Welcome to the dark side of your constituency, Kathleen

I am finding it very damned hard to be sympathetic to Kathleen Parker.  Let’s let her explain:

WASHINGTON — “Allow me to introduce myself. I am a traitor and an idiot. Also, my mother should have aborted me and left me in a Dumpster, but since she didn’t, I should “off” myself.

Those are just a few nuggets randomly selected from thousands of e-mails written in response to my column suggesting that Sarah Palin is out of her league and should step down.

Who says public discourse hasn’t deteriorated?

The fierce reaction to my column has been both bracing and enlightening. After 20 years of column writing, I’m familiar with angry mail. But the past few days have produced responses of a different order. Not just angry, but vicious and threatening…“
Kathleen Parker: Speak correctly, or build a big bunker.

It’s not just “public discourse” generally.  Parker is a well-known conservative newspaper columnist.  This is the first time she’s really bucked the conservative line in a big way, and it’s exposed her to something progressives have known about for a long, long time.  Which is: the tendency to fantasies of thuggish political violence may not be limited to the right wing, but speaking in epidemiological terms, that is its reservoir in America today.  Cross those guys and you won’t just hear about how wrong you are; you will hear a hundred different gruesome ways you should suffer and die.

Mainstream progressives play down the violence talk.  There are no progressive counterparts to Glen Beck or Ann Coulter, fantasizing about violence against the other side.  That sort of guff is far more prevalent from the “cold dead hand” crowd.  When confronted they always say; “It’s just a joke!“ 

But am I cherry-picking a few examples from the fringe, as one could with PETA or ELF?  Not at all; this is Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Ann Coulter, Jonah Goldberg, the Catholic League, people with enormous followings.  In our country everyone freaks out if Janet Jackson’s nipple shows for a second, but right-wing infotainers feel (and are) perfectly safe saying violent stuff like the examples below the fold.

No FCC fines for the broadcasters in the group - it’s all in good fun.  No consequences for the police union that celebrates brutality.  And I could provide any number of examples of right-wing bloggers who want ‘oceans of green radioactive glass’ in the Muslim world, and specifically rejecting any concern for collateral damage, this many years after 9/11. 

Parker wants everyone to be civil now, and not suppress unwelcome ideas.  I got news for you, Kathleen, none of this stuff is news to us.  Welcome to our world.

A FEW EXAMPLES:

Continued...

Posted by George on 10/02/08 at 08:16 PM
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