And I find this disturbing.

[vvalkyri]

WashPost: Lawmakers concerned as health-care overhaul foes resort to violence. [Edit: More in depth NYTimes]Death threats, bricks through windows, and a cut gas line at one congressman's brother's house. And the article doesn't even mention some of the other protestor behavior. [edit: Salon on this as related to refusal to accept electoral

Comments

[_blackjack_]

this Spectator article

The gall of invoking MLK (who was deeply critical of capitalism but whose primary problem with communism was its atheism) in the name of opposing universal health care is...well, not all that surprising, given the climate. I'll see if I can find if he said anything specifically on health care, but I highly suspect he was in favor of healing the sick for free. You know, like that Jesus dude.

Well, that answers that question:

[_blackjack_]

“Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.” --MLK

[kmusser]

Salon has a nice summary article on this too http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2010/03/25/threats_democrats_healthcare/index.html

[vvalkyri]

Good article. I'll add it to the main.

One of the things it brought to mind was the suicide attack on the IRS office - as only one employee died that day it hadn't sounded nearly so serious as it was -- a little bit ago one of my friends excerpted an article about just /why/ almost everyone survived, and that had little to do with the attacker's tactics and everything to do with a lot of training in evacuation procedure: Have you wondered how so many people safely escaped last month's plane crash at Internal Revenue Service offices in Texas

[selki]

Holy wow. I had not heard about how close it came to killing so many more, or the heroism of those who helped.

[hradzka]

I'm beginning to think we're entering a new phase of politics, where violence and threats of violence are becoming more and more accepted among the hotheads. There was some of this kind of thing in 2004, directed at Republicans, and in addition to the items mentioned at the link the local Republican party chairman in my town was actually assaulted by an irate Democrat who came in from off the street to clock him in the jaw. (Lefty students long have used disruption and potential or actual riots to keep speakers they don't like from talking; we'll know we're in for a brutal slog of this kind of stuff when righty students are doing the same thing.)

Mob action has a long tradition in American politics -- Lincoln supporters at one of the Lincoln/Douglas debates smeared Douglas's carriage with excrement -- but it's been on a low ebb for many years. Looks like intemperance is back.

[vvalkyri]

I think the Internet and Personalities are more of a factor this time, though. See the Salon article that kmusser responded with. Basically what's disturbing is the implication that this is acceptable.

[cz_unit]

I wonder how the Klan is doing these days. Hm.

C

[shadeofnight]

As a side note... The web site for an-open-letter-to-conservative is currently down from traffic. I had to go to Google and look at the cache of it.

It is also letters like that, that will flame the anger and riots. You can write that same letter about any political party, and it does not help. Name calling and bashing just generates hate, and I think the conservatives are a bit "better" at the hate game than the liberals when it comes to violence.

I guess we finally found an issue that will fuel the fire of people, and get people mobilized (for good or evil, voting, or violence), since the civil rights and anti-war protests for Vietnam.

This is one of the first times I know I have felt betrayed by my own country, and if I feel that way (and I am a rather peaceful, and open minded person), I would hate to think how the more narrow minded and more conservative people out there would feel.

[pokeyburro]

I saw that "letter". More red meat for liberals. Hard to say it's irresponsible, though - both sides have drunk heavily of that tactic for over a decade now; it's expected.