California Conservative

Bill Prendergast’s post is baffling from several perspectives. His opening is, to be kind, baffling:

“There is a future and there is a hope because it is our country. We own our country,” (Congresswoman Michele Bachmann) said. “It doesn’t belong to just a handful of radicals in Washington D.C.”

That’s what Bachmann calls the White House and her colleagues in Congress these days, “a handful of radicals.”

I’ll bet that most people don’t realize the extraordinary success that this particular kind of hatemongering has had. In the statement above and dozens of other statements like it: Bachmann’s premise is that the government elected to represent the people does not represent the people.

Considering the fact that President Obama and the Democratic leadership repeatedly ignored the loudly and passionately expressed will of the people with regards to health care and the Democrats’ failed stimulus bill, I think it’s easy to make a case that the Democrat-controlled congress and President Obama don’t represent the people. In fact, I think a 10-year-old could make that case.

The next part is the most troublesome:

As is true of any revolutionary premise, the consequences of this kind of talk can be bloody.

…I find it even odder to hear elected leaders from the Republican Party attack our republic. The irony is that as Americans we are all republicans who balance rights, responsibilities and sacrifices…

…Neither the tea party, the Republican Party, Palin nor Bach­mann have asked for teamwork or sacrifice. Instead they use the rhetoric of rage to unite those who want to stop change.

But it cannot work because our republic is only as strong as our political institutions and civic trust…

These leaders are playing with political fire that can burn us all. The real problems that confront the republic are energy, environment and economy. These huge challenges can call out our American unity.

Building rage and flirting with violence cannot end well. Using less truth and more corporate cash will only add more Christ­ian militias and less brotherly love to the 21st century.

The hyperbole contained in those paragraphs is stunning. In fact, there isn’t any proof that TEA Party activists are violent. Capitol Police in DC have said that the TEA Party people were so orderly that they picked up after themselves after their rallies. Pretty destructive sounding, isn’t it? (more…)