You want a Republican civil war? Here's your Republican civil war.

By Michael J.W. Stickings

A liberal? Really?

It didn't just start. It was in the making for a long time, and it got underway a while ago, at least in formal terms. Actually, it just sort of started happening, but it was also pretty much inevitable. And now, well, the word "war" has come to the fore:

Tea Party Patriots said Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has "declared war on the Tea Party" with his "smug and pretentious rant" against certain right-wing organizations.

The group made the charge in a fundraising email to supporters, seeking to win donations over the public feuding.

In the past two days, Boehner has repeatedly attacked the conservative groups that championed the October effort to defund ObamaCare and are now opposed to the recent budget deal negotiated by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.).

He has criticized the groups for being more interested in raising money than actually solving problems.

The letter quotes Boehner's statement that "outside groups" were "using our members and... the American people for their own goals."

"The last time we checked, we are the American people," the letter said.

The letter goes on to refer to Boehner as a "ruling class politician" who only pretends to be conservative while remaining a "tax-and-spend liberal" at heart.

Of course, that's all complete nonsense. Boehner has been critical of right-wing Republican groups that threaten the party's position in Congress, if not also nationally, but that's about it. If anyone or anything has declared war, it's the Tea Party itself, which is obstinate in its ideological extremism, dismissive of the realities of politics, and confrontational regarding the rest of the GOP, throwing primary challenges even at hardcore conservatives.

Read more »

Patty Murray murder threat: Yet another example of right-wing unhingedness

By Michael J.W. Stickings

The Seattle Times reports:

A 63-year-old Yakima County man has been charged with threatening to kill U.S. Sen. Patty Murray over her support of the National Health Care Reform Act.

The FBI and local police arrested Charles Alan Wilson at his Selah home early Tuesday. Wilson was scheduled to make an appearance in U.S. District Court in Yakima, and he will then be transported to Seattle, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

According to the charges, staffers in Murray's office in the Jackson Building in downtown Seattle had become concerned over a series of phone calls by an unknown man over the past several months. The calls came from a blocked number, and often were made in the evenings or on weekends.

Usually, according to a staffer identified by the initials "M.G.," the calls were merely vulgar and harassing.

But on March 22, "the caller began to make overt threats to kill and/or injure Senator Murray," according to the complaint signed by FBI Agent Carolyn Woodbury.

In that message, a man the FBI says it has identified as Wilson stated, "I hope you realize there's a target on your back now ... Kill the [expletive] senator! I'll donate the lead."

In several other vulgar and profanity-laced messages left over the next week, the caller repeatedly threatened the Democratic senator's life and said he "hopes somebody kills" President Obama as well, according to portions of transcripts in the complaint.

As I put it in a recent post entitled "The consequences of conservative speech: Violence against Democrats over health-care reform," cross-posted at HuffPo:

[W]hat do you think is going to happen when you call the president illegitimate, a foreigner who essentially stole the election? Or when you stoke fears of a socialist-fascist takeover of government and of government assault on freedom? Do you not think that some out there will convert your speech to action -- hording guns, building bunkers, and otherwise preparing for violence? And do you not think that some will actually take to the streets to wage whatever war they think you're calling on them to wage?

This guy, who may have acted out regardless (he's obviously got problems), certainly seems to be unhinged. But, then, so is much of the Republican Party, along with most of the conservative movement that supports it. And while it is this guy who has been arrested and charged, and deservedly so, it seems to me that much of the blame must be laid directly at the feet of the right-wing rabble-rousers and propagandists -- at Fox News, in talk radio, on Capitol Hill, and elsewhere -- who have been pumping their zombie-like followers full of lies, smears, and delusions.

Is is really any wonder the unhinged are acting out? Is it any wonder it has come to this? And this could only be the beginning, given that the rabble-rousers and propagandists haven't let up, and in fact have stepped up their vicious attacks since the Democrats' health-care victory.

This, you see, is what much of American conservatism has become, an ideology of venom that is poisoning the body politic and leading some of its adherents to violence.