re: #136 palomino

Hey, is it really fair to say that the Tea party is just a bunch of loons who justify the Tiller homicide? I’m sure there are a few insane people in the Tea party who feel that way, but there are loons in any huge organization of normal folks.

Sure, Erick’s shotgun comment really hurts his reputation (if he had one, I don’t follow him aside from his very censor happy website). But why should everyone be tarred with the few nuts? Doesn’t that make it too easy for both sides to try to promote the extremists on their opposite side?

We know that the IRS bomber had a huge problem with Republicans and I think it’s fair to say he liked communism as opposed to our present government. The only partisan among the recently arrested militia was a democrat. Of the 6 assassinated US Presidents, 5 were Republicans and the Democrat was killed by someone more liberal than he was. The left cheered a bit more than I’m comfortable with when someone threw an object at Bush, just as the nuts on the right would probably cheer if someone physically threw their shoe at President Obama. Over a thousand white Republicans were lynched by the Klan (which had identical leadership structure to the Democratic Party in at least two states in the south, as was basically just the part by another name). There were liberals with signs like “I support the troops when they shoot their officers!” and “Fuck ‘em!”

What is the relevance of all this extremism? Logically, there is no relevance. I could go all day long pointing out violence from Democrats or liberals, and you could go all day pointing out violence from Republicans and conservatives (such as the Tiller murder). Those people are awful and those things are awful. But when we start to pretend they comprise the entire movement we disagree with, we are making an obvious and lazy fallacy.

And worse, we’re encouraging the charlatans out there to promote and hype the sick stuff. Like those Black Congressmen who tried to say they were spat on and called the N word. It’s my opinion that they were trying to goad extremism so they could tarnish the legitimate, not extreme opposition to Health Care. They wouldn’t do that if we didn’t let that argument work.

There are legitimate arguments from left and right, and if we just condemn all the psychos together while realizing they are just insane, I think we all benefit greatly. I do not think it’s fair to say the comparably peaceful and pleasant Tea party protests (when compared to the similarly sized protests against Bush) are some kind of monster of violence related to the abortionist murder.

I am asking the folks here, many of whom do not see eye to eye with me, to respect me despite our differences. I’m a Tea partier, I oppose most of Obama’s policies, and I am not a violent person nor do I tolerate violence. I condemn it.