President Clinton is concerned that Republican psycho-talk may instigate a reprise of the Oklahoma City bombing.
With the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing approaching, former President Bill Clinton on Thursday drew parallels between the antigovernment tone that preceded that devastating attack and the political tumult of today, saying government critics must be mindful that angry words can stir violent actions…
…Mr. Clinton pointed to remarks like those made Thursday by Representative Michele Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican, who when speaking at a Tea Party rally in Washington characterized the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “the gangster government.”
“They are not gangsters,” Mr. Clinton said. “They were elected. They are not doing anything they were not elected to do.”
Will Bachmann stop? You tell me:
By the time the dust settles on the 2010 contest for the 6th Congressional District of Minnesota, Republican Michele Bachmann may own nearly every fundraising record in Gopher State history for a U.S. Representative.
Just eight days after DFLer Tarryl Clark posted fundraising numbers which – at the time – smashed the previous Minnesota U.S. House record for the first quarter of an election year by 32 percent, Congresswoman Bachmann released her own Q1 2010 numbers that best Clark’s by a staggering 60 percent.
Bachmann announced on Thursday that she raised $810,000 from January through March of 2010 – $305,000 more than Clark’s $505,000 tally and $101,000 more than Clark and her DFL rival Maureen Reed ($204,000) combined.
Stoking terrorism pays. If anything happens, people like Michele Bachmann will have to wash the blood off their hands. Of course, they’ll never acknowledge the link between making outrageous statements about government tyranny and the people that might take those statements seriously enough to fight back.
they never take responsibility for anything they do. so, don’t count on it now.
Bachman’s just the carnival barker of the moment. There have been many others. There will be many more. She’s the Miss Cleo of the crack-smoking right.
I had no qualms about calling the Bush Administration, and Bush and Cheney personally Un-American, thugs, and murderers. They were. What they did was illegal and the justifications for their actions illegitimate. I never thought of my “angry words” as fanning the flames of violence against the government because I never implied that violence was a justified solution and because I didn’t address myself to people who believed that. If I were a public figure, I might have modified my language a little, but I don’t think I would have changed its substance.
The problem isn’t the right’s “angry words”. The problem is that their angry words arise from their refusal to concede that Democrats can have a legitimate claim to power. It’s also the case that the right includes violence as an option for correcting the situation in a way that isn’t generally true of the left.
I wouldn’t like to see the issue simplified as being about the “tone” of political discourse. Angry words are sometimes justified and sometimes not.
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Echo chamber of the Internet and radio talk shows …
(CNN Wolf Blitzer Situation Room) – Transcript of interview with Bill Clinton on Oklahoma Bombing
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
I just really want to know who’s funding Bachman & her rants
I am paranoid but the tea parties don’t worry me. I despise the FB lying I because of the crap that their paid agent provocateurs did to totally screw up the anti-war demonstrations in the late 60s.
They have a good record of getting people inside left, right and middle movements. It is the follow through that they are terrible at. “Rocky Ridge” “Waco”
They will keep the tea party under control. Their agents have already penetrated the movement.
The only real scary thing that can happen is if some trigger happy nitwit hits an armed tea party movement and kills some people.
There was pure rage in the anti-war movement when the National Guard gunned down 4 unarmed people at Kent State.
Although a lot of the details are different, Bachmann’s present joy ride reminds me of the career of Joe McCarthy. Somehow, I don’t think the end is going to be any prettier.
“making outrageous statements about government tyranny”
Hhhhhmmmm. In contrast to the previous president, who merely claimed a right to torture anyone he wanted to, the current president, a constitutional scholar, insists he can order the *death* of anyone, including American citizens.
He, like earlier presidents, claims a right to go to war whenever he pleases. He voted for the renewal of the patriot act as a senator and continues to consider it the president’s prerogative to detain citizens indefinitely without charges. He has escalated a bad war in Afghanistan into a worse one in Pakistan.
Forgive me if that all sounds to me a lot like government tyranny. No, he isn’t Stalin or anything, and I suppose many in the tea party are referring to something else when they say tyranny. But do you really believe his behavior does not warrant comment? Perhaps even criticism? Am I now responsible if someone reading my post gets mad and starts blowing shit up? Maybe to prevent that possibility the government needs to crack down on those who abuse their right (or is it privilege?) of free speech.
you’re missing a critical point. Michele Bachmann is the government, and you are not. Asking her to consider the potential implications of her spewing deluded lies about what the government is doing is not the same as having her arrested or coercing her into shutting up. I’m telling you that I may very well blame her tomorrow if something blows up. I’m telling you in advance. She’s an elected official, not a mere private citizen, and she’s the one going out to mass rallies and on the teevee and radio to stir up people’s anxiety. That’s different from you writing a blog post that may be critical of the government and argue that some of their foreign policies and legal theories of the War on Terror are things that we used to agree were illegal in this country. So long as what you’re writing is broadly accurate and at least somewhat fair, you aren’t inciting anyone to violence. You aren’t telling some dimwit that the government is going to place drones over its critics’ homes.
Booman,the biggest problem with Bachman and her ilk is their total lack of sincerity. They will happily turn the government’s tyranny on you or me or anyone if they were in power to do so. So when an opposition senator takes power and validates all the unconstitutional methods used by the previous governments, and in fact expands them, he is helping to create that government tyranny.
Which is precisely why the government is the problem and not who controls it. Its means of violence greatly exceeds that of the tea party or anyone else and they can make it seem ‘legitimate.’ If you have any doubt ask yourself who has killed more people? The private sector? Or the government?
Well said, Lysander. And I would add that Obama will not end the occupation or the U.S. controlling presence in Iraq. After his much-anticipated “full” non-withdrawal there will remain a significant U.S. military presence, as well as a controlling political and economic presence in Iraq. Remember that Obama has never suggested that under his presidency the imperial citadel on the Tigris, risibly called an “embassy” will not remain fully populated, fully functional, and fully isolated in every way from the day to day realities of the country*. The occupation of Iraq will go on, rebranded and with a lower profile intended to keep it under the radar as much as possible.