The barely veiled threat of violence sometimes not veiled at all
In a piece calling for a more civil dialogue on health-care reform, my colleague Jim Galloway posted a photograph taken at this weekend’s rally at Centennial Olympic Park opposing President Obama’s health-care reform plan.
Let me point your attention to the man literally if not figuratively to the far left, the man holding a neatly printed sign that reads:
“THIS TIME WE DID NOT BRING OUR GUNS”
This time?
It’s hard to misinterpret the message that sign is intended to communicate.
I would argue that it is a threat intended to terrorize. It is an effort to use the spectre of violence to frighten people into accepting an outcome that they would otherwise not accept.
It is attempted intimidation. It is an acknowledgment that, lacking the intellectual firepower and ammunition to carry the day, the person in question is prepared to try to settle the issue using the kind of firepower and ammunition that any idiot can purchase at a local gunshop.
It also reflects a growing mindset among some that the government just isn’t listening and thus must be made to listen, one way or the other. There’s a fundamental childishness to that attitude, a notion that equates listening to agreement. The person in question is not prepared to accept the idea that having listened to him, a majority of his fellow Americans might decide that he is wrong. So he reserves the right to try to impose his view at the point of a gun.
The sad part is, the guy probably sees himself as a defender of freedom and democracy.
(At Talking Points Memo, Rachel Slajda has compiled reports from around the country of people taking it another step farther by bringing actual firearms to political events. Outside an event today in Phoenix at which President Obama appeared, two men were seen carrying AR-15 assault rifles. )
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536 comments Add your comment
md
August 17th, 2009
4:23 pm
Kind of like the black panthers wielding nightsticks outside voting booths in Philly. They come in all stripes and one side is just as bad as the other.
Mrs. Godzilla
August 17th, 2009
4:24 pm
“This time we did not bring our guns”
….there’s your sign
that the Feds will be watching you…..
and with just cause.
getalife
August 17th, 2009
4:25 pm
Yeah, a network news anchor called them ignorant:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/08/14/katie-couric-denounces-fe_n_260190.html
Redneck Convert (R--and proud of it)
August 17th, 2009
4:26 pm
Well, I sure am glad Bookman didn’t see me standing to the far right out of that picture with my anti-tank weapon and the two machine guns I carry for hunting and self-defense. He might could of had a stroke. Bookman’s got no sense of humor. That sign is just a good old boy having a little fun.
AmVet
August 17th, 2009
4:28 pm
Mark my words, one of these dickhead “conservatives” is gonna shoot up a helluva bunch (more) people soon.
The “base’ has finally morphed into what it was always meant to be – an irrational, undereducated, virulently impotent but enraged, ragtag amalgam of societal misfits, would-be Klanners/Aryan Nation/skinhead types and the flat earth bible thumpers.
You’re doing a heckuva job, connies…
Davo
August 17th, 2009
4:30 pm
“When the people fear their government, there is tyranny; when the government fears the people, there is liberty.” Thomas Jefferson
Get used to it or move to Canada, cowards.
md
August 17th, 2009
4:31 pm
“The “base’ has finally morphed into what it was always meant to be – an irrational, undereducated, virulently impotent but enraged, ragtag amalgam of societal misfits, would-be Klanners/Aryan Nation/skinhead types and the flat earth bible thumpers.”
Did you just describe the rioting out in CA? Naw, them were liberals.
Mrs. Godzilla
August 17th, 2009
4:31 pm
I understand that the feds held a guy with a sign about President Obama and the family…..(not gonna post the words, not feeling like being moderated)….
I’m with AmVet. Somebody stupid is going to do something stupid…..
Jay
August 17th, 2009
4:33 pm
Cowards hide behind guns, Davo.
Jefferson
August 17th, 2009
4:33 pm
4 dead in Ohio.
George American
August 17th, 2009
4:35 pm
WE’LL FORTUNATELY THIS REAL AMERICAN RECOGNIZES HIS CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT TO CARRY HIS GUNS AND EVERYONE AROUND HIM WAS SAFER FOR IT!!!!
JOURNALISM PUTTING DOWN THIS MAN’S 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS IS PURE-T COMMUNISM!!!
Jefferson
August 17th, 2009
4:36 pm
Only two reasons to have a weapon (other than hunting) — fear and anger.
ty webb
August 17th, 2009
4:37 pm
UPDATE: One of the 2 men with rifles in Arizona was black.
Please take that into account when the comments soon turn to race, and how it’s only about how angry white conservatives can’t accept the fact that we have a black President.
I Report/ Vast White Wing Conspirator :-) You Whine :-(
August 17th, 2009
4:38 pm
Only a stupid and highly ignorant person would do that.
But also, only a stupid and highly ignorant “news” paper would print glamorous photos of left wing protestors burning and rioting like the AJC has many, many times.
Violence is violence.
(And who says this isn’t some pinko trying to smear the non violent protest?)
Brad Steel
August 17th, 2009
4:38 pm
When is one of these wingnuts going to blow his stack, quit yelling and start shooting?
Where will will the AM radio guys skulk to then?
Aren’t these angry bitter geezers suppose to move to Florida?
Davo
August 17th, 2009
4:39 pm
‘Cowards hide behind guns, Davo.’
And you hide behind the govt Bookman; I won’t risk your censure to inform you of what that makes you.
CatherineAtlanta
August 17th, 2009
4:39 pm
Thanks for pointing that out. When I saw that photo earlier it gave me pause. And folks complain about Congressman Johnson had metal detectors at his Town Hall meeting…
AmVet
August 17th, 2009
4:41 pm
Laugh away, md, it’s all a big joke.
And certainly no need to take these psychotic scumbags seriously, is there?
Even after one of the Hannity, O’Reilly, Limbaugh reading (i.e. TRUE) conservatives like Jim Adkisson does his deadly deeds.
Just more empty rhetoric and lip service from his liberal-hating cousins, who again will say next to nothing after the next massacre of innocents…
Jay
August 17th, 2009
4:42 pm
I’m hiding from no one, behind no one, Davo.
You, on the other hand, are safely cloaked in anonymity.
David Hume
August 17th, 2009
4:45 pm
George is a bit off his rocker isn’t he? Does the Brady Bill still require a background check for homicidal mental illness?
Taxpayer
August 17th, 2009
4:48 pm
Well, Jay, I’m just glad to see that these cowards at least have enough courage to show their faces these days. It’s so much more refreshing. They have their guns and their ammo. Let’s see if the Limbaughs and Hannity’s, et al, can push ‘em over the edge and put an end to this latest uprising of fringe madness. I liken them to Stephen King’s, “IT”. IT is something that seems to get resurrected every so often and IT feeds for a while until IT gets put down, again.
N-GA
August 17th, 2009
4:51 pm
I suspect these gun-toting individuals are just begging for the government to investigate them (wants & warrants, back taxes, etc.).
Taxpayer
August 17th, 2009
4:58 pm
md
August 17th, 2009
4:23 pm
Kind of like the black panthers wielding nightsticks outside voting booths in Philly. They come in all stripes and one side is just as bad as the other.
Always the joker. The class clown. The “Independent” that seems to have a bias when it comes to recollection of past events. You’re Riiiiiiight, aren’t you. Far Right. Into fringe territory.
@@
August 17th, 2009
4:58 pm
Lawd ah mercy, jay! Did you just call our troops cowards?
Jay
August 17th, 2009
5:00 pm
And the cops too, @@. You forgot them somehow.
thomas
August 17th, 2009
5:01 pm
Jay you seem testy today………
I would contend though that you hide behind conservatives (republicans).
You have spent the last week or so telling us all how the ignorant and ill-informed republicans are the reason that health care reform may fail.
But correct me if I am wrong in this but….. is it not true that your side the democrats have the votes in office but they are not pulling the trigger.
Why is there such a difference in the amount of article you post about these evil democrats holding up health care reform, and those who admittedly are against single payer reform?
Sounds like you ARE indeed hiding behinf the BIG, BAD MADE UP BOOGIE MAN.
thomas
August 17th, 2009
5:05 pm
If a person has a carry permit, what is exactly wrong with them having guns at town halls? 2nd Amendment anyone?
RealityKing
August 17th, 2009
5:05 pm
Meanwhile.., back in Obamaville where Barack sees the green grass a sprouting.
DOW -186.06 -2.00%
9,135.34
Foreclosures rising
Layoffs rising
Consumer spending plumneting
RealityKing
August 17th, 2009
5:06 pm
Can you say double dip recession??
@@
August 17th, 2009
5:06 pm
DANG, jay!!!! Now you’re calling our law enforcement officers cowards?
I did forget about them.
Good thing you were close by to remind us all that law enforcement is among your list of cowards.
Weird, jay….REALLY!
Jay
August 17th, 2009
5:07 pm
I knew it was just an oversight on your part, @@.
RW-(the original)
August 17th, 2009
5:07 pm
“THIS TIME WE DID NOT BRING OUR GUNS”
Well now there’s a sign no fool should be walking around downtown Atlanta with.
Midori
August 17th, 2009
5:08 pm
so THAT’S what Wyld Byll looks like….
Taxpayer
August 17th, 2009
5:11 pm
And the cops too, @@. You forgot them somehow.
Ouch! That had to sting.
Taxpayer
August 17th, 2009
5:13 pm
thomas
August 17th, 2009
5:05 pm
If a person has a carry permit, what is exactly wrong with them having guns at town halls? 2nd Amendment anyone?
As I recall, our Georgia congressmen and women decided not to allow the gun toters under the gold dome. I wonder why they would impose restrictions.
@@
August 17th, 2009
5:13 pm
Well, jay, think what you will about me.
I’ll give you a chance to clarify your comment. Lawd only knows, Obama has set an excellent example for you to follow. He has to clarify his clarifications.
Go ahead, jay…
I’m a patient soul.
Jay "Numbnuts" Bookwoman
August 17th, 2009
5:15 pm
Jay, do you think that guy is a liberal, conservative or a lunatic? What’s your opinion?
JayBee
August 17th, 2009
5:16 pm
Jay’s right, folks.
But President Obama has an answer for the problem and the folks creating it.
Andy Borowitz just filed a report on Obama’s promise to those folks today, The report is brief and in easy-to-understand words. It’s posted at http://www.borowitzreport.com/
@@
August 17th, 2009
5:20 pm
While I’m waiting, I’ll share the story about my neighbor’s trip to David Scott’s town hall. He comes over to the house with a stick (for his poster). I say “Whoooaaaaa (insert name here) what’cha doin’ with that stick?” He replies “I might have to knock some sense into a brainless liberal.”
“But it’s got a point”, I said.
He laughs that contagious laugh of his and replies…..”and your point is?”
“I don’t have one! You do!”
No harm no foul.
WelfarefortheRich
August 17th, 2009
5:21 pm
I’m glad I started going to the range…If the hateful, white, uneduated Georgians wants their 1776 and Civil War all over again…I’m sure the other Americans are ready….The Confederate was lost and it will be lost again….
Pogo
August 17th, 2009
5:22 pm
That’s right Jay. Try to marginalize the people that don’t walk goose-step with you and Obama and your liberal progressive agenda by pointing out something that could be construed as threatening but obviously is not. This sign looks metaphorical to those not so inclined to find the conservative devil hiding behind every corner (unlike yourself). If it makes you feel better to try to make those people against Obama & Co.’s socialist idiocy as being a threat to civility, so be it. The bottom line is, the majority of this country does not believe like you and there is nothing that you and your bottom feeding progressive “journalist” class can do about it. We live in one world. You and your Never Never land liberal buddies live in another. Keep this up, and you will soon go the way of Tucker as in, you will be coined irrelavent. You have lost every last ounce of objectivity that you may have had (though you had very little in the first place). What conservative monster did you wrong in the past Jay? Someone must have because you seem not to be able to get over it. Your inflexibility to anything but your liberal/socialist idealogy is going to be your undoing. Let’s face it, we all want what’s best for our country. But the greatest single thing about America is that when we, the low down working class see cow pie, we call it cow pie. At least the majority of the country does. Obama better slide to the middle soon or he is toast. He better tell the real president, Rham Emanuel, that they can’t afford, politically, to bulldoze their Harvard learned liberal idealogies down America’s throat. Harvard don’t pay our bills for us Jay.
RW-(the original)
August 17th, 2009
5:22 pm
Dang! I was going to report this subversive article to flag@whitehouse.gov but the snitch box has been closed down. It seems their little data mining trick didn’t go over to well with all the recipients of unsolicited spammail from the White House.
md
August 17th, 2009
5:24 pm
“Laugh away, md, it’s all a big joke.”
No amvet, its not a joke. But it is a joke when it is not applied evenly, which you didn’t do.
Jay "Numbnuts" Bookwoman
August 17th, 2009
5:27 pm
You guys have been duped. Nice try Jay, but that photo has been altered. I guess Jay was upset about the recent developments with the Health Scare Bill. Very low Jay, very low.
md
August 17th, 2009
5:27 pm
“The “Independent” that seems to have a bias when it comes to recollection of past events. You’re Riiiiiiight, aren’t you. Far Right. Into fringe territory.”
Its called balance Taxum, something Jay neglects to do when presenting only one side of a story. I wouldn’t have to point out the obvious if you and yours actually had an open mind instead of a partisan mind. I see that both are wrong, where as you seem to think there is a difference.
Taxpayer
August 17th, 2009
5:28 pm
No amvet, its not a joke. But it is a joke when it is not applied evenly, which you didn’t do
Says the first to commenton the thread… wait for it… wait… unevenly.
Gred Mendel
August 17th, 2009
5:31 pm
You can have their brains when you pry them from Rush’s fat, sweaty hands.
DoggoneGA
August 17th, 2009
5:31 pm
Maybe it’s just me, but I found the sign above it FAR scarier.
Taxpayer
August 17th, 2009
5:32 pm
md,
do you post under a different moniker on Wooten’s blog. I was looking for some of that “even” stuff that you claim to provide all of us uneven folk with and since there’s none of it here, I thought I would look for it over there.
md
August 17th, 2009
5:34 pm
“No amvet, its not a joke. But it is a joke when it is not applied evenly, which you didn’t do
Says the first to commenton the thread… wait for it… wait… unevenly.”
No Taxum, Jay was the first to comment.