of her political experience is one and half years as governor of Alaska, and six years as a part-time mayor of a small town outside Anchorage. Her resume qualifies her to work in a Moose petting zoo, but it falls far short as preparation to be the president of the United States.

Not only is Palin unqualified, she also far to the right of most Americans. Palin is vehemently anti-choice, opposing abortion even in the case of rape or incest. The former beauty queen supported the anti-Semitic, anti-immigration Pat Buchanan for president in 2000. The governor from Alaska is an evangelical Christian who believes that creationism should be taught in public schools. Unlike most Americans, Palin doesn’t believe that humans are responsible for global warming.

Palin is unqualified and unvetted, McCain met her only twice before offering her the vice-presidency. A Burger King applicant undergoes a more rigorous vetting process before he’s offered a position flipping burgers.

Palin is unqualified, unvetted and under an ethical cloud, lawmakers in her home state are investigating whether she abused her power in firing a public safety commissioner.

Palin’s stump speeches since McCain named her as his Veep have done nothing to ease my worries. Her high-pitched delivery will drive even her most ardent supporters nuts over the next two months. This is not a sexist jibe, I have also criticized Obama for his tentative delivery in debates. For someone who is frequently lauded as eloquent, Obama has a habit of saying “you know” or “ah” almost every other sentence.

In her first three appearances Palin has delivered the same speech with only slight variations. This indicates a person who can’t think on her feet; she relies on memory more than smarts. I do give her props for removing any mention of Hillary Clinton from her stump speech, after she was booed for giving her credit for cracking the glass ceiling.

Sarah Palin is Patrick Buchanan in a beehive and high heels; and I tremble at the thought that one day she may be president of the United States.

John McCain has irrevocably stained his reputation with this desperate act of political expedience. To appeal to Hillary’s disaffected voters and to appease the right wing of his party, McCain has put the security and safety of America at grave risk.

I’m hoping that Americans will punish John McCain for his reckless act by voting for Obama/Biden in November.

REFERENCES:

1. 8 Reasons Sarah Palin is More Qualified than Barack Obama

In an effort to revive the anti-immigration wave that seemed to crest with Republican Tom Tancredo’s failed presidential primary bid, right-wing bigots are vigourously buying ad space — placing the blame for traffic and sprawl, population growth, and sundry, on immigrants.

The ads go on to blame overpopulation for overcrowded schools and emergency rooms, deteriorating public infrastructure and high property taxes, and then points to a Pew study projecting 82 percent of population growth through 2050 will result from immigration. It ends with the tagline “300 million people today, 600 million tomorrow. Think about it.” The 600 million figure is a projection from census data of the U.S. population in the year 2100….[MORE >>]

What next?

Maybe they will blame the high gas prices and their inability to get erections on immigrants too!

These imbeciles are like a virus — spreading and infecting everything in their path.

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References:

1. CNN’s Lou Dobbs – The Minister of ‘Propaganda and Enlightenment’
2. The two faces of the anti-immigrant bigots in the Republican Party
3. Immigrant Hatred Kills: The Real Problem — Ileto Murdered For Taking ‘American’ Jobs
4. On Tom Tancredo: | Congressman Tom Tancredo addresses hate group | Congressman Tom Tancredo – (Republican, Colorado) calls Miami a ‘Third World country’ |
5. Immigration Articles Within — PoliticalArticles.NET –> | Part 1 | Part 2 |

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