Eric Cantor,
“I do not condone violence, There are no leaders in the building,
no rank and file members that condone violence, period.”
Eric Cantor, March 2010,
Responding to a spate of violent acts after passage of the health care bill.
This included broken windows at campaign offices,
threatening phone calls and faxes,
and a severed gas line at the home of a lawmaker’s brother.
Here’s a portion of his latest performance, while speaking to a gaggle of reporters Wednesday about the TP’s September 2009 Washington, DC rally against “Obamacare”:
“. . . you [reporters] didn’t hear — and some of the reports were inaccurate — you didn’t hear most of them [Tea Party protesters] encouraging any type of violent behavior. . .”
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But Cantor’s correct, “most” of the TPs do not overtly encourage violence, but just short of “most” is “many.” Here’s just a few examples (click on each for larger pic). All of these were seen at the D.C. “Obamacare” rally Cantor referenced above:
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Unfortunately, I recall the ’60s, the 70s. Our anti-Vietnam war protests were often laced with violence. The signs and posters were just plain scarily provocative. We felt obligated to push the envelope, so disgusted were we all with our country’s leadership. And it wasn’t simply the war. Remember the spate of assassinations, the widespread riots in Detroit (still, this day, recovering), D.C., and Los Angeles. The Kent State killings, the Yippies, the Symbionese Liberation Army, and on and on, all were endemic at the time. We marched with extreme purpose, often to provoke mayhem. We ignited easily.
So, I’m hard pressed to criticize any group for encouraging force in service of a strongly and widely held belief that their government no longer works. Tea Partiers feel so alienated and frustrated perhaps it’s a reason to excuse the signs and posters, the verbal assaults. But, just as the rightwingers among us deride the (imagined) violent behavior of the Occupy Wall Streeters, labelling them violent anarchists, unlawful vagabonds, and potentially riotous bums, we too need to more forcefully and loudly label the Tea Party’s quick resort to threats of violence, in their signage, their subtext, and their personalities.
Why do so many of us let them get away with it?
