Dear Conservatives:
Your fellow Americans demand an answer — and we want it now. Just one simple question:
Are you deliberately trying to start a civil war?
Just answer the question. Yes or no. Don’t insult us with elisions, evasions, dithering, qualifications, or conditional answers. We need to know what your intentions are — and we need to know NOW. People are being shot dead in the streets of America at the rate of several per month now. You may not want responsibility for this — but the whackadoodles pulling the triggers make no bones about who put them up to this.
You did.
The assassins themselves are ratting you out. They’re telling us, straight up, that they were inspired to act by the hate radio talkers that you empowered — one of whom is now the de facto head of the Republican party. They got it from media outlets owned by your biggest donors. They got it from bloggers who receive daily talking points faxed in from the GOP. They got it from activists representing causes that would have never become causes in the first place if the issues hadn’t been politically expedient for you.
Beyond that: You’ve already admitted your own complicity. When the Department of Homeland Security expressed their worries about right-wing extremist violence last April, practically every conservative pundit in the country went into a righteous fit. DHS never named anyone directly, so it was astonishing how many of you on the right were so quick to step up and claim that that memo was slandering you, personally and collectively. Since you were so eager to claim that that memo was all about you, now that the violence has come to pass, we’re well justified in holding you to that.
And please don’t insult our intelligence by saying that these acts are the work of lone wolves, and that you don’t have anything to do with this, and that it’s all the fault of the left. It’s true that there have always been crazies in our midst. But by choosing to gain power through a politics that only motivates through hate and fear, you’ve recruited a good-sized army of those crazies, armed them up, and turned them into paranoid monsters that are now running loose on the American landscape.
We know you have absolute and utter contempt for the intelligence of the average American, but trying to blame the left for creating this situation is a fabrication so vast that it tells us you don’t even have so much as a shred of respect for yourselves. Even you seem to know that your word is worth nothing to most Americans now — and you don’t seem to care.
You don’t seem to give a damn about the future of this country, either. You’re just in it to win the next election, increase profits for the next quarter, or boost your ratings in the next book. As long as selling hate accomplishes any of these goals, you’ll do it — without regard for the cultural sewage you’re creating, without regard for the way you’ve polluted the political landscape, and now apparently without even a moment’s regard for the innocent lives that are being lost because you seem bent on destroying every shred of trust required for our democracy to function.
But the bodies are piling up. We are demanding an accounting from you. We are demanding that you take responsibility for the situation you’ve created. We are looking you straight in the eyes and demanding a straight answer:
Are you deliberately trying to start a civil war?
If your answer is yes, then stop this cowardly half-assed screwing around. You speak the language of war and honor; but the honor code of the warriors you pretend to revere demands that you declare your intentions. If you really believe that the only way to get the America you want is to negate a fair election, shred the Constitution, and violently cleanse the country of everyone who doesn’t agree with you, then man up and get on with it. If it’s a shooting war you want, do not doubt that there are plenty of progressives who will oblige you. If this goal is so important that you’re really willing to kill for it, please don’t forget that you will also need to be willing to die for it. Because, like martyrs Greg McKendry and Steven Johns proved, we are willing to do whatever is necessary to stop you.
If your answer is no, then you have just one other choice. Knock off the tantrums, grow up, rebuild your party, come back to the table, and sit down and govern with us. (We know this will be a stretch, but we think some of you are capable of it.) You will need to learn, many of you for the first time, to get your way as adults do — without fear-based politics, polarizing rhetoric, on-air threats against those who disagree with you, and repeating outrageous lies in the face of stone facts and irrefutable evidence.
And most of all: you need to stop feeding the crazies. You need to disavow them in every way possible — sincerely, emphatically, and with full awareness that every time one of these people acts, it destroys the credibility of "conservatives," "Republicans," and "the right wing" in the eyes of the country. You cannot assassinate your way back to power. And don’t doubt for a moment that the majority of Americans — even those who agree with your ideas — will abandon your cause forever once it realizes that’s what you’re trying to do.
Since you’re the ones funding the violent radicals on your flank, you need to stop sending them money. Since you know far more about their activities than any one else, you need to be the ones who turn them in. Since you’re the ones who make heroes and martyrs out of them, you need to be the ones who call them out as criminals. Until you do this — consistently, wholeheartedly, and responsibly – we can only conclude that these assassins are operating with your support and approval, and that you are intentionally trying to start an armed revolution in America.
That’s your choice. Are you deliberately trying to start a civil war? Or are you willing to work for real civility, and return to your seat at the table, ready to help us choose the country’s future?
Yes or No. Right now. The window is closing fast behind you. And once it closes, none of us — not you, not us, not anyone — will have the choice to avoid the catastrophe that will follow. It’s your decision. And you need to make it now.
Related posts:
- SCOTUS And OLC: It’s All About the Right-Wing Moolah
- Memo to Dems: Rahm, Not Hippies, Caused 1994 Debacle
- Memo to Congress: Why Can’t We Have a Health Care System that Doesn’t Suck?
- Late Night: DHS’s Right-Wing Extremism Report – Second Verse, Same as the First.
- Memo to the White House: You Can’t Win an Unpopular War (And Stop Quoting George W. Bush)
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Thank you, Sara, for this important post.
I wonder if we will look back at now as The Good Old Days.
FDL readers may remember Sara as the host of two book salons:
Amanda Marcotte’s It’s a Jungle Out There, and Millennial Makeover by Morley Winograd and Michael Hais.
I hope the grownups in the right wing show up pretty soon. Things are getting out of hand.
Undoubtedly. Those of us still standing, anyway…
Almost imperceptibly, they have begun to equate environmental ‘terrorists’ – you know, the fringe-Left – with these murderous bastards.
Not as oblique is their move to associate these same murderous bastards AS The Left.
They will try to sell what is lying around, because they have already sold everything else.
Thank you, and welcome, Sara.
It’s gotten pretty out of hand when the grownups (at least regarding Sotomayor) are Laura Bush and her jumping-out-of-planes father-in-law. I mean, who in the GOP listens to them?
Wingnuts view mature and reasonable conservatives with nearly the same degree of contempt they hold for people on the Left. No room for grownups, think “Lord of the Flies.”
That’s right, call the cowards out.
yellow bellies.
Lisa has a terrific post up on La Figa on this topic, covering Shepard Smith’s bold admission that the crazies are coming out of the woodwork at Fox:
Smith:
What a great post. Thanks Sara. Have been keeping up with your writing re this subject and it’s the
best. Glad you called them out.
Thank you, Thank you, Sara.
After eight years of insanity it has come to this. Now I’m holding my breath again…That 25% of the population has lost it’s mind.
Presumes facts not in evidence. There’s no indication at all that there are any grown-ups in the right wing.
I remember telling my Republican sister that the 2004 election was a national intelligence test and that anyone who voted for Bush failed.
In retrospect the statement might have been a bit harsh but if we hadn’t been allowed to vent during those eight years I think many of us would have burst.
I wondered at the time I saw that if Fox had him do it because they were getting so much heat
re Hannity and O’Reilly. I guess we’ll never know.
A sobering question. Tweeted out a link. Thank you, Sara Robinson.
*standing on chair clapping*
thank you, sara.
Sorry. One of the main qualifications for being a Conservative is to never ever accept any responsibility for one’s actions or rhetoric. If cornered, just get louder and more outrageous.
It’s always “those people” who are at fault.
Now there’s an e-mail to send your relatives who keep copying you on the trash that was circulated to them.
Excellent.
Terrific post. Thanks so much! Bless you Sara!
Ironic.. the difference between ‘Evolution’ and ‘Revolution’ is the ‘R’.
and the ‘R’ seems to be self-destructing.
With the Fourth of July approaching, this is very timely. If you read the writings of the Founding Fathers and Mothers today, they would be deemed radical leftists not worth listening to in our current BigMedia storylines.
The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution are about as Liberal as it gets. Just by definition alone those were Liberal documents as opposed to conservative thought.
The modern day Repub has no claim to these ideals on any level, and on this 4th of July your question of “Do you want a civil war?” is most appropriate, and as we get all patriotic and watch the fireworks, let’s all work to make sure the modern day Repub spokesholes and ideology figuratively burn up and turn into ash just like those fireworks.
Sara:
That’s exactly what I thought at the time. Reminds me of the old saying: “If the shoe fits, wear it.”
Of course they want a civil war — it’s about the only option they have left to regain power. Wasn’t the strategy obvious in the many inciteful speeches given by Sarah Palin during McCain’s Presidential bid? These hate-mongering scumbags will do anything, say anything, appeal to the worst mob violence instincts of their followers if they think it’ll help them get back to power.
It wouldn’t seem that they have much to gain from this stuff. They can’t kill us all.
I like the new saying better. If the shoe fits, throw it.
Or rather, they want the country on the brink, so agitated that when the bell rings in ‘10, they will say “Look what The Democrat Party has brought A’Mer’ka to!”, and shake their heads at the silly voters for their failed experimentation in BigGummint™.
A civil war is a catastrophe for them, IMHO.
LOL!
An addendum to my diary recommendation of Krugman’s Big Hate column noted a letter to the editor in the Mpls Trib that was positing pretty much the same thing as you discuss here, Sara.
What was that ReTHUG dinner, anyway, but a gathering of the most shrill of the hatemongers. Using Jon Voight to megaphone their fear and divide tactics, even including not-so-sly referencing of the assassinated Roman ruler, Julius Caesar, is pandering and eggin’-on their rabid faithful, and arguably also, seditious and treasonous.
Magnificent post.
Prairie’s excellent post was featured on the front page of Oxdown a couple days ago.
watertiger is upstairs!
It’s “Tooltime with Tapper.” Again.
Oh puhlese. Civil war????!!!
Let’s not don our opponents’ garb.
There’s this physicist joke (or at least that’s how I heard it) about 12 is evenly divisible by all integers less than 12. After all: 1 goes into 12 evenly, 2 goes into 12 evenly, 3 goes into 12 evenly, 4 goes into 12 evenly. Let’s not get ridiculous.
I think the overblown emotion of this post is like: let’s not get ridiculous.
Not that I listen to their noise, so would not have heard, has the R side expressed any humane, compassionate response to the death of Dr Tiller? Just curious..
I happen to agree wholeheartedly with this post. Thank you Sara for putting into words what I’ve been thinking lately.
I seldom agree with your often-offered opinion, however.
I like the part about how they are funded.
They want to fight this battle on their turf protected by what they see as their First Amendment rights. I say fight them in the marketplace where, as they get more radical, they are more vulnerable. Vulnerable to advertiser disgust with their views.
Did Nike want to keep Michael Vick as a sponsor? No. Why not? He was still a great player, but he advocated something that tainted the brand of the shoe company. The key is to tie O’Reilly’s increasingly violent suggestions and comments to the advertisers. And then ask them, does he speak for you? Would the kind of comments he makes be allowed in your corporate board room? If not, then why is he your spokesman?
Companies have HR guidelines that people like O’Reilly would violate so it’s not like they are being asked to raise to a new standard of decency.
The other thing that this method does it ignore ratings. “But he has great ratings! Great ratings with no sponsors means no money and money is what it is all about, not ratings for ratings sake. You know what else has great ratings? Hard core Porn. But you won’t see your Bay Area Mercedes dealers advertising on the Spice Channel. Actually I would have less problem with them advertising there than on O’Reilly, but that is their decision.
When they say it is a First Amendment issue and they have their “right to free speech!” it puts us in the position of defending them. I think that this is premise we need to address,right off the bat, especially on commercially funded broadcast TV and radio.
1) We are not the Government
2) They are already regulated by the government on obsenity and decency.
3) They have guidelines that are beyond the FCC, station guidelines and advertiser guidelines. Those people have no problem saying, “We don’t want to sponsor you” and they won’t get screamed at as censuring them.
Removing their paid support is not censure ship
4) Calls to kill people is not covered by the FCC, but doesn’t mean that it isn’t covered by the policies of the station owners or the people who write the checks (advertisers)
If you read the financial documents from the a big radio company like Citadel Broadcasting you will see that they are hurting financially because they are dependent on increasing ad revenues.
A lot of you know what we did in 2007 reguarding the violent Rhetoric of KSFO hosts. We contacted advertisers with the actual audio clips from the hosts calling for the death of people via torture and hanging. Liberals, democrats, journalists and Muslims were called out.
By Jan 20, 2007 I determined they lost 28 advertisers, millions of dollars of revenue and Melanie Morgan’s job.
So you see there IS a process and method of reducing the violent rhetoric on TV and Radio that doesn’t limit their speech.
Sara even made what I did (with your help) into a verb, “Spocko’d” (blush)
The right want the fight to be on their terms using their weapons and using our principles against us. With the Spocko method we go after the people who are unwittingly funding this violent rhetoric and let them see that fomenting violence is not good for your brand.
One of the doctors on with Moyers last night directly addressed the free speech question. He said, I think, this is not debate….it is terrorism to get rid of the docs & the opportunity to have access to abortion. It’s the prohibition against shouting fire in a theatre. Truly that is what O R. does with his murderer talk.
It’s a free country, at least they say it is. So feel free to disagree. Though I’d like you to be more specific so I could join the discussion. Why is it that you don’t find such a post OTT?
This is not donning opponents’ garb. This is calling it what it is. How many more of these attacks will there be? Will the right wing continue to send terrorists to kill people like this, as they have been doing since, oh, I dunno… the ’80s?
The big problem here is that the right is basically the party of narcissism. In order for the sane conservatives to draw a line between themselves and the bad guys, they’d have to re-evaluate their position. And if that happens, all the power they hold will evaporate overnight. So therefore, it will continue to escalate, because it’s better to have power than peace in this calculus, especially if they’re in denial of their connection to the violence.
As Sara points out, this is how terrorism begins. The moderate middle gets more and more radicalized.
Here’s another angle to consider: If you could go back in a time machine to 1996 and tell Rupert Murdoch that in 2009 he would have a hit show hosted by a guy who did fake immolations and proclaimed that America is turning fascist under Democratic leadership, WOULD HE BELIEVE YOU?
Most excellent post, Sara. Thank you.
Oh, pulese stop it. The right is trying to scare us to death by the paranoid foreign policy regime that was initiated in the Truman administration. Can’t we get off the mary-go-round and figure out that no one threatens the U.S. in an existentential sense and that we ought back off and chill out?
on Bill Maher last night Fran Townsend sputtered something about the left wing extremists and crimes against property…well, yeah…let me think a femtosec, are these two things equivalent?
Great post, Sara. It’s time for some of the party elders to speak out. Bush pere seemed to get a start with his comments on Sotomayor, but could go a lot further.
Memo to the Democrats: Can you start to show some moxie and salvage this country by bringing back the Fairness Doctrine?
eCAHN: Sara works with Dave Neiwert at monitoring right-wing movements in the US. She knows whereof she speaks.
I agree. I have been reading her for years.
And she’s right. Uhm… make the ‘correct’!
If you want a civil war, go for it. We’re ready.
I certainly don’t want one. But, if there is one, I’m there – bad leg and all… I’m sick to death of all of their stupididty. And of some of our stupidity in response to their’s.
Fantastic letter Sarah! I’ve posted part of it on my blog, posted a link to it on Think Progress, and will be spreading it around today because your letter is THAT IMPORTANT!
Hooray! This is a great essay. It’s exactly what I’ve been thinking, but couldn’t put into the right string of words.
Actor John Voight said “it is time to put a stop to the false prophet Obama.” If this is not inciting assassination or revolution, what does it mean?
Sara, good question but way behind the times.
What the tools need is a little distraction. Why not point out that it doesn’t matter about the democracy. 5 of the 9 of the supreme court are catholic. With the new Puerto Rican tool it will be 6 out of 9. Bye bye Roe vs Wade. Hell, Gingrich has already smelled the wind and switched.
Democracy? When the fundies, Baptists, Holy Rollers, snake handlers, Mormons, and Limbaugh puppets realize that they have lost everything, the whole ball of wax is going to come undone. Stock up on guns, ammo, white robes and dynomite, religious war is coming here.
Overpopulation in the United States is soon going to be solved spontaneously. You thought Mad Max was a fantasy, go back and read about the reformation.