Playing With Fire

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

In Put Up Or Shut Up, Sara Robinson asks conservatives if they are deliberately trying to start a civil war . . .

Just answer the question.  Yes or no.  Don’t insult us with elisions, evasions, dithering, qualifications, or conditional answers.  We need to know what your intentions are and we need to know NOW.  People are being shot dead in the streets of America at the rate of several per month now.  You may not want responsibility for this–but the whackadoodles pulling the triggers make no bones about who put them up to this.

You did.

The assassins themselves are ratting you out.  They’re telling us, straight up, that they were inspired to act by the hate radio talkers that you empowered–one of whom is now the de facto head of the Republican party.  They got it from media outlets owned by your biggest donors.  They got it from bloggers who receive daily talking points faxed in from the GOP.

Conservatives are playing with fire.  It’s what they do.  It’s all they do.  They played with fire by invading and occupying Iraq, and we all got burned.  They played with fire by deregulating Wall Street and the banking industry, and we all got burned.  They played with fire by torching the Bill of Rights, and we all got burned.  If you disagree with them, prepare to be blowtorched.    

Sara Robinson . . .

When the Department of Homeland Security expressed their worries about right-wing extremist violence last April, practically every conservative pundit in the country went into a righteous fit.  DHS never named anyone directly, so it was astonishing how many of you on the right were so quick to step up and claim that that memo was slandering you, personally and collectively.  Since you were so eager to claim that that memo was all about you, now that the violence has come to pass, we’re well justified in holding you to that.

By choosing to gain power through a politics that only motivates through hate and fear, you’ve recruited a good-sized army of those crazies, armed them up, and turned them into paranoid monsters that are now running loose on the American landscape.

And what are Democrats doing about it?  They aren’t doing shit about it.  They never do.  The paranoid monsters in the Bush/Cheney regime went on an 8 year crime rampage and Democrats didn’t do shit about it.  They still aren’t.  I’d like to see just one damn law enforced against George Walker Bush and Richard Bruce Cheney.  Just one.  Pick a law, Democrats, pick any law.  They damn near broke them all.  Reach down as deep as you have to, reach WAY down and maybe you’ll find a shred of dignity, maybe you’ll a shred of moral courage still existing somewhere within you.  Enforce the law against BushCo criminals, enforce the law against inciters of right wing violence.

Ask what Sara Robinson is asking: Are conservatives deliberately trying to start a civil war?

If your answer is yes, then stop this cowardly half-assed screwing around.  You speak the language of war and honor; but the honor code of the warriors you pretend to revere demands that you declare your intentions.  If you really believe that the only way to get the America you want is to negate a fair election, shred the Constitution, and violently cleanse the country of everyone who doesn’t agree with you, then man up and get on with it.  If it’s a shooting war you want, do not doubt that there are plenty of progressives who will oblige you.

I hope it doesn’t come to that, I don’t think it will, but conservatives crossed the line long ago.  When it looks like treason, sounds like treason, and reeks to high heaven like treason, it’s TREASON.  It’s time to fucking CALL IT THAT.  

Sara Robinson . . .

If your answer is no, then you have just one other choice.  Knock off the tantrums, grow up, rebuild your party, come back to the table, and sit down and govern with us. (We know this will be a stretch, but we think some of you are capable of it.)  You will need to learn, many of you for the first time, to get your way as adults do–without fear-based politics, polarizing rhetoric, on-air threats against those who disagree with you, and repeating outrageous lies in the face of stone facts and irrefutable evidence.

The hardcore conservative base will never do that.  The conservative leaders who pander to them will never do that.  They are batshit insane and dangerous.  But Democrats will not call them what they are.  Conservatives like Gingrich and Limbaugh and Hannity and Beck can incite violence, but they are not held accountable for it.  BushCo criminals are still walking free.