I just saw this video of Andrew Breitbart in djtyg's recommended diary. I think it needs to be shared widely.
The part I wish to focus on is this:
There are times where I'm not thinking as clearly as I should, and in those unclear moments, I always think to myself, 'Fire the first shot. Bring it on.' Because I know who's on our side. They can only win a rhetorical and propaganda war. They cannot win. We outnumber them in this country, and we have the guns. [audience laughter] I'm not kidding.
Breitbart might not remember, but he isn't the first person to think this way in recent years, that a simple spark could start a literal war between Left and Right.
-----
At a Unitarian Universalist church in Knoxville, back in July of 2008, about 25 kids were performing an abbreviated version of the musical "Annie." A man walked in with a guitar case, pulled out a 12 gauge shotgun, and fired into the crowd. Nine people were shot, two fatally.
The shooter was a person (I use the term loosely) named Jim David Adkisson. He left a handwritten manifesto explaining--such as a thing like that could be explained--his motives for attacking that congregation.
I have transcribed (spelling/grammar errors and all) some of what he wrote, because while it's hateful and vile and frightening I think it's very important to have it as a basis of comparison to truly understand what Breitbart is saying. For decency's sake, those excerpts are below the fold.
(typos his: emphasis mine)
Lately I've been feeling helpless in our war on Terrorizm. But I realized I could engage the terrorists allies here in America. The best allies they've got. The Democrates! The democrates have done everything they can do to tie our hands in this War on Terror. They're all abunch of Traitors. They want America to loose this war for reasons I can not understand. It makes me sooo mad!
In a parallel train of thought; It saddens me to think back on all the bad things that Liberalism has done to this country. The worst problem America faces today is Liberalism.... Liberals have attack'd every major institution that made America great. From the Boy Scouts to the military, from education to Religion. The major news outlets have become the propaganda arm of the Democrat Party. Liberals are evil, they embrace the tenets of Karl Marx, they're Marxist, socialist, communists.
[About the Unitarian Universalists, he writes:]
These sick people aren't Liberals, they're Ultra-Liberals. This is a collection of sicko's, weirdo's, + homo's. The UU church is the Fountainhead, the veritable wellspring of anti-American organizations like Moveon.org, Code Pink, and other un-American groups.
[About his motives]
Know This If Nothing Else
I. This was a hate crime:
I hate the damn left-wing Liberals. There is a vast left-wing conspiracy in this country + these liberals are working together to attack every decent + honorable institution in the Nation, trying to turn this country into a communist state. Shame on them.
II. This was a Political Protest:
I'm protesting the liberal Supreme Court Justices for give the terrorists at GITMO constitutional rights. I'm protesting the major News outlets, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, PBS for being the propaganda wing of the Democrat Party. It's criminal what they're getting away with. They're traitors! They must be stopped. I'm protesting the DNC running such a radial leftist candidate. Osama Hussein OBama, yo mama. No experience, no brains, a joke. Dangerous to America. [racist comment omitted]
III. This was a Symbolic Killing:
Who I wanted to kill was every Democrat in the Senate, + House, the 100 people in Bernard Goldberg's book. I'd like to kill everyone in the Mainstream Media. But I knew these people were inaccesible to me. I couldn't get to the generals + high ranking officers of the Marxist movement so I went after the foot soldiers, the chickenshit liberals that vote in these traitorous people. Someone had to get the ball rolling. I volunteered. I hope others do the same.
[His conclusion]
... The only way we can rid ourselves of this evil is kill them in the streets. Kill them where they gather. Id like to encourage other like minded people to do what I've done. If life ain't worth living anymore don't just kill yourself, do something for your Country before you go. Go Kill Liberals!
-----
This is the violence Andrew Breitbart is cheering for. He wants to see dead liberals. He wants to see right-wing American citizens shooting left-wing citizens. He honestly wants his side to kill us.
Of course, the violence against Democrats and liberals hasn't been confined to one Tennessee church. Here are just a few other examples that spring to mind:
Arkansas Democratic Party Chairman Bill Gwatney, shot to death August 13, 2008--two weeks after the Knoxville church shooting.
Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, shot in the head January 8, 2001--eighteen other people were shot with her, nine of them fatally.
Doctor George Tiller, shot in the head May 31, 2009--he was killed by an assassin while working as an usher at his church's Sunday service, after years of being vilified as "Tiller the Killer" on right-wing television and radio programs.
Liberal radio talk-show host Alan Berg, shot to death by Klansmen on June 18, 1984.
Political activist and city official Harvey Milk, assassinated along with liberal Mayor George Moscone on November 27, 1978.
I simply don't have the time to list every incident of violence against civil rights activists, GLBT citizens and groups, liberals, and anti-war demonstrators. And obviously not all of those were meant as attempts to incite a larger campaign of violence against the Left. But that's the backdrop against which Breitbart is speaking.
My point is this: I don't think Mr. Breitbart can understand this, but even if we followed a violent ideology it wouldn't be possible for liberals to "fire the first shot."