Opinion Forum

When Will They Learn?

March 25th, 2010

I have been waiting since the inception of the Tea Party for the day when it would become a target for a smear campaign. Now the left has launched a full-blown attack complete with charges of death threats and racism.

Let’s start with the death threats. Because the Tea Party movement is dominated mostly by middle-aged and senior citizens who are white, the left has tagged the movement as racist. Their claims, of course, are aimed at casting the group in a bad light. On the day of the Democratic celebration for the health care bill passage, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and her followers paraded in front of several thousand anti-health care protesters. Somewhere along the way someone supposedly assaulted one of the house members.

Although there just happened to be a video camera running, the supposed incident was kind of murky from what I’ve viewed. Of course, I’m 70 years old and so are my eyes, so maybe I’m missing it. Rumor is that the culprit was a fat old white geezer in a white sweatshirt. To make it worse, there must have been 5,000 fat old white guys in white sweatshirts. Well, anyway, the Secret Service, the U.S. Marshals Service, and Capitol Police are now on the look-out for the old dude.

To make matters even worse and maybe hint at a conspiracy, the Tea Party old geezer and Sarah Palin are being linked in a plot to do harm to our illustrious lawmakers. Using a very descriptive phrase, Sarah Palin’s Facebook web page said if we, the citizens, disagreed with the health care bill we should “target” those lawmakers who helped pass the bill and vote against them in November. She even went so far as to have a map that marked the home states of these lawmakers. The marking used was a circle with a dot in the center. That, along with a statement that urged the people to regroup and reload and go after the said law makers come election time. The Democrats and the Huffington Post claim that the message is encouraging people to target the lawmakers in a harmful way.

I guess all this depends on what side you’re backing. I’m not totally convinced that the fat old geezer even exists. The video proves nothing because the one I’ve seen offers no evidence to support the accusation. Would the left stage such an incident? Of course, if they thought they’d get away with it. By now they would already have a name and confession. No, the Tea Party movement is still new, the number of followers still pretty much unknown. Better not to wake this sleeping dog.

Instead why not weave a fake web to make it appear that the forces of Palin and a Tea Party member are in the midst of committing a hate crime? Start by having House Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Representative James Clyburn call a press conference announcing the need for protection of certain lawmakers. Hoyer used phrases like violation of rights and other phrases that sound an awful lot like a hate-crime description. The interview was carried by MSNBC, of course. I’m not sure if it was shown on regular non-cable television.

The chickens are coming home to roost. After the smoke clears, many lawmakers are going to find that their Washington careers are over. Much like the little boy who cried wolf, the lawmakers in the House are losing any trust the voters may have had in them. These politicians created the fix they now find themselves in.

Articles written by Larry Ennis
Tags: Democrats, demonstration, health care, Hoyer, Palin, Pelosi, Tea Party
Categories: News, Politics | Comments (4) | Home

4 Responses to “When Will They Learn?”

Tom | March 25th, 2010 at 9:31 am

I can’t find the word “target” on Palin’s Facebook page or SarahPac page. I also didn’t find “regroup” and “reload.” (Maybe I missed them — can you provide a source?) However, the words “aim” and “salvo” are used. Sounds like you’re trying to make Palin seem more goofy than she already is. Or are you trying to overstate the case against her in order to make her critics seem less reasonable?

There’s no question that the symbols on the map graphic are targets — circles with cross-hairs. Surely you can see that. The use of symbols like that aren’t unusual in politics, to be sure, but in today’s environment it’s probably not wise to use them so prominently.

By the way, I saw Hoyer’s comments on CNN and they’ve been covered all over the media.

Brianna | March 25th, 2010 at 9:43 am

Tom, she’s talking about voting them out of office. Surely you can see that.

I’m not modifying my language for the “intentions” police, and if Sarah Palin has any sense, she won’t do it, either.

Tom | March 25th, 2010 at 10:25 am

I agree that she’s talking about voting them out of office. That’s clear, and it’s certainly legitimate political speech. However, Larry seems to paint her words and meaning as being more extreme than they really are, and I’m not sure why he did it.

I don’t advocate people modifying their speech to satisfy the “intentions” police of either side. However, I do think that people should exercise some self-restraint in the current highly-charged environment, but how or if they do that is entirely up to them — that’s what freedom of speech is all about.

Of course, that freedom doesn’t extend to inciting violence. That’s not part of the Tea Party movement, and I think Palin and her people were being a bit insensitive to the symbolism of those target symbols.

larry | March 25th, 2010 at 10:52 am

I was trying to present the matter in a way that would not get me called an extremist or a dumb redneck. After reading the Huffington Post and seeing the Hoyer and Clyburn thing, I decide to just use the rhetoric of the Democrats and the liberal left to illustrate my point. Kind of extreme to say the least.
My opinion is that the people who voted to help create this debacle should have to suffer just like the rest of us. Let them spend some time worrying about who has their back.