Over the past few days, the Democrats have tried to marginalize Tea Parties by highlighting their hate mail. Since the majority party can only succeed when they’re the victims, Pelosi & Co. have flooded the media with alleged stories of attacks. This resulted in Republicans releasing all of their hate mail and death threats. The Democratic strategy backfires because hate mail and death threats always accompany any political or social movement.
That’s right. Hate mail is the norm. For every example of hate mail or death threat that Democrats receive, there’s one made to a Republican. By racing to release the most hate mail, it only exposes the ugly side of humanity that draws angry extremists and incites more hatred and violence.
Anyone who works in politics or advocacy is familiar with hate mail. Every political/social movement has their crazies. There are people who show up at Tea Parties with Guy Fawkes masks, and there are people who show up at peace rallies calling for the murder of all Republicans. I’ve seen them. I used to work near the White House and would watch the anti-war protests during 2006-2008. There are scary, scary people in that group. It works both ways.
It’s ridiculous for Democrats to paint themselves as helpless victims caught in the cross-hairs of those crazy Tea Party people. This is the party with a majority in Congress. They clearly have votes to pass controversial legislation. They have the House, Senate, White House and a majority of the governorships. Why on earth are the nice grandmas who hold protest signs at Tea Party rallies scaring Nancy Pelosi? Don’t believe me? Take a look at my photos from various Tea Party events. The normal Americans far outnumber the crazies. As I’ve said before, who is scarier?
Anti-war protesters
Kill the Bill Rally
Throughout the years, I’ve gotten lots of angry emails, phone calls and even the occasional death threat. It comes with the territory. Steny Hoyer and Chris Van Hollen should deal with it or get out of politics. As Eric Canter said this week:
“I want to stress this, and it’s very important: Legitimate threats should be treated as security issues,” Cantor said. “And they should be dealt with by the appropriate law enforcement officials. It is reckless to use these incidents as media vehicles for political gain. That is why I have deep concerns that some — DCCC Chairman Chris Van Hollen and DNC Chairman Tim Kaine in particular — are dangerously fanning the flames by suggesting that these incidents be used as a political weapon. Security threats against members of Congress is not a partisan issue, and they should not be treated that way. To use such threats as political weapons is reprehensible.”
I was first introduced to the concept of hate mail and death threats when I interned for a Congressional member as a naive college freshman. Hate mail is such a common occurrence in Congressional offices that they have hate mail policies. As the lowly intern, I was the primary receiver of the angry emails and phone messages. I dutifully logged them in, wrote letters in response and reported the scarier ones to my superiors. I was also told the names and descriptions of the crazies who liked to visit and make threats in person.
Back in college, my College Republican chapter was featured in Indoctrinate U because one of our members was targeted with death threats and religious slurs. The campus progressive group also wrote “College Republicans are facists” on the wall of the humanities building on campus. I’m assuming they meant “fascists,” but the intent was clear. (I’ve never quite figured out what a facist is.) That spring, my car was also vandalized in broad daylight on a busy street because I had a Bush/Cheney sticker on it.
Over the years, I’ve gotten used to it. Between my blog and activism, I’ve been called a gun-toting crazy for wearing a Gadsden flag shirt on Pennsylvania Avenue and have deleted hundreds of comments calling me every name imaginable (B—h, c–t, s–t, etc.). While I’ve never reached the level of the these women, the hatred expressed towards conservative women for simply voicing our opinions is frightening.
When I worked for a conservative web site, I started noticing a pattern since we got such a high volume of hate mail. About 98% of the emails contained f–k as some part of speech, and most expressed their desire to see me, my boss and my fellow co-workers die (sometimes in violent scenarios). Most contained one or more of the following words: faggot, Nazi, pig, greedy, capitalist, fascist, radical, zealot, McCarthyist, pro-Israel, homophobe, war-monger, Brown shirt, hate-monger, extremist and right-wing fringe. Interestingly, an overwhelming majority were grammatically incorrect.
I’m sure that liberal groups and bloggers get the same treatment. It happens across the spectrum. If you are crying for Nancy Pelosi or Steny Hoyer, or any of the other whiny Democrats, keep it mind that it happens to everyone. If you engage in the political arena, be prepared to be hated. Unfortunately, there’s an evil side to humanity, and politics draws those people from both sides of the aisle.
3 Comments
This is beyond ridiculous. I’ve worked in government and we got a smattering of hate mail but never was it to the level as it is over this issue. And never was it egged on and encouraged by the over-the-top hyperbole and rhetoric of a political party.
We are reaching a tipping point here. I get it that America is divided. I get it that political rhetoric is increasingly overheated in order to get attention in a 24-hour news cycle. I even get the fact that change is hard, that it makes people uncomfortable.
But if democracy has reached the point where the tradition of majority rule encourages threats of violence and people throwing gasoline on a grassfire they themselves started, it is dangerous to the democratic tradition. Instead of trying to excuse and downplay threats of violence, it would be decent of you to condemn them. That’s what principled people do. Whether from the left or right, from liberals or conservatives or the lunatic fringe of either side, these threats are unacceptable. They fit the very definition of terrorism, which is people using violence or threats of violence to achieve poplitical ends.
If it has reached the point where domestic terrorism is embraced, encouraged or excused by either side, our grand democratic tradition has failed.
I’m glad you enjoyed an atmosphere that was a little less hateful than what I’ve seen firsthand, but what I wrote is the norm not the unusual. How is it ridiculous when what I wrote is the truth? How did I not condemn them? I used these examples to show that what the Democrats are doing is wrong.
Threats are always unacceptable, and I never said anything less. Have you ever personally been threaten? I have. It’s scary. I am a highly principled person and anyone who reads my blog should understand that fact.
Obviously, you aren’t a conservative, because we’ve all been threatened and hated. Look at all of the pundits. Ann Coulter travels with bodyguards. Sean Hannity, Rush, O’Reilly, and others have actually had people trespass and threaten their families. Sarah Palin has had effigies of her hung up, and her former church burned down. Prominent celebrities have openly expressed their desire to see her “thrown down stairs” or raped. In the Tea Party Movie, FreedomWorks experiences a bomb scare.
The current political environment is sad, but how do you change it? Does it show the end of democracy? Not at all. Have you ever heard of the Gunpowder Plot? The IRA? Even during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, there was a lot of domestic terrorist activity. Every age and political party has fragments that engage in it. Domestic terrorism sadly goes with most free countries and always has. It’s a risk of liberty, which is why an armed populace is the safest populace. Crazy people will always exist.
However, the media focus on this unfairly targets the Tea Parties does incite violence and encourage those fanatics. If serious incidents do occur, the media deserves much of the responsibility. The people who engage in those actions want attention. By glamorizing or victimizing as Van Hollen and Hoyer did this week, they encourage the fanatics.
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