Talk radio. It has become something of a game for me to listen and mentally debunk what the spin masters put forth on the airwaves 24/7. Hannity, Boortz, Beck, Levin, Savage. They all have their talking points and they pound them, call after call, into our heads. But what happens when those masters of disaster start helping their listeners plan for the coming revolution...in America? Where is the line between 'supposing' and 'inciting'? What I heard this morning was not only enough to make me sit up and listen, it was enough to spur me to pen my first diary.
I'm a student. Granted, I'm an OLDER student, but a student none-the-less. Every day I travel about 75 minutes to school and then turn around and come home. I work where I go to school, so during the school year I work nights, go to school, then come home, sleep, wake up and do it all over again. The point I'm trying to make is I spend A LOT of time in the car and, consequently, a lot of time listening to talk radio. I can hear the "Ewwww"s reverberating, but the truth is, it lets me know just what the right-wingers are thinking, even tho I sometimes have to bite my tongue to keep from back-talking Hannity or screaming out loud at Beck.
This morning was no different. I was driving to my 0900 class and had turned on the local talk-meister, whom I will not dignify by mentioning his name in my post. Suffice it to say he is a BIG fan of Beck and has endeavored to begin his own second coming of Reagan through a group called "The Young Conservatives". Of course he was one of the instigators of the local tea parties. Every morning he and those of like mind rant and rave about Obama Care, Obama Maniacs, 'Tax and Trade' and "chucklehead" sheeple who are trying to destroy America.
I listened as he interviewed a local conservative candidate and then he started a line of discussion that almost had me looking up the number for Homeland Security.
What he said was that he had had a conversation with a military friend and that that conversation was about a revolution in our country; in a revolt, what would happen with the military. That this friend had contended "...that the soldiers that have been in the military for a period of time, the veterans, will rally behind the people, and those that are new, the young guys, they'll follow whatever orders they are given, and if it's to fire on civilians, then so be it, they will." And that, he says, is where the battle lines could be drawn. He goes on to say that he has heard some "very, very intelligent people who are saying it's inevitable. It's not "if"... it's "when". People now are wondering is there going to be a particular match that lights this whole thing or is it going to be a series of events like Barack Obama continuing to erode our freedoms until people finally say 'no more'. Will it be peaceful or will it end up being an armed conflict? And I know there are people like Beck who are going 'for goodness sake, don't be the one who is stupid, don't shoot anybody, we're not talking about violence.'" He goes on "I'm taking one step back from that. I'm not advocating violence. Nobody is. But I also recognize that it could come; it could come. And what a frightening thing to be living through in America today, where there are more and more people who are frustrated with the situation, that violence is something that they are actually considering. Where people are actually saying now 'It's inevitable that there will be armed rebellion in America.'"
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He goes on to take callers, among which are a national guardsman's wife, who says her husband has already decided that the line in the sand is when they come to take their guns away. That he and others like him will not support the president, but defend the people's right to keep their guns. The conversation devolved to gun hoarding and how much food to put away for the impending "armed rebellion". I was rather slack-jawed at this point, I couldn't quite believe what I was hearing. When Homeland Security came out with their profile of right-wing extremists, I was a bit ludicrous. I live in the heartland of the bible-belt, surrounded by conservatives and white supremacists, but I still thought that perhaps HLS was over reacting. Until today.
Maybe I've been too obsessed with health care and have ignored this type of banter. I wonder if it's common in other parts of the country and when does it cross the line? I know that when GW was in charge, we moaned and complained, threatened to move to Europe or Canada, even stood on street corners with signs that said "Bush lied...soldiers died", but I can never recall anyone advocating or even pre-supposing violence! Perhaps liberals aren't aggressive enough, but it seems to me the Vietnam War surely brought out the violence on the left. I had to laugh when he intimated that there had never been talk of revolution in the 1960's or 1970's...especially since during the election he talked up Ayre's terrorism and his association with Obama.
Perhaps I just need to turn the station, listen to a little acid rock and long for the good old days. But now, I'm almost afraid to...what if there's a revolution and nobody invites me?