A few ironic stories in the news:
In Arizona, Republican Gary Kiehne decided that a primary debate was the right place to blurt out that “99 percent of (mass shootings) have been by Democrats pulling their guns out and shooting people.” Two days later he backtracked and said that he shouldn’t have made the remarks without any reservations.
In New Hampshire, police commissioner Bob Copeland loudly called Obama “that fucking nigger” in a restaurant and complained about having to see him on TV. He then refused to apologize, saying:
While I believe the problems associated with minorities in this country are momentous, I am not phobic. My use of derogatory slang in reference to those among them undeserving of respect is no secret. It is the exercise of my 1st Amendment rights… I believe I did use the “N” word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse [sic]. For this I do not apologize – he meets and exceeds my criteria for such.
After Republicans Mitt Romney (who has a vacation home nearby) and Senate candidate Scott Brown sharply criticized Copeland, he finally resigned. Still no word on any apology.
And finally, conservative activist Larry Klayman is calling for a pre-emptive “second American Revolution” in order to prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president. Klayman believes open insurrection is called for, despite the fact that Clinton hasn’t even announced that she is running, and the election is over two years away. He also compared Clinton unfavorably to Richard Nixon, saying she “would make Nixon look like a saint” and that “whatever his shortcomings, Tricky Dick at least was not a traitor”.
4 Comments
I sent Copeland your post about “nine years of Obama”. Like my step-father who famously said “Black people shouldn’t go to college” Copeland won’t change.
The striking thing about the Copeland story is that he actually resigned! If he’d lived south of the Mason-Dixon, rather than in New England, he’d still be on the job — and lauded for speaking out.
As for Klayman, he’s just one of the numerous right-wing instigators of armed insurrection whose mass-media coverage started with Rep. Michelle Bachman in 2009. The wingnuts are infatuated with the notion of a violent uprising and are just looking for an excuse — it’s a lot like the government shutdown that way.
The First Amendment has limits. For myself, I would like to see the line drawn somewhere west of calls for violent overthrow of our government.
I wonder — is there a remote possibility that the 1960’s radical left has morphed into the radical right of today? I realize that the meeting place of radical left/right is a circle rather than a plane, but I can’t help but wonder. Hope I haven’t stepped on any toes out there!
Patricia, my intuition is that the radical right of today is mostly made up of people who were left out of the upheavals of the sixties.
There’s a certain tone-deaf cluelessness, a sort of longing for “my turn in the spotlight” feel to it that makes me suspect these were the young people who had American-flag stickers and “America — Love It or Leave It” stickers on their cars back in the day.