It wasn’t this guy.
Nor was it this guy.
Not this woman, either.
Him? Nope.
Well, not this time, anyway.
But it is surprising that a lonely, alienated nut showed up at one of these places:
Except, of course, it isn’t.
The entire Tea Party apparatus is geared toward appealing to the lonely, alienated nut. Lonely, alienated nuts are its core. Everyone who harbors a grievance and resentment because he thinks he hasn’t gotten a fair shake in life, or is unlucky in love, or whatever, is a candidate.
To bring this a little closer to home, there was a guy who looked very much like the patriot above who is pressed against the police tape, gun on his hip, who appeared at the foot of the Capitol lawn at the Tea Party rally in St. Paul last April.
Do we have politicians in Minnesota who support the Affordable Care Act, immigration reform, and oppose Arizona’s S.B. 1070-type legislation? Of course, but let’s not name them just now.
Most of the photos, which have appeared around the ‘net for a while, were cribbed for this post from Tbogg.
6 comments:
Here's another bon-bon that I forgot in the post.
"The entire Tea Party apparatus..."
On multiple choice tests it is always wise to avoid answers that include the words: Always, Never, Without exception, etc. I think that the word "entire" qualifies as a similar warning that whatever follows is probably not correct. Perhaps the Tea Party has organized to such a state that it has a written plank of doctrine and an actual organization chart from which we may deduce what every member thinks, but I haven't seen it yet.
Thankfully, the Arizona law enforcement community has the suspect in custody so that we may at some point know why the suspect did what hed did. In the meantime I don't imagine that prayers for the victims and their families could hurt.
Show me the plank that talks about turning in weapons, Tom, and we'll discuss it. And I'd trade prayers for the family for a lick of common sense on gun control in a heartbeat.
P.Z. Meyers on "dont politicize this tragedy."
<span><span>What we have here is an attempted assassination of a<span> </span>politician<span> </span>by an insane crank at a<span> </span>political<span> </span>event, in a state where the<span> </span>political<span> </span>discourse has been an unrelenting howl of eliminationist rhetoric and characterization of anyone to the left of Genghis Khan as a traitor and enemy of the state…and<span> </span>now, when six (including a nine year old girl) lie dead and another fourteen are wounded,<span> </span>nowsuddenly we're concerned that it is rude and politicizing a tragedy to point out that the right wing has produced a toxic atmosphere that pollutes our<span> </span>politics<span> </span>with hatred and the rhetoric of violence?</span></span>
Paul Krugman's lede in Climate of Hate.
When you heard the terrible news from Arizona, were you completely surprised? Or were you, at some level, expecting something like this atrocity to happen?
Our sanctrimonious friend Tom wrote that the Tea Party people only wanted to follow the Constitution. Too bad they have no @#$%^&* idea of the last hundred and fifty years of the constitutional jurisprudence. Hey let's go back to the founding, for that matter. It was such a callow and vapid remark that I deleted it.
If you want to get your constitutional information from Jake MacAuly, Tom, be my guest, Tom. But don't expect me to accept your apologetics on bealf of drooling idiots who think they should be able to carry automatic weapons to public meetings.
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