Resorting to Hitler

Watching the increasingly shrill opposition to the President, it can be tempting to think that this behavior is somehow without parallel or precedent.

It is oddly comforting to know that this is not so.

The voice over is from the Rachel Maddow Show's interview
with the always-strident Frank Schaeffer.

Now, I am sure that we find those we disagree with inherently more threatening than those who share our likes (or dislikes) - but seeing the depth of the political bile flowing in one direction does not allow us to ignore bile headed the other way.

It may be a question of perception - but I am struck by the equivalence of the rhetoric on the signs in the video above - and those I am seeing in popular media these days.

I do not, however see an equivalence in the amount of attention these groups receive on network television.

I'd be very interested to see impartial analysis of equivalent events and the attention they received (taking into account the context of the protest, where it took place, who was there, etc).

The left and the right are always complaining about how this coverage or that coverage totally misrepresented or ignored their viewpoint. I aways get a kick out of comments on NPR that accuse a story of being biased - in both directions.

The equivalence of the threat these groups pose is also something I've wondered about. I certainly don't recall any left wing protestors stalking President Bush with loaded firearms - but I'd be interested to see if this was so.

Much is made of the recent killing of a pro-life protestor, but even if that was a political killing - it would be the first instance of a pro-life protestor being slain.

I'm certainly not looking for false equivalencies. I've been in conversations with right-leaning friends where they gravely wondered if someone was going to "take out" the president or (if I recall right) Barney Frank. It was if they expected it to happen. That it would make them happy if it did.

I somehow doubt they were truly advocating for political violence - but their comment seemed wistful, like "wouldn't it be great if..."

I can recall left leaning friends making similar comments about Pres. Bush as well. I'd always say "Imagine the catastrophe that would follow such a thing. You think things are going in a direction you don't like now?. What do you suppose this administration would do if the nation thought their political opponents were responsible for the president's assassination?"

I truly believe Glenn Greenwald was right:

Far more interesting than [Glenn] Beck himself is the increasingly futile effort to classify the protest movement to which he has connected himself. Here, too, confusion reigns. In part, this is due to the fact that these "tea party" and "9/12" protests are composed of factions with wildly divergent views about most everything. From paleoconservatives to Ron-Paul-libertarians to LaRouchians to Confederacy-loving, race-driven Southerners to Christianist social conservatives to single-issue fanatics (abortion, guns, gays) to standard Limbaugh-following, Bush-loving Republicans, these protests are an incoherent mishmash without any cohesive view other than: "Barack Obama is bad." There are unquestionably some highly noxious elements in these groups, but they are far from homogeneous.

I believe both ends of the political spectrum have their crazies and provocatuers. And I'm not convinced this latest crop is in any way abnormal - but it only takes one crazy person to change everything.

(H/t to Pundette and Newsbusters)