Right On: Liberals call for death and ‘reap the whirlwind’

Stock image, St. George News

OPINION – “For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” – Hosea 8:7

From an editorial published by The New York Times:

The shooting … set off what is likely to be a wrenching debate over anger and violence in American politics.

While the exact motivations of the suspect in the shootings remained unclear, an Internet site tied to the man…contained antigovernment ramblings. And regardless of what led to the episode, it quickly focused attention on the degree to which inflammatory language, threats and implicit instigations to violence have become a steady undercurrent in the nation’s political culture.

These words were not written in response to the recent shooting of Republicans by a leftist gunman but in response to the equally reprehensible shooting of Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in 2011. Giffords survived but tragically, six others died.

Pontificating about angry right wing rhetoric came easily to the Times in 2011, voice of the liberal left. While it acknowledged that the 2011 shooter’s motivations remained unclear at the time, its message was clear: The Tea Party and others with right wing views were responsible.

That accusation turned out to be completely false.

An editorial published by The Washington Post was equally sanctimonious – and equally wrong – about the motivations of the 2011 shooter:

A friend and former Capitol Hill aide called me … with fury in his voice as he described what every liberal – and probably many others – in America is currently thinking: This is the consequence of the right’s sometimes martial anti-government rhetoric. This is the Second Amendment remedy.

Partisan rhetoric in 2011 was child’s play compared to today’s liberal over-the-top hatred of everything Trump and everything Republican. In 2011, the Times used the words “undercurrent” and “implicit instigations to violence.” There is nothing “implicit” about today’s liberal death threats.

The left is filled with haters calling for the death of their political opponents:

These and numerous similar threats have completely turned the tables on the hackneyed liberal narrative that Republicans are the party of Second Amendment violence.

Progressives squirm when reading the published writings of this month’s shooter, James Hodgkinson. He embraced all of Sen. Bernie Sanders’ over-the-top rhetoric about the U.S. political and economic system.

With his death, we’ll never know the degree to which Sanders and the liberal advocates of death influenced his desire to kill Republicans.

If The New York Times followed the standard it set in the 2011 Gibbons shooting, it would be blaming Sanders for the recent shooting. But true to its hypocritical style, the Times instead once again claimed that right wing politics motivated the Gibbons shooting. After critics rightfully objected, it was forced to issue a correction.

To their credit, politicians of both parties, including Sanders, were quick to condemn the shooting. Republican leaders have spoken out for months against the threats that preceded the shooting and now can only hope that a right wing fanatic doesn’t retaliate with a copycat shooting.

But why had Democratic politicians failed to forcefully condemn liberal advocates of death before the shooting? Instead, for months they offered paeans to freedom of speech, thereby implicitly condoning these threats.

I believe that cynical Democratic politicians see death threats as a useful adjunct to their Trump “Resistance.” And lacking any program of their own, resistance is all they have to offer.

Liberals should ponder the parallels between how ISIS radicalizes disaffected Muslims and how this attacker was radicalized. Few Muslims and likely even fewer liberals will succumb to messages of hate punctuated by calls for the death of their enemies. But as this month’s shooting confirms, it only takes a few.

The liberal media are struggling to come to grips with the outrageous rhetoric coming from their fellow travelers. As an anonymous commenter on a conservative web site stated:

It must be hard to keep up the delusion that you are some kind of super passionate and caring person when like-minded compatriots are either fantasizing about killing your opponents or are actually trying to kill them.

Howard Sierer is an opinion columnist for St. George News. The opinions stated in this article are his own and may not be representative of St. George News.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2017, all rights reserved.

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14 Comments

  • Badshitzoo June 22, 2017 at 7:02 am

    Gee! …. Thanks for stirring the proverbial “Pot” some more Howard.

    • desertgirl June 22, 2017 at 11:24 am

      Are we all supposed to ‘shut up’ and let the progressive party aka Democrats handle all. No thanks. Speech is a good thing.

  • Utahguns June 22, 2017 at 8:06 am

    Howard describes very well the extent to which “Radicalized Liberals” will go to silence their opponents and promote their agendas.
    What Howard doesn’t describe (and sensibly so) is the extent law biding Americans will go to to defend our country, our communities, our families and loved ones.
    It’s wise not to telegraph our punches.

  • Utahguns June 22, 2017 at 9:27 am

    Here we go again…

    COLUMBUS, Ohio June 22, 2017 – An Ohio man has been charged with threatening to “assault, kidnap or murder a United States official” after leaving several threatening voicemail messages with Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers’ office.

    Officials say a voicemail left Sunday mentioned the June 14 shooting at a baseball practice that left Republican House Majority Whip Steve Scalise critically injured and four others injured in Alexandria, Virginia.
    The Columbus Dispatch reports 68-year-old E. Stanley Hoff was warned about his messages before his arrest.
    Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Kelley says authorities were forced to take the messages seriously when the man mentioned the baseball game.
    A judge ordered him to be held without bail during his federal court hearing Wednesday. If convicted, the man could face up to 10 years in prison.

  • comments June 22, 2017 at 10:04 am

    This is not a partisan issue. Our political class is so corrupt most of them are beyond redemption. They should be held accountable. It might even be a good thing that they live in fear of the public they are accountable to. Each day goes by this president is proving to be a corrupt piece of garbage like any of the DC elites. Question is will he be as corrupt and incompetent as the Bush II regime. That said, I don’t think these types of shooting solve anything–probably mainly because the targets are usually small potatoes in the scheme of things. Seems many many wingnuts were fantasizing about shooting obama for a lot of years, so what’s the difference?

  • desertgirl June 22, 2017 at 11:24 am

    The vitriol and evil behavior from the progressives/liberals/Democratic party is beyond sick.

    • theone June 22, 2017 at 12:23 pm

      Regressive/conservative/Republicans.
      Then insert the rest of your sentence and we’re even.

      • comments June 22, 2017 at 1:07 pm

        exactly. There isn’t even that much difference anymore.

      • Utahguns June 22, 2017 at 2:20 pm

        “Regressive/conservative/Republicans…
        Then insert the rest of your sentence and we’re even.”
        OK:
        “IF Regressives / Progressives /Conservatives / Republicans / Liberals / Democrats / Left wingers / Right Wingers / Socialists / Communists / Religious / Athiests… truly have respect and dignity for their fellow man, this earth, and the beliefs of others, then we will get along.
        But if your beliefs, agendas and actions include hate, violence, murder, to forcibly advance your cause and the have no respect of your fellow man and this earth…
        ….then we won’t get along.

        • ladybugavenger June 22, 2017 at 6:18 pm

          And there you have it

  • comments June 22, 2017 at 1:18 pm

    You know when it comes down to it there isn’t all that much difference in the values of dems voters vs repub voters. It’s mostly just regular folks who want a decent standard of living for themselves. When it comes down to it the problem is with our corrupt and self-serving rulers. Our rulers are good at fooling us constantly so we bicker over nonsense, and they’re laughing all the way to the bank, and at public expense. 8 years of Obama didn’t fix any of the systemic problems in our system of gov’t; it only got worse. And at this point expecting the trump admin to do any good for anyone is pure foolishness. Problems with our system are far deeper than just the bickering between Rs and Ds ; it’s systemically corrupt, and media’s job has shifted from informing us to just constantly fooling us. No one holds the elitists accountable, and anyone who thinks the donald will is a fool; he is part of the club.

  • Real Life June 22, 2017 at 4:04 pm

    The far left is just as bad, maybe even worse, than the far right. What about us in the middle? Do we even exist anymore?

  • Kimi June 22, 2017 at 8:39 pm

    McConnel is evil.

  • commonsense June 22, 2017 at 9:58 pm

    This a partisan issue. Left wing hate, resistence and now violence are symptoms of failure of policy and leadership. I hear no solutions from Dem leaders. Losing so much the last 8 years hasn’t produced any change in strategy or policy. Leaders are old and out of touch. Followers have no hope or success to draw upon. America is moving forward without and in spite of the liberals.

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