When you live in a time where the Right wing of a two-party political system has regularly used increasingly inflammatory and violent-leaning rhetoric to demonize its opponents, and has done for almost fifteen years; when the Right defines it's position as being in a 'Culture War' with the rest of the country;
...if I'm going to say anything about John Edwards in the future, I'll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot. -- Ann Coulter, 2007
A time where that same political Right wing embraces and encourages its most radical elements, and give support to those who call the federal government "illegitimate", "socialist", "parasitical", the elected President a Muslim (therefore, an enemy) and not even a citizen;
Leftists celebrate each and every death of each and every American solider because they view the loss of life as a vindication of their belief that they are right. -- Erick Erickson, 'Red State.com' Editor, and Currently New CNN Political Commentator
That the Right appears to believe (as it says in its media) that this illegitimate government will use 'death panels' to triage healthcare, and force women to have abortions; that the Left is in league with the United Nations or an unnamed conspiracy to create a single World Government; that everyone will be heavily taxed to pay for social programs for the undeserving poor, for "lazy hippies" and illegal aliens;
What we are possibly looking at is something far worse than the Depression. We are in much greater debt as individuals. We don’t know how to grow our own food... We’re also looking at civil unrest all around the world. You need to prepare. This is something that could be really dangerous... My hands, now, for the first time in my life, are shaking. -- Glen Beck, February, 2009
A time where the consistent message and actions of the Right denigrate, ridicule and actively seek to undermine the power of a central government; where a significant media presence broadcasts similar messages 24 hours a day; where it suggests there is a rising, growing "revolution" against that illegitimate government;
I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub. -- Grover Norquist, 2001
What the Right hopes for, longs for, is an apocalyptic cleansing, where what they perceive as the trash and filth of American culture (which amounts to anyone who does not look, speak, or believe as they do) will be swept away by a second coming, or a second Civil War -- because they don't believe in plurality;
This government is governing against its own citizens. This president and his party are governing against us. We are at war with our own President, we are at war with our own government. -- Rush Limbaugh, January 9, 2010
... and, given all this, is anyone surprised that by continually escalating violent language and actions, people openly carrying guns; that they shoot physicians working at family planning clinics, or organize paramilitary groups to "resist" a tide of immigrants, hippies and communists who they believe are the tools of the Antichrist?
Anybody?
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