Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money

While Jared Loughner’s extremist views differ from those of the Tea Party, many have raised concerns that the anti-government and hate-filled rhetoric coming from the Tea Party movement, along with leaders such as Sarah (Reload) Palin and Glenn Beck, contribute to an atmosphere of hate which promotes violence among disturbed individuals such as Loughner. There is a fine line between extremists on both ends of the political spectrum, and I was not at all surprised to see that Loughner’s views include ideas from both extremes.

Many on the right, rather than showing concern for such hate speech, have actually lowered themselves to defend the hate speech from people such as Sarah Palin. Their arguments typically are characterized by creating false equivalencies between statements from people or blogs on the left with far more extreme statements from the right. The right wing defense is also often based upon straw men attacks, falsely claiming that those of us who are criticizing right wing hate speech are placing the blame for the shooting on the right, when this is totally different from the argument most of us are making.

Another rather perverse argument coming from defenders of right wing hate speech is the claim that those of us who are pointing out its dangers are trying to win political points from the shooting of  Gabrielle Giffords. It is actually the Tea Party Express which is trying to capitalize on the shooting by sending out email which utilizes these bogus arguments and attempt to raise money:

We ask you to please stand with the Tea Party Express and show your support for our efforts.

You can make a contribution online right now to the Tea Party Express – CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE.

Full text of the email is under the fold.

Ironically, while I was working on this post I received an email full of insults, profanity, and repetition of some of the bogus arguments from the right noted above. The writer states he has now donated to the Tea Party. This episode certainly has presented an opportunity for the Tea Party to find similar-minded hate-filled individuals. Hopefully this example will also provide further opportunities for those of us who prefer civil discourse to strengthen our democracy by helping to reduce the acceptability of the hate mongering which has become so common on the far right.

Full text of the Tea Party Express fund raising email:

This weekend we all were horrified to hear the news of the violent shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and several others in Arizona.

One thing that surprised us was how many in the news media and liberal political figures and organizations immediately launched into an attack on the tea party movement – assigning blame for the shooting to our grass roots, Constitutionalist movement in general, and Gov. Sarah Palin in particular.

Friends, this is outrageous.

It is quite clear that liberals are trying to exploit this shooting for their own political benefit, and they used deception and dishonesty to try and smear all of us and our beliefs.

You know what the truth is? The truth is that the shooter, Jared Loughner is the one responsible for this atrocity. But liberals are trying to place the blame on society for embracing the tea party movement.

We here at the Tea Party Express find that disgusting and revolting.

This isn’t a new concept for liberals. Let us harken back to the words of Ronald Reagan when he called out the Left for similar behavior in years past:

“We must reject the idea that every time a law’s broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker. It is time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.”

– Ronald Reagan

If Jared Loughner does have a definable political ideology it is that of a far Left anarchist. Loughner is a mentally disturbed young man who sought his ideological fulfillment from the Communist Manifesto – hardly the Bible of the Tea Party movement. He posted videos of flag burning on his YouTube channel – again, antics more consistent with Blame America First liberals, not the tea party movement.

In fact, Loughner’s interactions with Congresswoman Giffords date all the way back to 2007 when he confronted her with a question he had, and received an answer he found unacceptable. You read that right – Loughner’s interactions with Congresswoman Giffords date back to 2007 – well before the tea party movement had even been launched.

This was all an effort to try and demean us and diminish support for the tea party movement, since the Left could not beat us at the ballot box. Sadly way too many people in the media cooperated with this smear campaign.

The media didn’t tell you that the left-wing website, DailyKos, had targeted Congresswoman Giffords, putting a BULLSEYE on her, did they? But that’s just what happened.

Instead they tried to blame Gov. Sarah Palin. Friends, their hypocrisy and double standards are appalling.

This kind of media bias is a large part of why our tea party movement exists – because the voices of We The People have not been represented fairly by the news media, and listened to by our elected officials.

Well guess what: to those liberals in the news media and on the political Left who think you can silence us, you are wrong! Your efforts to try and smear us and shut us up will fail.

We have nothing to do with this awful, tragic event in Arizona. Our prayers are with Congresswoman Giffords and the victims and families of this massacre.

But we will still fight just as passionately for this country we love, and the vision of our Founding Fathers as outlined by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence.

We’re taking our country back through the ballot box and in the public square – through peaceful means. And we will prevail, because our ideas and ideals are stronger than the scare/smear/defame tactics of the leftists we face.

We ask you to please stand with the Tea Party Express and show your support for our efforts.

You can make a contribution online right now to the Tea Party Express – CLICK HERE TO CONTRIBUTE.

8 Comments

  1. 1
    Rebby Martin says:

    » Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage …: SciFi Weekend: The Event; … http://bit.ly/e7kpXN #p2 #p21 #p2b

  2. 2
    Maurice Ross says:

    RT @ronchusid: Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money http://bit.ly/dIJnhg

  3. 3
    James Hubbs says:

    "Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money" and related posts http://bit.ly/gNq6E5

  4. 4
    Maximus Rogue says:

    "Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money" and relate… http://bit.ly/hSXlqE

  5. 5
    edwin lubanga says:

    "Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money" and relate… http://bit.ly/gmYLPY

  6. 6
    allen emmall says:

    "Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Takes Advantage of Arizona Shooting To Raise Money" and related po… http://ht.ly/1aPy4u

  7. 7
    steveV says:

    The Right is the party of war. They gotta have an enemy who they are compelled to vilify… that’s their appeal…that’s how right wing talking heads are getting rich… they’ve institutionalized anti-government hatred…and none of the leaders on the right can speak out against this hatred without risking exile. It’s mind numbingly maddening, uncivil, and will eventually bring America to it’s needs.

  8. 8
    Dr Dick Nelson cmt says:

    "» Right Wingers Defend Hate Speech While Tea Party Take Advantage of Arizona Shooting 2 Raise Money Liberal Values"( http://bit.ly/pXlDDA )

Leave a comment