Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Tea Party and Free Speech

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Rand Paul supporter steps on the head of a Moveon.org member (after other Paul supporters pushed her to the ground) outside the Paul/Conway debate.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo…

The level of political debate continues to be cheapened by the Tea Party.

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  1. <

    p>Here’s the video:

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    p>

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    p>Jeff Perry was 15 feet away, yet saw and heard nothing. Charlie Baker says this why we need to cut taxes.

  2. To think that the teabaggers are trying to portray Obama as the Nazi. This move is right out of the Ernst Roehm playbook. And it’s not isolated.

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    p>A fellow gay activist wandered into the midst of the teabaggers at the Sarah Palin rally on the Common last April and got a fist in the face, but the police were on the assailant before my friend even hit the ground.

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    p>The teabaggers bring apacolyptic rehetoric to the discussion over fiscal policy issues, which is characteristic of what historian Richard Hofstadter called the “Paranoid style in American politics” and has a rich pedigree in American history. Inflammatory rhetoric drives the small but significant number of folks who are so predisposed to violence. We saw the same effect in the debate over same-sex marriage. Gaybashings spiked in connection with the 2004 ConCon and the dire warnings of the end of the world from the right-wing.

    <

    p>As for tolerance and the rule of law in the Blue Grass State, Mark Twain noted that he wanted to be in Kentucky at the end of the world because it’s always 20 years behind.

      • When I was a yout I wound up in the mosh pit ouside a Democratic debate a couple times. I’m always on the side that gets squashed by the biggest union guys.

        <

        p>I don’t know if this lady is right or wrong. People who’ve never been in a fight tend to get themselves in these situations though.  

        • The woman from MoveOn did not get physical.  She was pushed to the ground then stomped on.  Sorry, but sometimes there’s really not two sides to a story.

  4. To claim this is “tea party” action is without evidence.  Nobody in the video has TEA PARTY scribbled across their foreheads.  They could be independents, registered republicans, or gasp even democrats.  Fact is, there is no way to discern them from the T, D, R, or I.  Thus it would be more appropriate for this diary to be titled “Rand Paul Supporters and Free Speech”.  

      • Those people might adopt it, but they don’t own it any more than they do the Stars and Stripes.

        • … it and I don’t think that’s factually inaccurate in any way.  If you see it at a Rand Paul event along side people shouting, I feel a real money bet that we’re talking about tea partiers would be a good investment.  Of course they’re adopting symbols and iconography from the past… their self-identified name is itself a unilateral requisition.

    • His endorsement of Rand is listed in an ad that ran that very same day. And, he’s in more pictures with Rand than the Rand family dog.

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      p>He’s also a tea party activist in Kentucky. And Rand Paul is the – and proudly so – tea party candidate.

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      p>Even the Kentucky media understand the tea party role in this:

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      p>

      The nasty race for Kentucky’s U.S. Senate seat got even nastier this week, hitting what can only be hoped is rock bottom.

      It happened when several of Rand Paul’s supporters wrestled a MoveOn.org activist to the ground on Monday evening before the last debate between the Republican Dr. Paul and Democrat Jack Conway and, once she was supine against a concrete curb, stomped on her.

      Take a good, hard look, Kentucky, at the shot seen ’round the world, because this is what people are seeing of us: Men throwing a woman to the ground and then stomping her.

      While some look at that picture as emblematic of what conservative policy changes promised by tea party candidates such as Rand Paul will do to women, should he and others like him be elected, this disgraceful event deserves to be condemned just on its face value.

      Kicking someone when they’re down is not acceptable behavior, not even when the person on the receiving end is regarded as an outside agitator trying to get too close to a candidate, not even during highly charged campaigns that have already stretched the bounds of civility.

      Dr. Paul’s supporters looked like thugs in the video, because they were acting like thugs.

      Dr. Paul’s staff “disassociated” his campaign from the man seen doing the stomping, who had been Bourbon County coordinator for the candidate (his name appeared in a newspaper ad the same day as the fallout from the video-captured stomp went viral). Dr. Paul’s campaign issued a statement saying that aggression or violence would not be tolerated “whatever the perceived provocation.” (They declined, however, to return the stomper’s campaign contributions of $1,950. What’s with that?)

      As for the stomper, who has now been served with a criminal summons for the disturbance, incredibly he told a Lexington television reporter that police were really at fault, that his foot work could be chalked up to his bad back and that the woman he stomped should apologize to him.

      The Lexington fracas is troubling by itself, but when coupled with another upset involving another tea party senatorial candidate earlier this week, it begs voters to pay even more attention.

      On Sunday, a day before the Lexington takedown, an online news editor was handcuffed and detained by security guards hired by Joe Miller, Alaska’s Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, after the editor trailed the candidate with a video camera in a public school where a town hall meeting had been held. The editor’s apparent offense was being too pushy with his questions and writing for a liberal blog. Police let him go.

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      p>And my favorite part:

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      p>

      Kicking someone you don’t agree with?

      Cuffing someone who asks your candidate questions?

      Is this what the freedom-loving tea party is about?

      Elections have consequences, people.

      <

      p>Pot. Kettle. Black.

      <

      p>Is this what the “freedom-loving” tea party is all about?

      • so the tea party as a whole is now against free speech.

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        p>Should I begin applying this rationale to other events I see in politics, or should I just start “3”ing your comments regardless of the argument being made just because I disagree with them?

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