Fear Itself

by: lisa fabrizio | published: 03 31, 2010

So, mean right-winger Tea Partiers are hurting the feelings of our sainted elected officials in Washington. There are rumors of intimidation, death threats and, horror of horrors, inappropriate language. So thin-skinned are these folks that Sarah Palin’s simple exhortation, “don’t retreat, reload,” was referred to as “violent words and imagery.” Even dead Republicans are the subject of posthumous excoriation, as in these noble words of Barry Goldwater: “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice.” One wonders what they would make of Thomas Jefferson’s observation that, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”

You’d think that the acquisition of power would have softened their own partisan attacks and made them magnanimous along the lines of George W. Bush, who said of President Barack Obama, “He deserves my silence.” Of course, no such silence was accorded the gracious Bush by his predecessor, his successor or other leftists and their media mouthpieces who spent years unleashing unending abuse on him; from being hung in effigy to books and plays envisioning his assassination.

So it’s odd to hear this kind of yelping from those on the left; those whose idols have ever advocated the violent overthrow of our capitalistic system. It is puzzling that now that one of their very own radicals is in power, they seem unwilling to celebrate their cherished heritage of ‘peaceful’ protesting; from Bill Ayers and his pals at the SDS, whose violent hatred of America turned explosive, to the others of their ilk who burned their draft cards, bras and anything else they couldn’t smoke.

No, it seems that all they want to remember now are the awful affronts suffered at the hands of hateful right-wingers. Of course one needn’t undergo a 1960’s flashback to recall the thuggery that saw Black Panthers menacing voters at polling places in 2008 and union heavies using intimidation to suppress opposition to Obamacare at town hall meetings. Yet, liberals continue to cry foul over the furor they themselves brought on by using skullduggery to pass an unpopular piece of legislation.

The real reason for all the hue and cry should be patently clear to anyone who has followed the doings of the Democratic Party for the last few decades. Yes, there is fear in the air, but it’s not trepidation over bodily harm or any profanation of their virgin ears. Their fear is of America itself, the America they don’t understand and clearly regard as the enemy.

And so they will fight back with the dependable tools of their arsenal. Along with their perplexingly successful practice of demonizing various and sundry American industries in service of class warfare, they are also fond of sowing the seeds of hate and dissension, be it racial or otherwise. And this is more than ironic, since the target of their attacks are usually practicing Christians, whose greatest commandment is to love, yet who are so often accused of all manners of hate. If you are colorblind or not properly race-conscious, you are a white supremacist; if you follow the tenets of your faith, you are a narrow-minded homophobe; and if you are someone who has actually joined the military to defend this country, you might end up on the DOJ’s terrorist watch list.

Of course, all of this ignores the fact that Barack Obama would not be in the White House today without a gaggle of votes from white men; a foolhardy and sentimental gesture many are already beginning to regret. The truth is, Democrats have plenty of reasons to fear this coming fall, and not only from those with buyers’ remorse. Scott Brown’s election was no fluke; the taking of Ted Kennedy’s seat by a Republican--albeit a moderate one--was a deliberate message that people are growing fearful of ever-encroaching government control of their lives.

So, in a way Democrats are right to fear the Tea Party movement. Just as a skunk releases its foul odor when it senses an enemy, so too those who despise our way of government can instinctively smell the tar and feathers that await them; the same treatment their forefathers received at the hands of the original Tea Partiers. But this time, the only act of violence needed to be committed against them will take place in voting booths across the nation on November 2.

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