One clear lesson from this tragedy for members of this site: the Democrats and the Republicans are NOT the same.
If you want to tell me the Democrats are too corporate friendly, I'll agree.
If you want to criticize Barack Obama for caving, I may agree - may, because caving is sometimes in the eye of the beholder.
But don't tell me that the parties are the same. Does Barack Obama tell us to RELOAD after setbacks? Does he use rifle sight symbols to indicate Republicans that should be "targeted" for removal from office?
More below the fold.
Do we have Democratic representatives choosing as chief of staff someone who said if ballots don't work, bullets will?
Do we have left-wing radio hosts who threaten the lives of judges? Same guy threatened the life of Kossack Mainmonides.
Does anyone see a pattern here?
Do Democrats do the things listed herein under "hatred":
* call members of Congress n*gger and f*ggot;
* elected leaders who say "I'm a proud racist";
* state that America has been built by white people;
* say that poor people are poor because they're rotten people, call them "parasitic garbage" or say they shouldn't be allowed to vote;
* call women bitches and prostitutes just because you don't like their politics ( re - pea ted ly );
* assert that the women who are serving our nation in uniform are hookers;
* mock and celebrate the death of a grandmother because you disagree with her son's politics;
* declare that those who disagree with you are shown by that disagreement to be not just "Marxist radicals" but also monsters and a deadly disease killing the nation (this would fit in the hyperbole and history categories, too);
* joke about blindness;
* advocate euthanizing the wife of your political opponent;
* taunt people with incurable, life-threatening diseases -- especially if you do it on a syndicated broadcast;
* equate gay love with bestiality -- involving horses or dogs or turtles or ducks -- or polygamy, child molestation, pedophilia;
* casually assume that only white males look "like a real American";
* assert presidential power to authorize torture, torture a child by having his testicles crushed in front of his parents to get them to talk, order the massacre of a civilian village and launch a nuclear attack without the consent of Congress;
* attack children whose mothers have died;
* call people racists without producing a shred of evidence that they've said or done something that would even smell like racism -- same for invoking racially charged "dog whistle" words (repeatedly);
* condemn the one thing that every major religion agrees on;
* complain that we no longer employ the tactics we once used to disenfranchise millions of Americans because of their race;
* blame the victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks for their suffering and losses;
* celebrate violence , joke about violence, prepare for violence or use violent imagery, "fun" political violence, hints of violence, threats of violence (this one is rather explicit), suggestions of violence or actual violence (and, really, suggesting anal rape with a hot piece of metal is beyond the pale); and
* incite insurrection telling people to get their guns ready for a "bloody battle" with the president of the United States.
So let's draw a distinction.
Some conservative Democrats: metaphorical hippie punchers. They don't much like you.
Some conservative Republicans: hippie killers. Not metaphorically. They hate you and want you dead.
One party may sometimes ignore you; the other intends to silence you forever, by any means necessary.
If you don't see both a practical and a moral distinction between "shut up you fucking retard" and "you didn't shut up so I now shoot you in the head" you are, well, a fucking retard.
Therefore: if you come onto this board and say there's no difference between the parties at all, you deserve to be told to SHUT UP. With an HR.
After Saturday, you know better.
Update:
- Added "some" to the description of conservative Democrats versus conservative Republicans. No group is monolithic.
- Clarified: I voted for the 3rd poll option. Comparing and contrasting the positions of the parties is an important part of what we do here. It's the broad brush of "there is no difference at all" that I find so false and destructive.
Update 2:
Orcinus
Some very nice quotes for a book on Eliminationism. Here's a few taken from his page.
Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don’t kill all the liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus -- living fossils -- so we will never forget what these people stood for."
Ann Coulter: "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. ... That's just a joke, for you in the media."
Melanie Morgan: "I would have no problem with [New York Times editor Bill Keller] being sent to the gas chamber."
"The Political Insight":
Let's start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live?
Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous -- grab for the golden ring.
Rep. Jim Gibbons, R-Nev.:
While praising the efforts of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, Gibbons accused liberals, movie stars and song makers of "trying to divide this country."
"I say we tell those liberal, tree-hugging, Birkenstock-wearing, hippie, tie-dyed liberals to go make their movies and their music and whine somewhere else," he told the crowd, according to the Elko Daily Free Press.
He then said it was "too damn bad we didn't buy them a ticket" to become human shields in Iraq.
Rep. Peter King:
And Joe Wilson has no right to complain. And I think people like Tim Russert and the others, who gave this guy such a free ride and all the media, they're the ones to be shot, not Karl Rove.
Bill O'Reilly:
Where does George Soros have all his money? Do you know? Do you know where George Soros, the big left-wing loon who's financing all these smear [web]sites, do you know where his money is? Curaçao. Curaçao. They ought to hang this Soros guy.
Quite the compendium, and I limited myself to one apiece from such great minds as Coulter and Limbaugh.