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Posted: March 24, 2010 06:42 PM

Roy Sekoff: The Right Has Decided To Double Down On The Crazy (VIDEO)

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HuffPost editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Wednesday evening to talk about the Republican Party's political tactics.

Rather than learning from their defeat on health care reform and course-correcting, Sekoff argued that the GOP has doubled down on the crazy--and their divisive strategy. "I mean we saw from the very beginning, their playbook on health care has been two things. It's been fear-mongering and untruths. And this attack on Representative Dingell is the perfect blend of both of these things. It's this crazy fear-mongering that they want to take over your health care, they want to take over your government. It's the socialism... they have not learned the lesson of their defeat and course corrected. Instead, they're going all in."

Asked whether Democrats have anything to gain by appearing on Fox News, Sekoff said that he hates to think of guests preaching to their respective choirs, but that some of the imagery used by the right has crossed the line and hurt political debate. "I wouldn't want to have this kind of thing where we just go to our corners and don't come out fighting. I think it's a good exercise to really exchange ideas and be open to them, But not this kind of crazy bomb throwing, you know with imagery of Nancy Pelosi standing in front of a fire, and this gun imagery."

Sekoff told Schultz that he believes Obama learned from the Massachusetts Senate race and dropped his "obsession" with bipartisanship. He thinks that eventually the Republican Party will be revealed for what they are, "a party of no ideas, no solutions, at a time when we need them most."

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HuffPost editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Wednesday evening to talk about the Republican Party's political tactics. Rather than learning from their defeat on health care reform and course...
HuffPost editor Roy Sekoff appeared on "The Ed Show" Wednesday evening to talk about the Republican Party's political tactics. Rather than learning from their defeat on health care reform and course...
 
 
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
jemiltd
Writer,author,thinker,creative
05:27 PM on 03/25/2010
Terrorism is the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, esp. for political purposes. 2. the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization. When it walks,quacks, looks like a duck, you can be pretty certain it is a duck. The media and the authorities just don't want to call it what it is, even thought Sanchez on CNN did utter the words domestic terrorism.

There is no excuse for such behavior and to believe one can bully/coerce the citizens of this country into believing what you believe is a myth.
04:34 PM on 03/25/2010
The problem for the GOP is what they are now left with. The insurance companies, pharma companies, and other rich fat cats on Wall St., accomplished what they wanted; they ramped up a core of Americans who usually pay more attention to voting for American Idol than they do voting for their elected representatives, and who will soon figure out that what they railed against are the things that will help them most. And as they were doing it, the CEO’s, the Lobbyists and the politicians pulling the strings were laughing their asses off.

But now, it has vectored out of control. The insane ranting of Glenn Beck (just watch Jon Stewart of the Daily Show reveal the insanity), the extreme hyperbole of Limbaugh, and the serial lying of Fox News will not stop. And the Tea Party folks, so enraged and so indoctrinated by the pied pipers from Fox and the GOP, will not stand aside and move on
(READ FULL POST: http://dh1976.wordpress.com/2010/03/24/the-tea-party-more-like-the-taliban-by-the-day/)
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TN60
I Hope You'll Dance
01:00 PM on 03/25/2010
BTW....did anyone pick up on the fact that the 16,000 tickets for Obama's speech today are already gone......the capacity fill of the stadium.

Just like old times
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
zoemonster
12:54 PM on 03/25/2010
I just listened to a rightwing talk radio host condemn the acts of violence we've seen in response to the healthcare vote. Of course, then he (a Teabagger himself) assured his audience that the Tea Party is a peace loving group and said it was probabaly a bunch of lefties committing these acts in order to make the Right look bad. I'm not sure which is worse: the fact that some wacko will make such outlandish claims, or that people believe them. Either way, we lose.

So I stole a quote ("You lie") and attached the section from another HP story that came from the Charlotte paper and cites the comments of the VA Teabagger who posted the Congressman's (brother's) address, and sent it in an e-mail. I doubt the slimeball will respond. He's too stupid and detached to have a grasp on reality.
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12:15 PM on 03/25/2010
I'm sorry. I couldn't help thinking of this quote,
"You can't fix STUPID!"
12:03 PM on 03/25/2010
IMO, name calling and brick throwing are one thing. Cutting a gas line, goes far beyond vandalism. My son is a firefighter and has seen first hand what a gas leak is capable of. It can be deadly.

To threaten another's children, to issue death threats, to stand on the "beach" and encourage behavior such as they have, goes beyond anything I have ever seen. Yesterday, the teabagger from TX, on Dylan Rattigan, said he does not condone name calling. I expressly remember seeing him in Dallas holding a sign calling Obama a N....r . Earlier today, the Teabagger from Lynchburg said he doesn't condone violence, yet when responding to the mixup of addresses, he said "oh well, collateral damage". For a group so opposed to the unborn, they seem to have absolutely no regard for the living.

Is the MSM going to let the lies and distortions stand, or is it completely up to us?
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12:17 PM on 03/25/2010
Thank you for expressing a sentiment that many of us have. Yours needs to be repeated.
Again and again.
01:35 PM on 03/25/2010
Oops, "for a group so opposed to abortion" is what I meant to say. Does anyone really believe Cantor today in his press conference? Put up or shut up!
11:02 AM on 03/25/2010
Tea baggers using same tactics of a certain political party in germany in the nineteen thirdys
11:39 AM on 03/25/2010
Leftists using smear tactics against people who have differing opinions. It's what you guys do best. How do you manage to be outrageously outraged all the time?

What the "teabaggers" are doing are nothing like what happened in Germany in the thirdys or 1930's.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
treadway123
treadway123
12:28 PM on 03/25/2010
But they are createing the violence of the 60's during the viet nam rally's in the U.S! If they don't stop this now, an the Republican Politicians, an those like Sarah Palin,Beck, Rush an Hannity don't tone it down soon-------The tea Partiers an Crazy's will take it way beyond this! Did they not learn anything about our History? This is exactly what Palin did the minute she became V.P, is rilled up the crowd to anger,hate,racial undertones an& violence against one another. Do they want to start another civil war?
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1jdgriff
Logic Prevails
12:39 PM on 03/25/2010
You need to check your high school text books, unless you live in Texas, because the information & tactics used by the Bush administration were the same as were used by Germany in the 1930's. The Tea Party are also using the same anti-Semitic protests, threats, intimidation and violence tactics used by the "Brown Shirts" of the 1930's. History does repeat itself and you have a front row seat.
pharmmajor
proud Libertarian.
10:43 AM on 03/25/2010
Right now I wish that I could do what Jay and Silent Bob did; find the address of every Tea Party leader, go to their homes, and kick them in the b@lls when they open the door as punishment for their idiocy.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Blue Pup in PHX
Howdy from Hicksvillle
11:30 AM on 03/25/2010
I'm with you... I'm channel Eric Cartman these days...Roshambo mo fo!
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
softvoice
keep your eye on the prize
11:45 AM on 03/25/2010
I smell a rat in this comment. It is an attempt to make it appear as though the Democrats are also engaging in hateful and dangerous behaviour. We are not and will not. If this is an innocent comment, then surely the writer can see how counter-productive it is.
pharmmajor
proud Libertarian.
12:57 PM on 03/25/2010
I'm not a democrat or a republican. I'm a Libertarian. And I am sick of these Tea Party nuts causing a scene. So yes, I would like to kick some sense into them. It may not change their minds, but it will be cathartic.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cstmrsrvc
10:42 AM on 03/25/2010
again,,,,, more comments than actually watched the 28th cable network and these two fine journalists
10:33 AM on 03/25/2010
It is becoming increasingly obvious that the right in general is trying to organize the over throw of the US government. They are not even remotely "loyal", they are quite the opposite. Those from that crowd who post on this site make that glaringly obvious.
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HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
DimBulb2
10:24 AM on 03/25/2010
What happened to their concern about "criticizing the president during a time of w@r"?
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
softvoice
keep your eye on the prize
11:48 AM on 03/25/2010
Sadly, that only applies to Republican Presidents. When we have a Democrat in the White House, the GOP actually is very open about turning their backs on the country and they don't even care that their actions are making our country vulnerable to outside forces.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
returntocommonsense
Democracy is a verb - or at least it should be.
09:30 AM on 03/25/2010
When the Republican party decided to go down the road with Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, et al and allowed those lawmakers on the balcony with their flags and signs over the weekend, they ceased to have any credibility.

This started with the media - both sides constantly reporting on this "phenomenon." Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Bachmann and the rest just stoked it to fever pitch and we are now seeing the results. They claim to be "real Americans" who are going to "take back their country" and "stop government from shoving (fill in the blank) down their throats."

First of all "real Americans" (whatever that means - I always assumed that if you were born here or a naturalized citizen you were real American) do not back tyranny (the rule or the one or few doing as the see fit regardless of how it impacts the majority) nor do the back an oligarchy (rule of the few over the many) nor do they incite violence.

One of the things I have head over the years is how proud we are that our transfer of power was peaceful - I guess they don't believe in that either.
09:36 AM on 03/25/2010
Yeah, I fear what will happen when the Repubs don't win in the next round of elections. They really have no idea that their small, but loud base is not really the "will of the people".
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Horus45
Liberal Activist, anti-Fascist
01:40 PM on 03/25/2010
They are believing their own propaganda.
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11:27 AM on 03/25/2010
fanned.....these people have gone waaaay overboard. :(......the nerve to call someone's home and say horrible things, somebody needs to be arrested...
....it was "not" a minority's voice....sounded like southern good ole boyz.
09:01 AM on 03/25/2010
Correction, Roy. The right made no such 'decision'. The right is simply doing what comes naturally.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
TN60
I Hope You'll Dance
08:45 AM on 03/25/2010
They are not only doubling down on crazy, but are going "hog wild" backing these loons.

It's called treason and subversion, not free speech. It was brought into the mainstream by Palin from the campaign stump and her divide of the "Real America" and the love showered on her by the American Press.

She incited the hillbillies and those hillbillies have now formed a tea bag misfit subversive party who are Republicans.

It is stoked by bottom feeders of the Republican party, insane Beck, hate radio Limp-baugh, Republican lawmakers who have gone rabid and most of the militia "terrorists types" who have been hiding within this misguided tea party ignorants and hiding behind their skirts, and again shown love and attention by the American Press.

The MSM has sold their souls for a juicy story of hate and subversion. They should be made to pay.
11:24 AM on 03/25/2010
"have now formed a tea bag misfit subversive party"

CORRECTION: The tea bag movement is astroturf. It was promoted, nurtured and nursed by Faux News and that former Texas congressman turned lobbyist, (can't remember his damned name right now). This has never been anything more than the far right media and corporate bag men using naive, gullible and deluded citizens as puppets.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Osmona
Its GREAT to be alive and SANE.
11:43 AM on 03/25/2010
Dick Armey. That's the slime ball's name you are trying to remember. IMO, they are ALL dangerously nuts. Their "Queen Sarah" is the most dangerous of them ALL. She has called out the rallying cry and marching orders. I really believe these people are secretly planning a revolution. Some arrests HAVE to be made before someone gets injured or killed. That's the only thing that will put a damper on this crazyiness and show them nobody's playing with them.
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11:38 AM on 03/25/2010
Bravo...truer words, not spoken.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
RSKaz
Impact not ego.
08:39 AM on 03/25/2010
Not all Republics are fear-mongering crazies, but all fear-mongering crazies are Republics.
09:00 AM on 03/25/2010
I would conceed that argument.
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yourmotherwasahamster
Love many, trust few, always paddle your own canoe
09:11 AM on 03/25/2010
Libertarians are well-represented in Crazytown too