Jimmy Hoffa fires up crowd with call for peaceful political change, conservatives freak out

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Pants wet with righteous outrage, conservatives have been freaking out (see, for example, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here -- it's all over the right-wing blogosphere) over Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa Jr.'s aggressive remarks in Michigan yesterday, warming up the crowd for President Obama:

President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. Let's take these son of bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong.

A call to violence! A call for blood to flow in the streets!

Conservatives are right to be angry. Wouldn't we be angry if it were the other way 'round. Weren't we angry over Palin's irresponsible "in the crosshairs" rhetoric, particularly after the Giffords shooting?

Yeah, well.

The thing is, these conservatives, piling on and not bothering to look into what Hoffa actually said, are missing something: context.

As Media Matters notes, Fox News (surprise, surprise) edited Hoffa's speech to make it appear he was calling for violence. Specifically, they edited out the context. Hoffa wasn't talking about a violent uprising, he was talking about voting, about winning at the polls. Here's what he actually said:

President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march. And President Obama, we want one thing: jobs, jobs, jobs... That's what we're going to tell him... When he sees what we're doing here, he will be inspired. But he needs help. And you know what, everybody here's got a vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize, let's take these son of a bitches out and give America back to America where we belong.

(I watched the clip. And I have transcribed his speech verbatim. Funny how many in the media can't do that, or can't be bothered to, even those supposedly without a partisan agenda.)

The first quote above is from RealClearPolitics. It conveniently omits the point about voting (and about jobs). And this is what other conservatives are doing as well, from Fox News on down.

But it's not just the right-wing media. Consider this headline from ABC News: "Hoffa On Tea Party: 'Let's Take These Sons Of Bitches Out!'" No, that's only part of what he said, and the headline misses the point about voting as well. The post includes part of the part about voting, but the focus of the post is clear, and highly misleading.

Look, it can certainly be argued that Hoffa said some inappropriate things -- or rather that some of what he said he said in an inappropriate way using inappropriate rhetoric. I'm not sure he needed to be so militaristic, that he needed to refer to the political struggle with the Tea Party and with the right generally so aggressively, and that he needed to say those sons of bitches needed to be taken out. Sure, he was fired up, but come on, even if the other side uses such language, we can show a bit more restraint, can we not?

Well, you know what? What's wrong with being fired up? Given what's happening to the economy (and not because of Obama but because of the corporatocracy that runs America), what's happening to workers and to families just trying to make ends meet, what's happening with a political system that empowers wealth and dismisses the concerns of the vast majority of the population, isn't it right to be angry, to want to fight back? Isn't that what Hoffa, however inelegantly, was calling for, for a more engaged struggle to take the country back from the plutocrats who dominate both parties, the media, and pretty much every segment of society?

And, no, he wasn't irresponsibly calling for bloodthirsty violence, for literal warfare, but responsibly calling on people to use their constitutional right to vote to achieve meaningful change at the ballot box.

Lest we forget, isn't that what democracy is supposed to be all about?