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The Tea Party Murders
Politico ^ | January 9, 2011 | George Lakoff

Posted on 01/09/2011 11:42:35 AM PST by Second Amendment First

Language has an effect. Violent political encounters have an effect. The link of the use of guns with patriotism and morality has an effect. Expressions like "targeting" and "in the crosshairs" evokes images of shooting to kill. The murder of a liberal leader in Pakistan seemed far away. Now it's here days later. Given all the death threats, it was almost inevitable. Gabby Giffords was in the crosshairs.

Republicans will say it was just the work of some crazy. Hardly. Even crazies get their ideas from somewhere. Violent political encounters and the language of violence activate the idea of violence. Ideas are physically there in the brain. People act on what is in their brains.

Keith Olbermann is right. And it's not just Palin and Beck. The Republicans who benefited from violent political confrontations and cross-hair language, who did not speak out and use their influence forcefully against it, bear full responsibility. Whatever John Boehner now says, he bears responsibility.

The tea party leaders gave explicit instructions on how to angrily disrupt public political meetings. Tea party rallies not only displayed violent signs, but rally leaders did not discourage them, and hence tacitly approved them.

As conservatives like to say, you bear the responsibility for the consequences of your actions.

This was tea party murder.

We should not shrink from calling it that.


TOPICS: News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: berkeley; completebs; giffords; lakoff; linguistics; rhodagoldman; rockridgeinstitute; teaparty; ucalifornia; wackos4obama
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To: Roscoe Karns

That doesn’t count./s


41 posted on 01/09/2011 12:00:23 PM PST by Yardstick
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To: Second Amendment First
"Even crazies get their ideas from somewhere."

In this case the ideas came from the Communist Manifesto, Mein Kamp, DailyKos, and other Socialist sources.

42 posted on 01/09/2011 12:01:41 PM PST by UnwashedPeasant (Don't nuke me, bro)
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To: RedMDer
Ford twice. The other was Sara Jane Moore.

-PJ

43 posted on 01/09/2011 12:02:44 PM PST by Political Junkie Too ("Comprehensive" reform bills only end up as incomprehensible messes.)
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To: Second Amendment First

This is blood libel, from an acolyte of Goebbels. Either this kind of garbage stops soon or it will get out of control.


44 posted on 01/09/2011 12:03:19 PM PST by andy58-in-nh (America does not need to be organized: it needs to be liberated.)
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To: Second Amendment First

I’m no Palin fan, but this is just sad.

Democrats also drew targets over GOP politicians.

Laskoff has never been to a Tea Party meeting. There has never been an incidence of violence caused by members. As for heated rhetoric, that’s true, but none of was a call for violence.

Lakoff also forget that many Democrat members of Congress also made disparaging remarks against Tea Party members.


45 posted on 01/09/2011 12:03:23 PM PST by Jaguarmike
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To: RedMDer

You forgot:

Jackson (D)

Garfield (R)

F. Roosevelt (D)

Truman (D)


46 posted on 01/09/2011 12:03:31 PM PST by hc87
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To: Second Amendment First
Okay, Lackoff, fine.

Then who bears the blame for all the non-politicians who are killed almost on a daily basis by illegals in Arizona?

47 posted on 01/09/2011 12:05:25 PM PST by Texas Eagle (If it wasn't for double-standards, Liberals would have no standards at all -- Texas Eagle)
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To: Second Amendment First
Tea party rallies not only displayed violent signs, but rally leaders did not discourage them, and hence tacitly approved them.

What violent signs? I was at probably 98% of the tea parties and protests in front of Gabby's office. The main signs I held said "no to ObamaCare" and "Why won't you listen to us, Gabby?" Also, "Why won't you meet with us, Gabby?"

48 posted on 01/09/2011 12:07:40 PM PST by Borax Queen
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To: The Comedian
I am Death.
Gimme a hug.

LOL!


49 posted on 01/09/2011 12:08:39 PM PST by 6SJ7 (atlasShruggedInd = TRUE)
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To: Second Amendment First

Uh, can this guy please give us the “Tea Party Leaders’” names?


50 posted on 01/09/2011 12:08:39 PM PST by Terry Mross
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To: Jaguarmike

Democrats never benefit from murder. I guess LBJ dosen’t count.


51 posted on 01/09/2011 12:08:47 PM PST by Always Independent
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To: Second Amendment First

If memory serves, was it not the leftist union thugs of the SEIU that resorted to acts of violence against TEA Party Town Hall gatherings? And, although I know that the media is incapable of reporting facts, the shooter in this case—and in just about every other act of political violence in America, was and has mostly been a left-wing fruitcake.

Rather than timidly shirk away from this sort of calumny, we all need to take an these fools in the harshest of terms. We cannot allow this slander and libel to go unanswered. There MUST be lawsuits brought immediately against those who engage in this sort of media thuggery. The only defense against the charge of slander and libel is if the assertion can be proven true... and we know it is false.

We need to lawyer up NOW... and go after these irresponsible dupes of the Left, before they succeed in depriving us of our First Amendment Right to honest political speech.

The real goal here is to silence all dissent. If I were a tin-foil hat type, I might even entertain the notion that the Leftists planned this attack, just for the purpose they are now attempting to implement against Republicans in general and the TEA Party in particular. The Socialists could not win at the ballot box... so now we have this act... I’ll wager one of their nutty operatives repeats this Saturday’s murderous performance, for that is really all they know how to do: they murder the unborn, they murder the elderly and the infirm, they murder innocence, and they murder freedom at every opportunity we allow.

It is time to come down like a brick wall upon these people.


52 posted on 01/09/2011 12:09:05 PM PST by TCH (DON'T BE AN "O-HOLE"! ... DEMAND YOUR STATE ENACT ITS SOVEREIGNTY !When a majority of the American)
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To: Second Amendment First

Soon it will be okay for members of the left to go on shooting sprees killing as many TEA PARTY members as possible and the left will not even mention it.


53 posted on 01/09/2011 12:09:18 PM PST by stockpirate (Sen. Mitch McConnel (R) has betrayed the Nov. 2, 2010 voters w/his tax bill!)
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To: Second Amendment First

The article presents the most egregious opinions about this event I’ve seen so far. It’s necessary to stary focused to calmly refute the message they are trying to send. For those who say it’s not necessary please see following exchange this morning:

Did Barack Obama Cause the Shootings Yesterday in Tucson?

The Gateway Pundit, Jim Hoft, 1/9/11

Poster Henry Hawkins:

“But as I read over the hundreds of posts in the assorted threads, I am appalled by the political gamesmanship being played by all sides, especially by the justification that the libs started it, we have to fight back. No, we don’t have to fight back. When your political opponents are making fools of themselves, it is best to stand quietly and let them. The worst thing to do is to provide an equally irrelevant pile of counterarguments, thereby leveling out the who-played-politics-with-a-tragedy measurement.”

To which Slappy replied:

“You damn well know that in politics you can[not] let a mistruth that depicts your side negatively to go unchallenged. Although your scenario would be great, it is simply not based on reality. Anyone that’s followed American politics for some time would know this. One only has to look at how the Left skillfully used half-truths and pointed attacks based on nonexistent or misleading “facts” to negatively attack Republicans and conservatives over Hurricen Katrina, WMDs in Iraq, 9/11, financial crisis of 2008, etc. C’mon, you simply can’t be that naive. Your approach is the type taken by minority parties that accept being second-class citizens because they would rather “play nice” and be the nice guys (think of Congressional Republicans like Bob Michel, Minority Leader in the House when the GOP was in the minority).”

http://gatewaypundit.rightnetwork.com/2011/01/did-barack-obama-cause-the-shootings-yesterday-in-tucson/

This was linked to one of the FR posts but offhand can’t find which one — my dial-up disconnected & forgot where I was.


54 posted on 01/09/2011 12:12:32 PM PST by Bhoy
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To: DGHoodini

The young demented killer in Tuscon is like “Johnny Taliban”, John Phillip Walker Lindh.


55 posted on 01/09/2011 12:12:56 PM PST by bvw
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To: Second Amendment First
Here are some of those Tea Partiers the author is talking about:


56 posted on 01/09/2011 12:13:03 PM PST by Hoodat (Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. - (Rom 8:37))
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To: Second Amendment First

This Jakoff article is a hate crime against law-abiding American citizens.


57 posted on 01/09/2011 12:13:41 PM PST by Servant of the Cross (I'm with Jim DeMint ... on the fringe!)
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To: Second Amendment First
This was tea party murder.

This is slanderous, baseless bullshit.

We should not shrink from calling it that.

You just slandered me, jackass. You act like only the right should face the consequences of their words - what of yours here?

58 posted on 01/09/2011 12:14:30 PM PST by dirtboy
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To: Second Amendment First

This is slander. Pure and simple.


59 posted on 01/09/2011 12:15:24 PM PST by Colonel_Flagg ("I'd rather lose fighting for the right cause than win fighting for the wrong cause." - Jim DeMint)
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To: Second Amendment First

Someone who could come up with this idiocy is stupid beyond words, or a liar. He’s also sick.


60 posted on 01/09/2011 12:16:10 PM PST by Republican Wildcat
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