A lesson in civil discourse: The Tea Party is “holding a gun” and “hostage-taking”

Update: Politico reports here about more “hostage-taking.” Senator Boxer (D-Calif.) said: “This is a made-up crisis. This is government by hostage taking.” House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said: “Unfortunately, Republicans continue to practice the politics of confrontation and hostage taking.” Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said: “The issue is not essential air service, it’s not even a labor issue. It’s the issue of hostage taking. It’s as if someone puts a gun to your head and says, ‘Give me your money,’ and then you say, ‘Why won’t you give them your money?’” According to the article, Democrats refered to Republicans as hostage takers no fewer than a dozen times, all on Wednesday, all refering to the partial FAA shutdown. Once again, Senate Dem’s refuse to pass a House bill for the fix, but are blaming Republicans for causing the problem/taking hostages.

Remember when the Tea Party was a fringe group that would disappear shortly? A group of racist old people that were mad, but ultimately would have no impact on the political landscape? Then it got a little bit hazy, because on the one hand they were just a bunch of hillbillies, but on the other they were astroturf funded by the super-rich Koch brothers. Sometimes they’re backwards people from the “middle states,” flyover country that has no business hanging with the elite members of society residing on the coasts, but other times they’re only looking out for the rich and trampling all over the poor. Following the media coverage of the Tea Party, it’s difficult to know exactly what they are from one day to another. First they’re just wrapping themselves in the flag and the next they’re un-patriotic. White Tea Partiers are racists and Black Tea Partiers are Uncle Tom’s.

One thing’s for sure, they have violent rhetoric, which can lead to terrorism. I wrote here, about the inherent tendency amongst the right to cause violence, and how the words of conservatives can lead people like the guy in Norway straight to terrorist actions. According to Dr. Thistlethwaite of the Center for American Progress, when conservatives talk about a group being a threat to the country, that leads other conservatives to take action and violently attack that dangerous group. So instead, conservatives should model their speech after the peaceful, loving rhetoric of the left. Like this example from Van Jones that came on NPR about the Tea Party:

“This tiny minority of people are holding a gun to the heads of 310 million Americans saying ‘you do it our way or we will blow a hole in the American economy.”

Or maybe this “civil discourse” from CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, also directed at the Tea Party:

“what they‘re saying is we’ll blow up the country if you don’t listen to us . . . We’ll hold hostage the credit of the United States, the good standing of the United States and we’ll blow it up….it’s an extraordinary act of hostage-taking.”

All sarcasm aside, you know a group is doing something right by the level of hatred coming from the left. What they once nervously laughed off as a pathetic little group of people angry at their government, suddenly has them frothing at the mouth and comparing them to terrorists. These so called hostage takers are a small group of individuals in Congress that were elected by a majority of the vote stemming from the grassroots effort of individuals who wanted a bit of accountability from their representatives. This sounds like democracy at it’s best, and yet according to Zakaria, the Tea Party doesn’t “understand the workings of democracy.”

The left’s version of “understanding democracy” is painting the opposition as evil, bigotted, terrorist wing-nuts via the mainstream media so the public is afraid to associate themselves with them and the liberals can get what they want. This is democracy to them.

I for one have learned to embrace the left’s hatred because it reinforces my own convictions that I’ve taken the correct path. My only fear is where the hatred will end. As Zakaria correctly states: “They have not been elected dictators of the United States, they have been elected to one House of one branch of the American government.” When you figure in that the left controls the Senate, the Executive, the Judicial, the Mass Media, and the Universities, I’m afraid President Obama’s statement that he was bringing a gun to the knife fight may be a bit more real than we knew.

If Dr. Thistlethwaite’s assumptions are true, that violent rhetoric leads others to commit actual violence, then I think Van Jones and Fareed Zakaria have just declared open season on Tea Party members. I know many Tea Party members who actually do fear for their own safety and yet continue to do what they do out of a sense of purpose and duty.

What do you think? Is this simply the hypocrital left spouting off and calling names, or have we reached a point where there is a real reason to be fearful?