When I want to find out what rational (well, mostly rational) Oregon Republicans are thinking I go to Oregon Catalyst. When I want to have a laugh at the antics of the far-right lunatic fringe I go to NW Republican.
Lately, though, some of the posts there have been more scary than funny. Like the one by “zeo12” titled: “Here comes [sic] the Democratic election thefts.”
“In a year like this, almost all of the close races normally go to the party that is surging,” the post begins. “This year, it’s the Republicans, the good guys, who are surging strong, maybe stronger than any time in recent history. Therefore, if the Democrats win ANY of the races that are currently polling close, then Republicans have good cause to suspect voter/election fraud.”
“Zeo” then discusses some alleged Democratic shenanigans going on in the Nevada Senate race between incumbent Democrat Harry Reid and Tea Party darling Sharron Angle:
“It adds up to what looks like an attempt to steal a critical election from … Angle. Liberals by definition have no fixed principles, political or moral. They view their election as what is ‘good for the nation,’ therefore, in their minds, it doesn’t matter how they get power or hold onto it. The ends justify the means. However, if Angle, who is slightly ahead in the latest polling, ‘loses,’ then this country could be in for some real trouble.”
What is “zeo” hinting at when he talks about “some real trouble”? In case you can’t figure it out, “zeo” includes a quote from a source he/she doesn’t identify:
“The American social compact is based on the confidence that elections are honest and that we all agree to abide by the honest results. When the people suspect that they are denied the right to protest and redress by the ballot, they will quickly turn to other means.”
You might have a different interpretation, but the way I read it “zeo” is saying:
1. Since they are “surging,” if Republicans lose any close races in this election it almost certainly will be the result of fraud.
2. Therefore, if they do lose, Republicans are not obliged to abide by the results and will be justified in using “other means” to get their way.
Ever since last spring, the media – both the Faux Noise gang and the supposedly more legitimate ones – have been spinning the narrative that Republicans are going to win huge. People like “zeo” have become convinced there’s just no legitimate way that’s not going to happen. They’re also convinced that Democrats/liberals are The Living Embodiment of Evil (“by definition” having “no fixed principles, political or moral”) so if they win it probably will be by fraud.
We’ve already seen by their reaction to the election of Barack Obama that the Tea Party crowd doesn’t handle defeat well. How they’ll respond if they’re defeated in this election – or even if their victory doesn’t quite measure up to their inflated expectations – is unsettling to contemplate.
Okay, people who think like “zeo” probably are a minority, even within the Republican Party. (Anyway, I hope so.) But even one wacko with a grudge and an arsenal of weapons can do a hell of lot of damage.
Huffington Post blogger Mike Lux has posted a list of acts of politically inspired violence perpetrated by right-wingers since the election of Obama. “These are just the actual acts of violence,” he writes. “In the meantime, we have people coming to town hall meetings and presidential rallies with assault weapons, Republican Senate candidates talking openly of having to use ‘Second Amendment means’ in case regular politics doesn’t work, [and] Republican governors (both Rick Perry and Sarah Palin) meeting with secessionist groups with ties to racist leaders.”
I’ve got kind of a sick feeling that if this election doesn’t go the right-wingers’ way, we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
This article appears in Oct 28 – Nov 3, 2010.
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HBM: “We've already seen by their reaction to the election of Barack Obama that the Tea Party crowd doesn't handle defeat well.”
Um…Bruce, hate to break the news to you but the tea party wasn’t around during BO’s election to show one way or another how it handled defeat.
As for handling defeat, tell me who was assaulted or worse by a republican after Christine Gregoire “won” her last election. Why it was that the King county’s “list of registered voters who cast valid ballots in the election shows about 3,500 fewer people than the total number of votes certified in the race.”
Tell me how it was that in the recount of Norm Coleman’s election in MN that Al Franken overwhelmingly won the felon vote. Who rioted after that?
Tell me who it was that the right wingers killed, maimed, or assaulted when the New Black Panthers intimidated white and black voters in Philly with billysticks and then rioted after our attorney general would not pursue voter rights infractions when the perps were black.
Don’t give me any BS about Florida in 2000. Major media sanctioned recounts of Florida went for your buddy W. per PBS (which is no friend to Republicans; http://www.pbs.org/…/media_watch/jan-june01/recount_4-3.html). And Florida had nothing to do with cheating anyway, only about the idiots who were not able to figure out how a push pin ballot works.
Sorry HBM, but dems have the market cornered when it comes to election fraud and we Republicans don’t riot, rape, or pillage.
Fortunately, I believe the elections will be so overwhelmingly positive for conservatives that even if they wanted to, the left can’t cheat enough to make a difference without it being very obvious.
BTW, in Nevada, it’s the SIEU thug union that provides the “technical” assistance for the electronic ballot machines and for some strange reason, Harry Reid was recieving ALL the wrongful votes when the problems were reported. Imagine that.
Hey critic-
Watch much Glenn Beck, do ya? Try and keep up with the new crop of false attacks. Those are too old and too easily debunked. Don’t you know that you have to make up new lies daily, so that the fact checkers can’t keep up.
I think that when Bruce wrote “tea party crowd” he was referring to older, angry, white Republicans (a majority of Tea Party). Yes, they hadn’t taken that name yet, but we got to see how that crowd reacted to Obama’s election.
If you want to talk about right wingers and violence, it is only a google search away. I’ll help you…search “Tides foundation death threat” or “Woodburn Oregon bombing kills officers” or “Doctor Tiller murdered” or “Rand Paul head stomp.” I can continue if you like. While you are online, try another search for “Republican Caging voter suppression” and see what comes up.
Well Critic Critic, debunk those voter fraud instances I listed and be certain to cite the related ensuing violence perpetrated by republicans for each one. You need something better than MoveOn.org and the Huffington Post.
From HBM:”2. Therefore, if they do lose, Republicans are not obliged to abide by the results and will be justified in using “other means” to get their way.”
As I think about this, that is exactly how libs react when they lose an election. The “other means” usually involve trying to win in court what they can’t win at the ballot box.
Critic Critic: Thanks for saying it and saving me the trouble.
The Republican Party brand was so badly damaged by the disastrous Bush administration that it had to be re-branded and repackaged. The resulting “new movement” is called the Tea Party. It is really nothing other than the traditional radical right-wing Republican base, the 25%-30% of the population who applauded Clinton’s blowjob impeachment, still believes Saddam Hussein had WMDs hidden under his mattress and thinks Rush Limbaugh is The Veritable Voice of God (unless Glenn Beck has taken over that role).
HBM: “The Republican Party brand was so badly damaged by the disastrous Bush administration that it had to be re-branded and repackaged.”
Took less than two years. Took you dems 12 (’94 to ’06) and that’s only becasue the Republicans lost their way.
HBM, change your quote to the present tense and sub Democrat Party and Obama and you will have what will happen next Tuesday – the total rebuke of the liberal agenda hoisted on the American people by BO and his minions. This election is national in scope and represents the rejection of BO by rejecting his liberal lap dogs in both houses and at the state level too.
And its not just the tea partiers rejecting BO that is making the difference. There are not enough of them. It’s the independents who have discovered that the emperor has no clothes. That he can’t string together a cogent thought without TOTUS (Teleprompter Of The United States). And Dems think Bush was lacking upstairs. Give me a break.
Ah yes, the teleprompter — a device that NO Republican politician has ever, or would ever, use.
You need some new material, “critic” — your act is getting mighty old. “Give me a break” indeed.
Again, HBM you’re way off the point. The prompter is ubiquitous (that means everywhere, HBM) he goes UNLIKE all other past presidents.
The rare exception was when he was interviewed by Jon Stewart the other night and look at the results. What a joke. Rambling, incoherent. Unfortunately, the country (and Stewart) was laughing at him, not with him. “Hope and change ……… But” was the best he had? “Give me a break” indeed.
But as usual you don’t address the point made in the post regarding the wholesale abandonment of this president by those who put thim there. I guess we must be in agreement on that point.
“As I think about this, that is exactly how libs react when they lose an election. The “other means” usually involve trying to win in court what they can’t win at the ballot box.”
No, “critic,” it is not “exactly” like it or even close to it. Mounting a court challenge to laws that you believe are unconstitutional is a perfectly legitimate recourse in our political system. In fact, I seem to recall that quite a few Republicans are trying to strike down the health care reform law by doing just that.
Making veiled or not-so-veiled threats of violence — or actually committing violence — is another thing entirely.
You know, the biggest problem the wingnuts have is a complete inability to ever admit being wrong. Instead of saying that acts of violence and threats of violence are deplorable and have no place in our political discourse, they try to excuse or justify them. They seem to have forgotten, or never learned, the First Rule of Holes.
HBM: “Instead of saying that acts of violence and threats of violence are deplorable and have no place in our political discourse, they try to excuse or justify them.”
HBM: any political violence is deplorable and is denounced on both sides.
I recall the denouncing of the radical left’s deadly bombings by BO’s mentor, Bill Ayers. I recall the denouncing of the violence of the political left that injured scores of people in Chicago, where BO learned his politics and did his community agitating. I recall the denouncing of the violence and the thuggery of the political left involved with the Old and New Black Panthers, where recently BO refused to enforce the voting rights act when the vics were white and the perps were black. I recall the denunciation of the violence on our southern border by BO and the political left and then standby while the violence continued and then obstructed those actually doing something about it.
Yeah there’s alot of denunciation going around isn’t there.
Do you have to go back 45 years to find examples of left-wing violence? Bill Ayers, really? Do you know how lame that is?
As for “the violence of the political left that injured scores of people in Chicago,” I assume you are referring to the Chicago police riot* of 1968, hardly a case of violence by “the political left.” (BTW, in 1968 Barack Obama was 7 years old and living in Jakarta, Indonesia.)
*So described by the Walker Commission Report
The examples had as much to do regsrding the actual violence in which Bill Ayers actually killed people as with the Bill Ayers of today, mentor to BO, and the toast of the town for the liberal elite. He’s an icon, a hero to you all and has never regreted his actions. In fact he’s been quoted as saying that he wished he could have done more (bombings). He’s just as dangerous today but now he spews his liberal looniness at cocktail parties.
The reference to Chicago also has to do with the Chicago political left democrat machine that ran the city and ordered the violence against your comrades. It’s the same machine that taught BO the ins and outs of Chicago politics that are now on full display in Washington.
You didn’t comment on the other more current refernces because you can’t. No way can you explain away the New Black Panthers and the obstruction on the southern border by BO.