The RNC has released an ad that tries to paint Kavanaugh protestors as an “unhinged mob”. It also engages in outright race-baiting, starting with a video of Eric Holder encouraging protests, it also features a video of Cory booker and Maxine Waters. The only two other politicians it features are Hillary Clinton and Nancy Pelosi. This messaging has been pushed in talking points on Fox repeatedly and it is having an effect.
This must be countered, we cannot allow peaceful protestors exercising their first amendment rights to petition government to be painted as a “mob”. Doing GOTV across the South, I can already see Republican voters use this claim, that Democrats are a “mob”.
And it can be easily countered, by reminding everyone of the staggering hypocrisy involved in pushing this narrative. Republicans who try to push this talking point need to be challenged right away and reminded that Donald Trump has actively encouraged violence at his rallies by offering to pay the legal fees of attendees who beat up protestors. But even before Trump, there was the Tea-Party, actively encouraged by Republicans, which made threats of violence.
After Obamacare passed, tea-party vandals harassed dozens of lawmakers, including Rep. Louise Slaughter:
The week President Obama signed the act, Ms. Slaughter was one of at least 10 Democratic lawmakers around the country targeted with vandalism and threats. A brick was thrown into one of her congressional offices, in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and a telephone message mentioning snipers was left on an answering machine at a campaign office. She accused Republicans of “fanning the flames with coded rhetoric.” — www.nytimes.com/...
Whipped up by Republican rhetoric against improved access to health care, tea-partiers faxed an image of a noose, along with racist messages to James Clyburn’s office:
Clyburn, a veteran of the civil rights movement, told Keith Olbermann Monday that faxes sent to his office had racist images including a noose. “If you look at some of the faxes that I got today, racial slurs, nooses on gallows, and I’m telling you, some very vicious language. This stuff is not all that isolated. It’s pretty widespread. I hope it’s not too deep.” — www.huffingtonpost.com/...
They cut the gas line at Tom Perriello’s brother’s house after a right-wing blog incorrectly listed that as the Congressman’s address:
The Albemarle County Fire Marshal’s Office and the FBI have concluded that a severed gas line outside of the house of Rep. Tom Perriello’s (D-Va.) brother was “an act of vandalism.”
In a joint statement released by the FBI and the marshal’s office on Thursday said that “investigators believe that this was a deliberate act of vandalism and that the supply hose was intentionally cut.” [...]
POLITICO reported on Monday that a tea party activist incorrectly posted the address of Perriello’s brother on a local blog – believing it to be the congressman’s home address – and encouraged readers to “drop by” to express their anger of Perriello’s vote in favor of the health care bill. — www.politico.com/...
These events were directly encouraged by senior Republicans who used violent rhetoric in their speeches and campaign ads. A prime example is Sarah Palin, whose PAC issued put out the infamous gunsight image.
Palin’s Facebook page now carries a map featuring 20 gun sights, one for each of the Democrats targeted this year by her political action committee SarahPAC. Three of the gun sights, those where incumbent Democrats have already announced their retirement, are colored red. — www.huffingtonpost.com/...
So Trump again, isn’t new, he is simply a heightened version of a trend that has existed in Republican politics for years. Trump’s rallies and Charlottesville were not accidental. You don’t go from mowing your lawn to screaming “Lock Her Up”, threatening journalists, or shoving and beating protestors at rallies. That requires incitement, which the Republican party delivers in spades.
Representative Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan and a central figure in the measure’s abortion provisions, reported receiving threatening phone calls. [...]
Democrats also raised questions about some of the imagery and phrases being employed by Republicans against the Democratic architects and backers of the measure, noting that a Republican National Committee Web site urging supporters to fire Ms. Pelosi has her surrounded by flames. — www.nytimes.com/...
And if we’re honest, we will acknowledge that this has been the Republican M.O. for decades. Remember the Brooks Brothers riot?
As we begin the second Bush administration, let's take a moment to reflect upon one of the most historic episodes of the 2000 battle for the White House -- the now-legendary "Brooks Brothers Riot" at the Miami-Dade County polling headquarters.
This was when dozens of "local protesters," actually mostly Republican House aides from Washington, chanted "Stop the fraud!" and "Let us in!" when the local election board tried to move the re-counting from an open conference room to a smaller space. — www.washingtonpost.com/...
— @subirgrewal