Holy Shit, a Tommy Christopher piece that didn’t make me roll my eyes!

When was the “uproar?” I must have missed it…

Perhaps now would be a good time for Erickson to clarify, to tell people not to pull shotguns on census workers

Well, it would be enlightening if we knew if this idiot, er, gentleman, fired the guy because it was a census worker or because it was just anyone on his property that he didn’t want. Census worker, plumber, door-to-door salesman (do they have these anymore?), girlscout selling cookies.

Sometimes nuts are nuts and injecting some political angle into the story doesn’t work.

But that would require work and thinking and Tommy Christopher must not allow those things to get into his political agenda disguised as media analysis. Politics first, facts second.

Steve, you’re saying that Powell’s motivation determines whether pulling a shotgun on census workers is a good idea? Ridiculous.

.’steve, you’re saying that Powell’s motivation determines whether pulling a shotgun on census workers is a good idea? Ridiculous.’

Nowhere did I even suggest such an idea.

The fact that I called this person an ‘idiot’ and a ‘nut’ indicates to any reasonable reader that I find his actions deplorable and indefensible. Why would I say pulling a gun is a ‘good idea;’ when I labeled the actions those of an ‘idiot’ and a ‘nut’?

Linking these indefensible actions to the anti-government right, as some leftwingers have done, can only be undertaken if this nut and idiot was motivated by anti-government sentiments and not by a general nuttiness against anyone – government or civilians – coming on his property.

Again, his actions were indefensible. Almost as indefensible as the smears by the left to connect them to critics of the Administration.

But the shot was fired after Michelle Bachmann said she wanted her people “armed and dangerous” and implored them to not cooperate with census workers.

‘But the shot was fired after Michelle Bachmann said she wanted her people “armed and dangerous” and implored them to not cooperate with census workers’

Yes, but did this idiot do it because of Bachmann’s comments? What exactly was his motivation?

His motivation doesn’t excuse the actions, unless perhaps he somehow believed that he was being physically threatened. And there’s no evidence of that. But his motivations do give us an idea as to whether we can, however tangentially, connect him to the irresponsible anti-census sentiments by some on the right.

Again, if he was just a crank it seems implausible to connect his actions to anti-census comments.

To connect these incidents over the past year to the general anti-Obama Administration right is as unfair to me as connecting the violent activities of the Weathermen to the larger anti-Vietnam war movement. It’s a smear.

One can criticize the deplorable statements by Limbaugh and Beck – as I do – without accusing them of somehow being complicit in violent acts by others who may share, however vaguely, their anti-government sentiments.

Steve, you seemed to suggest that I should have found out his motivation beforebimploring Erickson to clarify his statement. As for connecting Powell’s actions to anyone, I did the opposite of that, so I guess I don’t see your point at all.

The point I was trying to make, albeit inartfully, was that everybody’s on tenderhooks these days, due in no small measure to the “loaded” language being used by the reactionary right. You wouldn’t have to go much further back in our country’s history past the Weathermen (the weathermen, really?) to recall the vitriol that was being spewed against MLK or JFK. This paranoid vitriol feeds off itself and the locked and loaded historically aren’t far behind.

‘Steve, you seemed to suggest that I should have found out his motivation beforebimploring Erickson to clarify his statement’

What was your purpose in citing this shooting incident?

There’s been an ugly pattern by some folks on your side of the aisle, Olbermann for example, in trying to connect these reports of violent acts to the larger anti-Obama Administration or anti-government movement. To be sure, if one can show that these violent actor or actors were somehow motivated or encouraged by the movement, it’s perfectly fine to raise that connection.

But unless one can substantively make that connection, it is as irresponsible today as someone forty years ago linking the violent anti-Vietnam war elements of the Sixties to the larger anti-war movement.

There clearly is a danger on the far right – these militia types for example – of violence emerging. And the Limbaughs and Beck should be admonished for possibly fueling or contributing to these extreme elements. But criticizing them for possibly creating an environment where violence emerges is far different than saying they’re directly complicit.

The Weathermen were going to ‘do their thing’ regardless of what the rest of the peaceful movement thought. Similarly, the far right will do their thing regardless of what the rest of the peaceful conservative movement thinks.

Connecting the elements is a serious charge.

Too much bloviating from me. Let’s let someone else chime in.

Have a good day.

Steve

‘You wouldn’t have to go much further back in our country’s history past the Weathermen (the weathermen, really?) ‘

I was just grabbing an example to make my point. To wit, it’s unfair to attack an entire movement because of the actions of a segment of that movement.

It’s like criticizing all of Islam because of the actions of the radical elements of Islam.

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