Ted Nugent’s violent remarks at the NRA’s annual paranoia-fest triggered (pun intended) a new round in the always-good-for-cable debate over extreme rhetoric in the political discourse. The episode showed—no surprise—that GOP presumptive presidential nominee Mitt Romney was unwilling to condemn an out-of-bounds Obama-hater when his campaign released a mealy-mouthed response to the uproar, ignoring Nugent’s specific comments and noting that “Mitt Romney believes everyone needs to be civil.” And Nugent’s threatening words were nothing new; in 2007, he held up two machine guns at a concert and told Obama to “suck on my machine gun,” adding, “Hillary, you might want to ride one of these into the sunset, you worthless bitch.” But his latest rant, in which he denounced Obama’s “vile, evil America-hating administration,” was part of a never-ending Republican/conservative crusade to portray the president as not a true American. And it’s an effort that Romney has played footsie with.
For years, conservatives have said (or implied) that Obama is not really one of us: He was born in Kenya, he’s a secret Muslim, he pals around with terrorists. They have also endeavored to attach this otherism to all Democrats. Ex-presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) accusedObama and his wife of holding “anti-American views” and called on the media to investigate Democratic members of Congress to determine if they were anti-American, too. Last week, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a tea party darling, declared that “there’s about 78 to 81 members of the Democratic Party that are members of the Communist Party.” After he was lambasted for uttering this absurd charge, he defiantly proclaimed that he did not regret his statement and reaffirmed his stance: “I’m not going to back down. I’m not going to be afraid about the fact that I called a spade a spade.” (House Speaker John Boehner said nothing about West’s derogatory and fact-free claim.)
Labeling anyone left of center a commie or traitor who hates America is a time-tested tradition of conservative politics that stretches back decades, from the Palmer Raids to the McCarthy era to Richard Nixon’s criminal administration to Ronald Reagan’s attempt to smear the anti-nuclear movement as a Moscow spin-off. Romney is too moderate (and too fearful of losing independent voters) to engage in DEFCON-1-level rhetorical nuking. But he has devised a way to speak to—and exploit—this sentiment without contracting cat-scratch fever.
“Obama the Apologizer” is not Romney’s only jab designed to depict the president as apart from the great American public. He repeatedly charges that Obama does not truly understand this nation or grasp that America is special. As if Obama were an outsider.
It was a little over a year ago when Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) proposed legislation that would have barred Planned Parenthood from receiving the federal funds needed to provide essential and lifesaving services to nearly three million women each year. It was a long, hard fought battle — Republicans in Congress even threatened to shut down the government over funding Planned Parenthood. Imagine that — shutting down the federal government to deny women health care. At the end of nearly three months, the legislation was defeated in the Senate on April 14, 2010. But we haven’t forgotten what happened.
SarahLee Adds:
The list includes Todd Akin (MO), Ann Marie Buerkle (NY), Joe Donnelly (IN), Sean Duffy (WI), Mike Fitzpatrick (PA), Steve King (IA), Mike Pence (IN), Denny Rehberg (MT), Marco Rubio (FL), and Allen West (FL). Last year they had their vote, but this November we will have ours.
At a campaign town hall event on Tuesday Allen West declared that he’s “heard” that up to 80 House Democrats are members of the Communist Party. Sarah Palin and Herman Cain have each suggested in recent days that West should be the Vice Presidential nominee on the 2012 Republican ticket.
Dude, what century are you in? Seriously. As if you aren’t nuts enough, you have to go channel this guy now.
Also: What does the word “sedition” mean to you?
Speaking to a Lincoln Day Dinner in West Palm Beach for the Palm Beach County GOP, Rep. Allen West (R-Fla) fired off a humdinger of a line that within minutes drew recriminations from Democrats on Twitter.
“We need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, (audience boos) and my dear friend the chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain’t on the table,” West said. “Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America.”
Following cheers, West added, “Yeah I said ‘hell.’”
Moments after the quote was mentioned on Twitter, former Reid spokesman Jim Manley responded via his own Twitter feed: “Me to allen west. You first asshole.”
And they say politics is getting more acrimonious.
…Tea Party firebrand Rep. Allen West (R-FL) rejected a payroll tax holiday completely on Fox Business last night, saying it has already been tried and that we should “cut this corporate tax rate” instead. Also on Fox Business, Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-GA) said he had a problem with the payroll tax holiday because it goes to “people who are already working.” But in the next breath, Gingrey called instead for a tax break for corporations who have kept money overseas.
[…]
A payroll tax holiday is clearly an idea that should appeal to Republicans, who claim that cutting taxes and regulations is the only path to economic prosperity. But as they have repeatedly demonstrated in their opposition to payroll tax holidays, it is only a certain type of tax cut they are really interested in — those for the wealthy and corporations, not the middle- and working-class Americans who are the primary beneficiaries of the payroll tax holiday.
This morning, Rep. Tom Price (R-GA), chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee, dismissed the payroll tax holiday as an act of “class warfare.” He seems to be proving himself correct.
Less than two months before the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, Congressman Allen West (R-FL) will sponsor a Capitol Hill briefing this coming July 25, on Homegrown Jihad in the USA: Culmination of the Muslim Brotherhood’s 50-year History of Infiltrating America. It will be the first-ever report of its kind produced entirely by a private group of U.S. citizens, notes West in a letter about it to his congressional colleagues.
Volunteer members of Citizens for National Security (CFNS), a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization based in Florida conducted the 14-month research that is the basis for the briefing. Its co-founders, Drs. William A. Saxton and Peter M. Leitner will present the report.
[…]
TASK FORCE 4. Identify “Islamic” businesses, social and religious organizations, schools, etc. throughout North America.
Note that’s not qualified as “extremist” or “terrorist” — just “Islamic,” with inexplicable scare quotes. Can this be described as anything other than outright bigotry?
Sounds like McCarthyism to me….
