L.C. Democrats: A message to America

After the passage of the historic healthcare reform bill, which may be the most important bill to be signed into law since the passage of civil rights, the nation has reached a boiling point. Violent and hateful rhetoric from right -ing extremists has increased to dangerous levels, and it needs to be addressed.

Fox News and their all-star cast of fear-mongers and anxiety-inciters led the charge to stir up violent outrage against any progress this country makes because of the policies of President Obama and the Democrats in Congress. From Glenn Beck calling Obama a socialist to Sean Hannity comparing Democrats to Nazis, the conservative media has been begging for outrageous responses from conservatives. This all has led to the unacceptable actions of right wing extremists in recent weeks.

During the healthcare debate, we had to witness Tea Party members hurl racial slurs at Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and attack the sexuality of Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA). If that wasn’t bad enough, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) was even spit on by Tea Party protesters. These are unacceptable events by themselves, but the response by Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) made it much, much worse. Nunes blamed the Democrats for the behavior of the Tea Party saying, “...When you use a totalitarian tactics, people, you know, begin to act crazy.”

Immediately after the passage of the bill, the situation became violent. House Majority Leader, Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), reported that after the vote, at least ten House Democrats had received threats after voting for the healthcare bill. Two of those representatives, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ), actually had bricks thrown through the windows of their district campaign offices. The top ranking African American in the House, James Clyburn (D-SC), received an unsigned fax of a photo of a noose. Some Tea Party members went as far as cutting the gas line to the home of Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-VA) brother. Sarah Palin proceeded to follow the string of threats with a Twitter post, which seem to encourage the violence, saying, “Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: “Don’t Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!” Pls see my Facebook page.” The aforementioned Facebook page had a map with the locations of the homes of Democratic Congressmen and women that marked each location with an image of gun crosshairs.

Our nation was founded on dissent and disagreement. I think that people having differing opinions on political matters is not only what makes this nation great, but it is necessary for this nation to exist. I want Americans to exercise their rights to assemble and organize to help govern this great nation. People should have the right to express their opinions, but when they use violence or threats as fear tactics to suppress others’ rights, they have crossed the line. As someone who worked as a field organizer in Missouri during the 2008 election for Obama and experienced threats from extremists personally, I take this all very seriously. We all need to take a look at ourselves and examine our behavior. We cannot let partisanship tear this nation apart. We all need to step away from our partisan news sources (both Democrats and Republicans) and call out those who threaten another American’s rights whether they are on our side or not.