After a week of bricks through windows, spitting and racial epithets at lawmakers, and acts of vandalism, political violence continued to dominate the news Sunday morning political shows, with Doris Kearns Goodwin arguing on Meet the Press that "the tone of recent times really is troubling."
Meanwhile, a new post by Alabama Tea Partyer Mike Vandeboegh and leader of the "Sipsey Street Irregulars" is chilling:
This piddling vandalism, these four incidents of broken windows, has scared them to the core. They denounce it because they want to see no more of it.Whether the windows continue breaking is not up to me. But I think I can safely say we got their attention. And that makes the risk of the exercise worth it to me. Certainly it was a success. We merely pinged them and they screamed bloody murder.
So what's the next step after "merely pinging"?
Amid all of this, we should look to the lessons of America's past victims over demagogues. As I argue in a new Daily Beast post:
In these charged, uncertain times, we'd do well to recall the lessons of the post-Depression 1930s. This was when the Louisiana Senator and Governor Huey Long prowled the national stage, when the charismatic Detroit "radio priest" Father Coughlin assailed FDR's "communist" methods in favor of religiously-driven economic populism, and when the anti-Semitic reverend Gerald L.K. Smith agitated audiences across the country.America ultimately emerged stronger than we went in. We directly confronted demagogues like Long, educated ourselves about our constitutional traditions and lawfulness, and tailored reform around action, rather than rhetoric.
President Obama isn't exactly FDR, and Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin certainly aren't Huey Long and Father Coughlin, but the 1930s still hold powerful lessons for our leaders today, grappling with levels of political violence and turbulence unseen for decades. Check out the piece for more.
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- Blatant hate speakers like Savage and Limbaugh;
- The posslble connection between Hannity and extremist Hal Turner; and
- The abysmal record of Sarah Palin as Governor of Alaska.
Increase the pressure. November's not far away.
The GOP is no longer a political party. It's a mob. And they're enjoying it. And if (when?) one of their stoopid minions goes too far then the Republicans will blink their eyes and say "Whaaaat? What did we do?"
I don't know that they can be stopped now Mike. There are no reasonable people in the GOP anymore. Just Sarah Palin and her bullies.
Why do people like Beck, and Limbaugh say what they say? Because they believe it in their hearts? Hardly, it's because they make a whole lot of money doing it..
Who provides the money? Not the networks they work for................. it's the corporate sponsors that pay to advertise that support their programming. Even they pass that cost on to us consumers.
You want to change the status quo? Force yourself to watch their programs occasionally, just to see who sponsors them. Then write..............Write a letter to their sponsors customer relations department informing them of your objections, and intent to boycott their products, and encourage your friends to do the same. Follow through on your boycott. Hit them where it hurts, their wallets.
Moving your money works for more than just banks. If enough people do this, today's demagogues will be out of business.