The Echo Of Tyranny
August 8th, 2006 | by Todd W |When I see Lanny Davis, who served as a Special Counsel to Clinton, on TV I am overcome with the urge to cancel my cable. I just can’t stand the man.
Yet here I am agreeing with him about the state of the far-left blogosphere.
Now, in the closing days of the Lieberman primary campaign, I have reluctantly concluded that I was wrong. The far right does not have a monopoly on bigotry and hatred and sanctimony. Here are just a few examples (there are many, many more anyone with a search engine can find) of the type of thing the liberal blog sites have been posting about Joe Lieberman:
…
On “Lieberman vs. Murtha”: “as everybody knows, jews ONLY care about the welfare of other jews; thanks ever so much for reminding everyone of this most salient fact, so that we might better ignore all that jewish propaganda [by Lieberman] about participating in the civil rights movement of the 60s and so on” (by “tomjones,” posted on Daily Kos, Dec. 7, 2005).
…
But the issue is not just emotional outbursts by these usually anonymous bloggers. A friend of mine just returned from Connecticut, where he had spoken on several occasions on behalf of Joe Lieberman. He happens to be a liberal antiwar Democrat, just as I am. He is also a lawyer. He told me that within a day of a Lamont event–where he asked the candidate some critical questions–some of his clients were blitzed with emails attacking him and threatening boycotts of their products if they did not drop him as their attorney. He has actually decided not to return to Connecticut for the primary today; he is fearful for his physical safety.
Now, I’ll readily admit that the right wing isn’t pure and clean on this. We have our versions of the haters, but I don’t think they are as numerous or as organized as what we are seeing out of the Kossaks or the DUers. I scan these sites a lot, and I can attest to a frightening pathology that extends beyond debate and into fantasized (or realized) violence in the ‘real’ world.
The idea of intimidating all who do not support the party should evoke memories of a darker time in Europe. Let me be crystal clear on this - I AM NOT SAYING THEY ARE NAZIS. However, I AM suggesting that this path will lead to tactics and parties that will be functionally similar to the Nazi system.
Politics is suppose to be about the arena of ideas. Our system depends on free debate and the absence of physical intimidation. Should this sort of activism continue, our foundations will continue to erode.
In my one millionth reference to Rome, the Republic was finished the moment the mob figured out they could stifle the opposition with the threat of violence.
However, the fact that someone like Lanny Davis has recognized the problem gives me a little hope.
