"A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand."
– Lucius Annaeus Seneca, aka Seneca the Younger
stoic philosopher, dramatist, statesman, and humorist
c. 4BC - 65AD.
"An armed society is a polite society. "
– Robert A. Heinlein
Dean of American Science Fiction Writers
1907 - 1988
"This country was founded by religious nuts with guns."
– P.J. O'Rourke
Cato Institute fellow, political satirist, journalist
b. 1947
On Thursday, June 10th, 2010, Charles Alan Wilson pled guilty to threatening the life of Washington Senator Patty Murray in federal court.
Wilson, who legally owned multiple firearms, and who had a carry permit for his weapons, had made repeated death threats to Murray, and had appeared at Tea Party protests of Murray over her vote in favor of the recent health care reform legislation. Wilson operated under many of the same instances of factual misinformation that have typified those Tea Party protests. He will be sentenced in October of this year.
And like recent GOP Senate Primary winner and Tea Party supported candidate Sharron Angle in Nevada, Wilson appears to have believed in what Angle coyly refers to as 'Second Amendment remedies', the justification for shooting politicians who vote in ways with which he disagreed.
Angle believes that the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the right to bear arms, exists to keep the federal government in check. Angle is tap dancing around actually calling for armed insurrection against our legitimately elected government, a government properly held to conformity with that very U. S. Constitution by the Supreme Court.
In a January interview with a conservative talk show host, Lars Larson, Angle stated, "Our Founding Fathers, they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason, and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. In fact, Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies."
Apparently, if Angle doesn't win her election contest against Harry Reid, she is willing to go for her guns. In other words, this woman insist on getting her way, and if she doesn't get it legitimately, she will go after it violently.
My conservative friends - and a few less conservative commenters here as well - took issue with my linking threats of violence to the Tea Party movement and other voices on the right. And yet, it is exactly this kind of language we see from Angle that persuaded an ordinary law abiding citizen like Charlie Wilson, not previously politically active, who legally owned weapons, when he threatened Senator Patty Murray and another Senator from Washington.
Angle told conservative talk show host Bill Manders in January of this year, "I'm hoping that we're not getting to Second Amendment remedies. I hope that the vote will be the cure for the Harry Reid problems."
And in May, Angle told the Reno newspaper, the Gazette-Journal, that "it's almost an imperative that conservatives win. The nation is arming. What are they arming for if it isn't that they are so distrustful of their government? They're afraid they'll have to fight for their liberty in more Second Amendment kinds of ways. That's why I look at this as almost an imperative. If we don't win at the ballot box, what will be the next step?"
Gee, Sharron, what WILL be that next step? Because an absolute core value of our country, our government, our way of life is that sometimes your political side wins, and sometimes you lose. When you lose, you lump it, you reorganize, you attempt to persuade an electoral majority; you do NOT reach for your guns.
To advocate resorting to arms if you lose, that is profoundly UN-American, and we are hearing it from the right more and more all the time. If you believe in going for the bullet box if you lose, Sharron Angle, resign now. You already do not believe in our Constitution, you have no business running for office; for you to take any oath of office, even to serve as lowly dog catcher, would be a travesty.
But the right is not responsible, not even a little, when someone believes that crap - someone like Charlie Wilson? Think again.
Now in a Scripps news article, Angle spokesperson, Jerry Stacy, says Angle is not "advocating for a revolution. We should all be worried, but again, she's not advocating or suggesting a revolution."
Then.....WHY should we be worried? Why does Angle work so very hard to emphasize armed and angry unsuccessful voters? Why does she leave it to a spokesperson to walk back her statements, but makes those same statements herself over and over, without clarifying for herself that she doesn't mean people should arm?
Angle is trying to have it both ways, and backs down from her statements any time she gets flak for them ----- and then makes them all over again, to her core supporters.
"Her rhetoric that if she doesn't win at the ballot box people should go to the bullet box undermines the Democratic process.", Harry Reid's spokesman, Jon Summers said, in response to Angle.
According to the Gazette-Journal, Angle PREFERS (my emphasis) to fight at the ballot box. Maybe her spokesperson should explain to candidate Angle that the ballot box IS the ONLY way she is allowed to fight. And if she thinks otherwise, I'm sure the federal government can find her and the other candidates who think as she does a nice cozy cell in the same block as the one that Charlie Wilson will find himself in shortly before election time next fall.
I cannot help but wonder if Ms. Angle believes that only her supporters are armed or know how to use a weapon? If she considers that the other political viewpoint is as well, perhaps she will consider the implications of her statements more carefully in future. Harry Reid just helped get the funding for the largest shooting sport recreational area in the entire country - possibly in the world, and opened it with some shooting practice of his own. So, lets not even go there.
Silence with respect to intolerant voices gives those voices confidence they've found a kindred spirit, that they are 'safe' to speak in favor of violence.
ReplyDeleteThis man was motivated to action by preaching which said that Obama and/or other Democrats are putting their liberty at risk, putting our nation at risk, and they believe those voices.
In an effort to put this in perspective, the young men who followed Julius Ceasar, Napolean or even Hitler into war FOLLOWED. They were motivated by speech, by circumstance and by charismatic leadership to join, fight and die if needed. They did NOT come to these decisions in a vaccum, in an isolated environment free of discussion. In nearly all cases they were supported by other similar voices.
The fault for Wilson is still Wilson himself, but to pretend that he is his own isolated brand of hatred, is to ignore history.
Thanks Pen for the comment.
ReplyDeleteWilson used word for word Tea Party and more extreme right wing GOP slogans in his death threats to Murray, many of them taken directly from speakers at Tea Party events and/or directly from their signs.
The Tea Party Express, which is actually a branch of the GOP, the same group that recently toured Palin around the country on an expensive, customized bus, is funding Angle to the tune of approximately $500,000. The Club for Growth is funding her to the tune of closer to three-quarters of a million dollars; and that is just the beginning. (so much for grass roots)
These large donations are an indication they condone the remarks and that they approve Angle's statements, as do other organizations like Grover Norquist's Center Right Coalition.
Not so center right, more like far right.
I wonder how many more people will feel they have received the go-ahead to take up arms to get what they want in political venues.
The number of such attacks, like Wilson, not just crazy people, escalated dramatically this year, up 300%. Rhetoric is used to persuade, and apparently it did some dangerous persuading. Individuals have the ultimate responsibility for their actions, but so do those who inform and largely misinform, pressure, frighten and persuade for political exploitation.
We all have freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is not absence of responsibility for that speech.
Candidates like Angle, and groups like the Tea Party movement, and the Club for Growth, the mainstream GOP, and Norquists coalition should remember that.
If they do not, then I hope cooler heads with better judgement will deny them succcess at the ballot box, because they do not deserve to win if they advocate abuse of the 2nd Amendment rights.