Wingnut Terrorism, or “Deliver Us From Evil”
First it was Jim Adkisson, the wingnut who loved Savage and Hannity and shot up a Unitarian church because he wanted to kill some “liberals and gays.” He shot up the church “because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country’s hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets.”
Now somebody has shot the chairman of the Arkansas Democratic Party, who is hospitalized and in critical condition at the moment. Is this the work of another wingnut terrorist?
Are we starting to see a pattern here, readers? Could it be that some people take it seriously when talk-radio/cable-TV stars such as Sean Hannity pen best-selling books claiming that liberalism is an “evil” (just like terrorism) that needs to be “destroyed”?
Deliver Us From Evil, indeed.
UPDATE 2008/08/13, 17:28 EDT
Bill Gwatney, chairman of the Arkansas State Democratic Party, has died as a result of the wounds he incurred in the shooting.
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August 13th, 2008 @ 17:14
There seems to be a disturbing pattern going on where the right wing works to demonize their political opponents to such an extent that enables the “wingnuts” to rationalize shooting liberals. The Republican partisans should take a deep look in their mirrors and ask themselves if their polemics are setting people off the deep end. Such actions should be categorized as hate crimes. And the media should not write them off as crimes of insanity, but investigate the sources of their deranged views.
August 13th, 2008 @ 18:03
Does anyone recognize history repeating itself? Not in the individual instances, such as the possible murder of someone over politics, but the actual social circumstances. It doesn’t matter “why” one murdered another.
Anarchy is a great reference, if one is looking for warning signs that a Nation is in trouble. Anarchy rears its ugly head looking like anything it wants to.
Violence of all sorts, and murder by many more methods, malfeasance of government representatives and the resultant bickering in the halls of Congress, while sins are being screamed from the rooftops. A society utterly and completely without cohesive direction. Over what, I wonder? What is worth the energy we put into this fighting? And how are we going to take care of ourselves when the fighting is over?
Mr. Gwatney is in heaven now. And he has the opportunity to know all he needs to know about not only the results of his actions, but the behaviors of all who reference him. And I’d ante up my right arm to bet that he would ask us deal with – (now) – “our” societal issues.
August 13th, 2008 @ 18:04
This reminds me of the days when abortion clinics and and doctors were being attacked and killed. These extreme right wing people are the Taliban of America and it appears that we have terrorism right here on our own soil and nothing is being done about it. In fact radio talk show hosts like Hannity and others fan the flames and get these people riled up to commit these atrocious crimes. I also think that they have achieved a level of acceptance with the bush administration that alligning with people like Sun Myung Moon, and the christian fundamentalist churches.
August 13th, 2008 @ 21:46
Those two guys are just two of tens of thousands.
“liberalism is an “evil” (just like terrorism) that needs to be “destroyed”
Geez, have we read that somewhere else?
August 14th, 2008 @ 07:25
It is hard to say this…
“Jesse Helms was a reprehensible person, a sorry excuse for a human being. The world is a better place without him.”
…and then simultaneously complain about inciteful speech.
August 14th, 2008 @ 12:16
There’s no comparison. What I said about Jesse Helms certainly wasn’t nice, but how do you consider it inciteful?
August 14th, 2008 @ 18:34
Bill Gwatney owned a Chevy dealership in Little Rock and I work for GM and have gotten to know him over the years through business. He could be tough and demanding, yet always ask about your family with a genuine interest the next minute.
I certainly hate terribly what happened to him and am very glad the cops got Timothy Dale too. However, blaming this as a conservative thing is crazy talk. I haven’t read any news article giving this bastard’s motive. Look at his picture, I bet he couldn’t even begin to describe the difference between a conserative and a liberal.
Come on Dum!
August 14th, 2008 @ 21:06
Officially, there has been no motive ascribed to the shooting yet. I can’t help but wonder, though, if this guy wasn’t another Jim Adkisson. Does that really seem unreasonable to you?
The top three AM-radio stars on the American airwaves (Limbaugh, Hannity, Savage) all routinely engage in eliminationist rhetoric in which “liberals” are called traitors and blamed for everything that’s wrong with America and the world. They talk like that all day, every day. At least some of their listeners must take them seriously.
Maybe this Timothy Dale Johnson was just a looney-tune, and politics had nothing to do with his choice of target. But until we figure out what was going on with that guy, I can’t help but wonder.
August 14th, 2008 @ 22:46
“blaming this as a conservative thing is crazy talk”
Yeah right, it was purely coincidental that he ended up going on his shooting spree at the Democratic Campaign Office.
Maybe he just wasn’t happy with his 93 Chevy.