Things I don't understand #2364...

[denorios]

Can anyone explain to me why your average person can be arrested and convicted for spewing hate and inciting violence, but someone how politicians are immune?

And yes, Sarah Palin and the Tea Party, I'm looking at you. Not to mention the bloody BNP.

Comments

[spookycat4]

In America, no one is arrested for spewing hate. The only thing you can't say is "go kill someone" to someone who is likely to kill someone. The Tea Party is NOT a hate mongering organization. Primarily, the Tea Party is in favor of fiscal responsibility. Every act by someone with lunatic beliefs is connected by some in the media to the Tea Party, even though they may have no association with the Tea Party. The man in Arizona is mentally disturbed with beliefs that are contradictory to himself. For example, one of his complaints is that people don't speak English. But, another is that the government controls people through grammar.

Every political discourse in this country has been racheted up to extremism by people opposed to whatever person A thinks. On the left, anyone who is opposed to Obama's policies is racist and hates poor people. On the right, anyone who supports Obama's policies is a socialist looking for a handout who hates America. Neither side accepts that people can have honest disagreements with policies and not be stupid, heartless, or evil.

Both sides demonize the other side. People were offended by one congressman hollering out, "you lie" during the State of the Union address but thought the congressman who said Republicans wanted sick people to die quickly was just being honest. No one holds their own side accountable. Harry Reid spews vitriol about the right then demands civility from the right. Sean Hannity accuses the left of being intolerant and then turns around and states how stupid (paraphrasing) they are.

American politics needs more people like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill, who would oppose each other vigorously on policy, but were great friends. Sadly, there aren't very many today on either side who seem to be that big.

Kim