Democratic Party eliminationist rhetoric gone wild
The 2013 Democratic Party reflects Richard Hofstadter’s warning about the paranoid style of politics.
Laurel documented the other day the extreme language and demonization of Republicans coming from the highest levels of the Democratic Party, The new civility: Dems turn public debate into schoolyard taunts:
1. “Unhinged” Arsonists (Wasserman-Schultz)
2. Insane People Who “Have Lost their Minds” (Harry Reid)
3. “People with a Bomb Strapped to their Chest” (aka Terrorists)(Dan Pfeiffer)
4. Blatant Extortionists (Jay Carney)
5. “Legislative Arsonists” (Nancy Pelosi)
No longer is it just the deeper reaches of the left-blogosphere, it’s the ranking Democratic members of the House and Senate, and the White House, trying to paint Republicans as criminals.
The mainstream left media also has become unhinged, like Andrew Sullivan’s rant that the Elephant must be taken down for good:
This time, the elephant must go down. And if possible, it must be so wounded it does not get up for a long time to come.
But it’s qualitatively different when the extreme rhetoric comes from the most senior Democratic politicians and their spokesmen, not just “the base.”
Remember when the left used to accuse the right of eliminationist language? Of inciting violence (even though there never was any Tea Party violence)? Of practicing the Paranoid Style of politics?
Nowadays, it’s from the left, and not just any left, the mainstream of the Democratic Party on the floor of the House, accusing Republicans of practicing Jihad:
Dog whistles, anyone? Or maybe, drones?
Brit Hume has noted this as well.
OMG, Jay Carney speaks of "Republican demands to collapse the world economy." Politics ain't beanbag, but such outright mendacity is rare.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 2, 2013
It’s paying dividends, via The Hill:
Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) said Wednesday on the House floor that his district office in Texas was vandalized and blamed rising tensions over the government shutdown.
“It’s a shame that the level of discourse in our nation have come to this, that the office of my district office in Cleburne, Texas, would be the victim of hateful anti-Republican vandalism by anonymous individuals,” he said on the House floor.
“House Republicans have been called extortionists, terrorists, drunks, kidnappers, anarchists, and the list goes on,” he said. “I understand that this government shutdown has caused uncertainty and tension for hundreds of thousands of Americans, but this type of behavior cannot and will not be tolerated.
My Cleburne office was vandalized with anti-Republican hate speech last night. This behavior cannot be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/6HcThHg983
— Rep. Roger Williams (@RepRWilliams) October 2, 2013
The other day I noted that there was very little societal fabric left to tear because of the eliminationist rhetoric, and the breaches of congressional taboos by Harry Reid and others.
With each passing day the Democratic Party tears at what remains.
Pres Obama ended 32minute campaign style speech saying GOP doesn't get to demand a ransom to keep the Govt open & economy running.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) October 3, 2013
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Comments
george miller: “That’s Retarded Sir”
George Miller? Dee-Dee Jeantel said “It’s retarded, sir.” To Don West who was questioning her during Zimmerman’s trial.
This is all happening because there isn’t any compromise by republicans, that is, caving to any and all democrat demands.
The day republicans cave is the day the republican party will die.
Count down begins in 10, 9. 8….
No Republican statesman is capable of articulating the checks and balances system on which our country was founded, the fact that the House is doing exactly what it is permitted to do under the Constitution and for which it was elected by the people, and that the imperial president simply wants to be able to do everything he wants, when he wants, without opposition or even discussion? Of course, such a statesman would need a forum.
The House republicans, at least right now, are the only thing between our current position and totalitarianism.
“The House republicans, at least right now, are the only thing between our current position and totalitarianism.”
Frightening statement.
“. . . accusing Republicans of practicing Jihad,”
Of course the left, notably Democrat policy makers and lawmakers )i.e., people in a position to do something about it), are utterly silent when it comes to those who are practicing jihad for real and for keeps, Muslims.
Nor do they dare speak a truthful word about the ideology – Islam – that motivates murderous Muslims.
Didn’t Brennan tell him that jihad is a perfectly legitimate tenet of Islam and has nothing to do with violence? Isn’t it so, so wrong to insult Islam in that way? Confusing, isn’t it.
It’s like when Dems accuse Republicans of “homophobia,” but then try to slander a conservative with the insinuation that he’s … gay!
Here’s a sarcastic comment from a post at the Shark-Tank that explains why the Dems compare the GOP to the Taliban, jihad, etc.:
“Maybe we’re all just misunderstanding what the Dems mean. You know the way they like to use different meanings for words, meanings that don’t match up with a word’s ordinarily understood definition.
“So look at two headlines on shark-tank today:
http://shark-tank.net/2013/10/02/islam-honored-in-washington-with-americas-islamic-heritage-month/
http://shark-tank.net/2013/10/01/democratic-congressman-calls-gop-extremists-the-taliban/
“At first glance, these headlines appear to present quite a contrast. The first shows how much the left admires Islamists, but the second appears to condemn Islamists. But maybe, just maybe, comparing the GOP with the taliban is actually a compliment! You remember Orwell’s doublethink party slogans in his book “1984”: War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, and Ignorance Is Strength. Perhaps Dems today are just using a new doublethink slogan: Enemy Is Friend.
“I had no idea that America even had an Islamic Heritage Month. At first glance I would disapprove, but now that I recognize the doublethink method in action, I can see that honoring Islam is really honoring traditional American values of the kind that conservatives admire. So when the Dems say the GOP = Taliban, in their eyes that’s high praise indeed. We who find the comparison objectionable just don’t understand how to talk doublethink. I guess.
“That’s the only interpretation that could possibly make any sense.
Gay Patriot offers up another example of this paradoxical equivalence in terminology:
http://www.gaypatriot.net/2013/10/03/obama-goofs-compares-striking-workers-to-terrorists/
“If the GOP are behaving just like striking workers, according to Obama, and if the GOP are (in the very same behavior) also terrorists, then … striking workers are kind of like terrorists, aren’t they? ‘Thanks, Obama!’”
That phenomenon has always struck me as odd too. They’re all into LGBT rights, gay rights, free love, whatever. But then their ultimate insult is to call a conservative a ‘teabagger’
So which is it? Is that an acceptable practice, or not? Perhaps they’re just looking for a mouthful?
In either case I find it quite humorous to remind the proggies that every teabagger needs a teabaggee.
[…] Ms. Liasson should read Legal Insurrection’s post. It highlights the Democrats’ incendiary […]
Once you dehumanize your opponent, then any action, no matter how violent, is justified in the minds of many. This is what the Democrats are doing, at least on one level. It’s only going to get worse.
OMG, Jay Carney speaks of “Republican demands to collapse the world economy.” Politics ain’t beanbag, but such outright mendacity is rare.
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 2, 2013
Mr. Hume must have been asleep for several years.
Mendacity and hate-speech are the LINGUA FRANCA of the Obamabanana Republic.
Obama-Banana, that’s funny.
Now the democraps have something to go along with Jimmy’s peanuts.
Unfortunately, Brit, such outright mendacity is becoming much less rare. And it’s even worse than Carney’s atrocious comment.
The so-called president claims that Republicans want to collapse the whole economy for the sake of denying health care to millions of Americans. He actually claims they are using evil means to achieve deeply evil goals. And then he claims that he bends over backwards to work with Republicans and really, really tries to play nice ….
Never mind that it’s Obama-Reid-Pelosi & Co. who have already, in fact, stolen my health plan and left me with a couple of miserable options. They did it deliberately, purposefully, and they’re proud of it, and they absolutely refuse to reconsider in light of the manifest harm they’re causing.
If anybody has a right to accuse the opposition of deliberately hurting people, it isn’t the Democrats.
It also wasn’t the Republicans yesterday who tried to drive down U.S. financial markets by giving an interview and telling them they should be worried.
That was Dear Leader.
Just once, I’d like to see a “bitter clinger” Congress person (you KNOW they’re out there) step up in response to the Dems accusations and quote Scripture. Just once, and just one verse (really, a half-verse). John 8:7.
Any self-respecting person would instantly shut up with the rhetoric and inflammatory statements. However, these days I firmly believe that “self-respecting Democrat” is a contradiction-in-terms.
So, Obamacare is designed to support the world economy, to preserve the status quo, through a progressive fleecing of Americans. Speaking of fleecing, $2.6 trillion in receipts, over $1 trillion deficit, and it is still not enough change to pay for their promises. They may want to address the corruption they have sponsored through a progressive dissociation of risk, from the top down, and bottom up. They should address the devaluation of human life through normalization of abortion. I thought this was for the children. Greedy bastards.
Dismember it. Vacuum it. Flush it.
Remember, too, that Obama emphatically insisted that babies who survive abortion attempts should be left to die.
He told someone whose elderly mother was thriving and happy five years after getting a pacemaker that maybe she should have just been given a pain pill.
Obama and his allies hold an abstract view of justice and compassion in which actual human individuals have little worth.
Democrats calling people nasty names, in lieu of a more productive conversation, are nothing new.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copperhead_(politics)
And, they have persistent history of slander since then.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/05/25/ted_kennedys_anti_american_slander
So, they are once again reduced to sputtering name-calling. Why is that? Could it be that there is a big group of Democratic and Liberal voters like me, calling them on their nonsense? You know, those voters that changed the composition of the House of Representatives were not all consistent Republican voters.
Candidates! We need to keep the Republican seats we have, and flip some more in the Senate, and eventually, the White House. The Democratic Party needs a visit to the wilderness, so they can get rid of their nuts.
The only way the ‘elephant goes down’ is voluntarily. The stakes are high. We’re fundamentally experiencing the reverse of the circumstances leading up to the Civil War. Then, it was (largely) Republicans trying to set people free. Now it’s Democrats doing their best to force people into bondage.
That is a very profound yet true statement! I will never be placed on the plantation alive. Peace.
>>”Politics ain’t beanbag, but such outright mendacity is rare.”
— Brit Hume (@brithume) October 2, 2013
Brit Hume is a fu*king tassled-loafer elitist idiot. It isn’t rare, never has been rare and only someone with zero understanding of the Left could say it was rare. Prima facie it isn’t rare, just by looking at the last five years of Obama. For 20 years I sat in upper ecehlon leftist living rooms and heard this “eliminationist rhetoric.” If the argument is that it hadn’t gone mainstream before, i.e., wasn’t spoken by regular democrats, that’s not exactly correct either. Does anybody remember what was said about Bush, or even Reagan, by mainstream democrats? Bush deliberately lied to gratify his bloodlust. Reagan was deranged and was going to blow up the world. If Brit Hume had any connection to the real world beyond his chauffered Lexus and manicured home in Chevy Chase or wherever other enclave he lives he would have noted that this language is deeply embedded in modern “liberalism” and calling the Tea Party “terrorists” and “jihadists” is part of a natural bent and the only difference now is the promiscuity of it all.
According to the very credible Larry Grathwohl, Bill Ayers and his pals were seriously planning to eliminate many millions of Americans who resisted their Marxist revolution and wouldn’t be reeducated.
The people in power right now uniformly admire Bill Ayers and his ilk.
Right. It was part of a pamphlet called “Prairie Fire” as I recall.
You are correct, Raven. Zombie wrote an extensive and insightful post about this book in 2008:
http://www.zombietime.com/prairie_fire/
“After a long search, I was lucky enough to finally get my hands on a copy of the original edition of Prairie Fire, which is now extremely rare and hard to find. It was written in secret while Ayers and his fellow Weather Underground members were still in hiding and on the run, and still actively engaging in bombings and other violent acts.
“This essay features many high-resolution scans of quotes and entire pages taken directly from Prairie Fire, which journalists, bloggers and other media members are free to copy and re-post.
“If you’re interested only in viewing or downloading the scans taken from Prairie Fire, scroll down this page to see a large selection of shocking quotations which you can use as you see fit. My introductory explanation below simply provides context and elucidates why the text of Prairie Fire is so significant at this very moment in history.”
DO read the whole thing. These are the ideas of the man who has taken over the education of America’s children.
Thanks J Motes. I came across it when I was a kid.
Hi Raven:
My “DO read the whole thing” exhortation was directed at the whole world, which does visit Legal Insurrection all the time and, I am sure, is willing to follow instructions from me.
I didn’t mean to imply that you yourself might be unfamiliar with the work. That you were able to recall the title and message of the book and post it here is proof enough that you are extremely well informed. I enjoy reading your comments on this blog, and the “Likes” you keep earning always include one from me.
Thanks very much.
The interesting thing is, at the time I read this it was viewed by the Leftists around me as rather unremarkable.
Barry does more than admire the anti-American terrorist scum Bill Ayers and his criminal, anti-American terrorist wife Bernadine Dohrn. Obama launched his political career in Chicago at at a fundraiser held in Ayers’ living room. Ayers also babysat the Obama kids, got Obama a job running the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (despite Obama’s lack of any relevant executive experience), and “helped” Obama write his faux “autobiography” Dreams From My Father.
But in 2008, the MSM let Obama get away with distancing himself from his close friend and mentor Ayers by ludicrously claiming Ayers was “just some guy from the neighborhood” that the Obamas barely knew.
Keep it shut.
To me, it’s like they’ve taken the car keys away from a drunkard and my neighbor is safer because of it.
I perhaps might not feel that way if civil organizations had not been turned into ungovernable political attack dogs who are terrorizing people because of their beliefs.
The GOP sat down in the snow and should stay seated.
Being called a racist terrorist really does not qualify as an effective means of persuasion.
I don’t think the purpose of constantly referring to us as racists, arsonists, terrorists, jihadists, etc. is to persuade.
I think it is to DE-LEGITIMIZE our ideas, positions, and entire party. It takes effort to persuade. But using a few obnoxious terms to describe your opponent is easy.
Some voters are locked into a party or a governing ideology. But for those who are not, Democrats using the most obnoxious terms to refer to Republicans is an easy way to disqualify Republicans as a legitimate alternative. In other words, the voter doesn’t even have to be persuaded that whatever the Democrats are offering is good policy. By process of elimination, whatever the Democrats are offering MUST be better than what the arsonists, terrorists, racists, and jihadists of the Republican Party are offering.
Obviously, it doesn’t work with people like us who read this blog and are well informed. In fact, we see it for the absurdly hyperbolic rhetoric that it is. But I suspect the tactic does work with some portion of the low information crowd.
I’ve said a gazillion times that Democrats are brilliant at manipulating emotions without regard to facts, data, reason and logic. The tactic to “de-legitimization” Republicans is yet another example of how they do it.
Orwell “1984” quotes seem fitting.
Revisionist history and hate are strong with those that don’t dare turn on FOX or read conservative blogs. And now, knowing that all messages are recorded, and the IRS will attack tea party “infidels”, it is easier to stay safely silent with the government mob in control.
Here’s another good one:
“It was always the women, and above all the young ones, who were the most bigoted adherents of the Party, the swallowers of slogans, the amateur spies and nosers-out of unorthodoxy.”
– George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four
could the race issue be at hand?
Pic Credit http://www.foxnews.com/
“The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means….p.29”
Guess who penned the above…
New tone,. Yeah, right.
PC police only enforce the “new tone rule” if you’re on (or is it IN?) the RIGHT.
Democrats are poopy heads. Democrats have cooties. Democrat mamas wear Army boots in the shower. Democrats are so ugly…. (how ugly are they?) ….you have to hang steaks around their necks to get dogs to play with them. They’re stupid and stuff.
The level of hate & bile from the Left has almost drained me of thinking there is any compromise for reasonable people. If the GOP is going to be blamed & punished for tearing it all down maybe we should just make sure we succeed at it.
Tom Coburn was whining about Ted Cruz to McConnell today, worried that things Cruz says might end up in campaign ads in 2014. ‘My God, man’, I thought, ‘they’re already calling you guys rapists and child murderers! Grow a pair – get behind Cruz!’
I think it says something fundamental about the GOP that they worry about such things despite a constant cacophony of ugly sobriquets and aspersions against the GOP. Do they honestly think the Dems will stop the demonization if they are nice to them? I like Coburn 90% of the time, but the 10% is damning.
You must remember this….
“When bureaucrats are threatened with irrelevance or face appearing unneeded, they respond by inflicting as much pain as possible,……
“…in hopes that they can prove they’re necessary and get their budgets increased.
And even worse, an administration trying to make a political point — as Obama’s is — has every incentive to make a shutdown felt as acutely as possible. So obviously, we need to cancel the Navy-Air Force game as quickly as possible, even if the event is a voluntary activity by students requiring no expenditure of taxpayer funds.
The barricading of the World War II Memorial has now become the most visible incident in this case — and to be clear, it’s not a “closing” because there’s no such thing as “closing an open-air stone memorial in the middle of the National Mall. People walk past and through this memorial unaccompanied at all hours of the day and night. (And really, if they’re going to close that, why aren’t they closing the entire National Mall?)
FROM
The Party of Government and Its Petty Agents Step Up Their Harassment of Citizens to Extract Money From Them
—Ace – Every profession is a conspiracy against the laity.
http://minx.cc/?post=343853
Obama: Imagine if workers could shut down a manufacturing plant just because they didn’t get what they want
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEHKBqlpYwM
The House should offer to kill the NLRB
That’s called a STRIKE.
Ignorant Alinsky-ites don’t even know what the results of a STRIKE are!
So… Trolling has gone mainstream at the top echelons of the Democrat party…
Makes them look to the public and all the world like unwashed occupy hippy goons.
What comes after this? Water balloons? Fist fights? Democrat lawmaker vandalizing cars? Burning down opponents houses?
It is so adolescent it is laughable.
Carry on moonbats… you would truly go postal if we succeed in forcing the House and Senate onto Obamacare.
Imagine the shrieks of Democrat Horror!!!
The most famous of all Hollywood Screams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdbYsoEasio
I seem to remember many of these same proggie shills crying about the ‘violent rhetoric’ coming from the right immediately after the Gabby Giffords shooting. Does this mean it’s ok to shoot people now?
The Democrats are making asses of themselves. Their mascot was appropriately chosen to reflect their character.
George Miller, thirty eight years in congress; THIRTY EIGHT! And on the education and workforce committee (who knew there was such a thing?) the entire time. So please, let’s not spoil it for the “gentleman from California;” he’s having his fifteen minutes.
Thought the government was shut down; why is congress still there? Talk about non-essential cost. Can’t we close the doors and bolt them shut? The “gentlemen” and “ladies” can all go back under their rocks.
With only half-hearted apologies to a very, very few, what a disgusting collection of low lifes.
I blame John Roberts for this. Had he the courage to make the right decision this would not be happening. This is all about the ACA and it simply should not be law.
Roberts, the small, small man, had what the law used to call the “last clear chance” to stop this. That legal doctrine put all responsibility for an accident on the last person who had a clear chance to stop it. That concept is not used much anymore, it having been replaced by “comparative fault.”
Wait till some (peaceful?)} lefty shows up with a cane and beats the crap out a congressperson, then you will know history is repeating itself.
You underestimate the amount of crap in a congressman.
Can’t fool me. I learned a long time ago that the marketplace rules.
Sure. Fads come in. But they go out. Just like the Hula Hoop.
The biggest mistake, here, is in the GOP’s “tactic” to claim it could stop a speeding train. With what? Bad breath? Superman’s cape?
Could they have screamed and yelled before October 1st? Sure. But Ted Cruz, who did a lot to inflate his ego. And, his recognition. Did nothing at all for anyone else.
What happens when ObamaCare flops?
The first party to come up with an alternate plan WINS.
The alternate plan goes back to basics. Removes ALL the UNCONSTITUTIONAL demands of ObamaCare. Plus, it’s increased taxation, raising a trillion dollars. And, also gutting Medicare of $600-billion. What will old people do? Some of them will go to Mexico. Where they can find elective surgeries and dental care. Involving nothing more than a short trip across the border. Into Tijuana, let’s say.
Dumb politicians aren’t worries because they get all the money from lobbyists.
But no one blames the lobbyists.
I don’t think most people are paying attention.
And, lots of people HATE their insurance carriers! And, all the rules that have fallen into place already. Where you can’t see the physician you want. And, half the things you need aren’t even covered.
Health Insurance has been going to hell in a hand basket for decades! No. ObamaCare doesn’t fix this. It’s just a tax. It raises $500-billion, while cutting $600-billion from Medicare.
Back in 1967, when Medicare passed, the “average” age of death was between 64 and 68 years of age. That’s why Medicare was set to kick in AFTER most of the old people died off.
Things have changed.
A few years ago it was suggested that raising the age of eligibility to 67 would help salvage Medicare. But then we had the real estate collapse, that took a hefty number of 401-K’s with it.
I found it so strange that Obama-Care would put into motion the “29-hour” week … Until I thought it meant that no new jobs were being created. Or are even “create-able” except for Federal “paper pushers.”
It could mean that for more than a generation, ahead, things like employment, housing, cars, vacations … will all remain pretty flat. And, people will make decisions that won’t make Obama-Care look like “free” health care at all. It will stifle research on the other hand, yes.
[…] Party reflects Richard Hofstadter’s warning about the paranoid style of politics,” William A. Jacobson writes at his Legal Insurrection […]
[…] Democratic Party eliminationist rhetoric gone wild (legalinsurrection.com) […]
[…] And the perpetually angry left derive one of their few pleasures from answering the call. […]
[…] we know he has accused his opponents of being on an “ideological crusade” and of being hostage takers and blackmailers who have “a gun held to the head of the American people,” while his top media adviser Dan […]
[…] we know he has accused his opponents of being on an “ideological crusade” and of being hostage takers and blackmailers who have “a gun held to the head of the American people,” while his top media adviser Dan […]
[…] we know he has accused his opponents of being on an “ideological crusade” and of being hostage takers and blackmailers who have “a gun held to the head of the American people,” while his top media adviser Dan […]
They’re just doing what corrupt people do. Fewer people are listening.