The Point Is Still The Plan

Amanda Marcotte starts connecting the dots with both skill and aplomb:

In the wake of the second act of domestic terrorism in two weeks, the questions about whether or not the constant spew of lies and haterade from the right wing media is a public menace are increasing. (This will immediately be treated by right wingers as a call for government censorship, even though it is not, but obviously, they have trouble telling the difference between being criticized and being forced at gunpoint, which is relevant to this discussion.) I would also point to the right wing blogs penchant for getting people fired for irritating them as an example of how the attitudes they’re inculcating, especially now that the Republicans are out of power, encourage violence. While wingnuts will squeal like babies about censorship for merely being criticized, they actually are always on the lookout to silence political opponents by force. Murder is illegal, but depriving people of their livelihood or privacy is an effective way to send the signal that they will not tolerate criticism or opposition and will silence you by force, if necessary.

Thus the outing of Publius by Ed Whelan is another example. Whelen didn’t just out him, but linked to his contact page at his place of employment, and certainly to any of us who’ve seen this song and dance before, there’s no doubt that Whelan was hoping to inspire his readers to realize---as lone wolves, of course, who he certainly didn’t encourage---that they could start irritating Publius’s boss, with the hope that he’d project that irritation onto Publius and separate him from his employment. Again, I doubt that’ll happen, but it’s certainly the hope.

If there’s any doubt that the right is inculcating a tribal identity politics coupled with a strong self-assurance that they have every right to use force to silence opposition, consider this: Operation Rescue is trying to buy Dr. Tiller’s clinic. I hope this announcement causes the authorities to take the possibility of conspiracy seriously, because while Operation Rescue claims that they had nothing to do with the assassination, what they’re doing is making Dr. Tiller’s clinic a trophy, which shows that a) they totally see this as warfare and b) despite their cowardly denials of responsibility, they’re basically claiming responsibility.

When the use of force to silence your critics is mainstreamed in your movement, and the cowardly move of picking on vulnerable individuals is lauded because hurting someone, anyone just feels so right---well, it isn’t shocking that some people take the “let’s hurt someone” and “let’s shut them up with force” attitudes to the level of actual violence.

Or in other words, The Plan.

Part of The Plan (Destroy. Obama.) involves the lengths people will go in order to execute the plan. The truly dangerous end of this spectrum, the Von Brunns and the Scott Roeders, these are the people who have decided that Obama represents an existential threat to their way of life. They have decided that there is no action too radical in order to defend it, up to and including murder.

Is this an indictment of the conservative movement or all Republicans? No, not any more than Rev. Jeremiah Wright represents all African-Americans or Bill Ayers represents all liberals. I happen to think true conservatism has many valid points, especially from an economic standpoint.

But there's only so much shit you can shovel before you get covered in it yourself. When all you do is throw it, enable the throwing of it, then brutally attack anyone who dares to call you on it, you have a problem. When you singularly blame everyone BUT yourself for the problems you percieve having, when entire groups of people are nothing more than scapegoats and "the enemy" and at the top of this pyramid of deranged hatred is the President, you have serious problems.

I have said time and time again when people on a daily basis use their media channels to ask "Who will rid me of this troublesome liberal" and you blame these people to the point of openly calling them enemies of America and enemies of humanity, then you no longer can claim surprise and outrage when somebody like Scott Roeder or James Von Brunn decides to act on these impulses with deadly physical violence.

If you juggle lit blowtorches in a fireworks factory, disaster will eventually happen.

[UPDATE] Sara Robinson documents the atrocities since Obama's inauguration.