.
You probably don't remember when Spiro Agnewand Richard Nixon called for law and order.
Hardly anybody is that old. People were smoking pot
and refusing to drink only at their racially designated
water fountains, and thought getting naked was fun.
"Law and Order!" was the antidote.
Long prison terms was the outcome.
Today, the Republican Party is not calling for law and order.
Elected members of the Party are standing on balconies
at the Capitol cheering on the advocates of overthrowing
the government. The Tea Baggers come with signs urging
people to take the law into their own hands, with signs
likening Barack Obama to Hitler, with guns on their signs
and with real guns as a threat. Sarah Palin, cute Sarah Palin,
who makes the people who call themselves the Scrota
tingle somewhere, puts a hit list up on her website,
complete with gunscope crosshairs showing where
the targets live. She says, don't repeal health care: reload!
The Party of Law and Order has allowed itself, perhaps
delighted itself in cheering on the Scrota, cheering when
they use explicitely violent language, pretending that they
do not really approve of lawlessness, but excusing it
because the Democrats are using violence, too, you know:
cramming legislation down people's throats with majority votes.
John Boehner prides himself on both his recalcitrance
and his eloquence, shouting "Hell no!" The Party of Hell No!
In Congress, they applaud when people in the gallery
try to disrupt the proceedings of Congress. They shout
"Baby killer!" at the Democrat who worked hardest
to achieve what they wanted: anti-abortion legislation.
They say, "Hell no!" when asked to denounce the people
who are throwing bricks through their political opponents'
windows. They do nothing when they know the Tea Bagger
supporters (Did I say that?) are fueling the angry threats
that threaten the lives of the people they hate politically.
Somebody is going to get killed.
You cannot talk guns, carry guns, scream racial curses,
spit in Black legislators's faces, hound Barney Franks
for being gay, compare Democrats to Nazis, howl that
our Country is falling to traitors, smash windows, humiliate
crippled people who want health care, and not know
that somebody is going to get killed.
You cannot know that, and pretend that it is not happening.
You cannot just say, "Oh, well! People are angry".
You cannot listen to Glenn Beck and to Rush Limbaugh
and not fear that uncontrolled madness and anger
will not get somebody killed. And when it happens,
you cannot pretend that somebody else was responsible.
"Law and Order!" used to be the slogan used against
pot smokers, and people who got naked and danced,
and who said they would rather make love than war.
Somebody is going to get killed.
.
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