First 100 Days

I know, it's been forever since I've posted here. I've been super busy with life lately. I'm learning a new musical instrument and practicing an hour's worth of new music for a gig that is getting terrifyingly close. And as far as political posts go, I've been more focused on doing political cartoons than writing about it. But today I saw something that I really wanted to share. Anyone who pays any attention to the political blogosphere has noticed a disturbing uptick in the levels of vitriol coming from the right, starting right around when it became obvious that Obama was going to win, and getting scarier and scarier by the day. You've got bloggers who would once decry liberals for being traitors to our country now making threats of violence to elected officials if there are investigations in the wrongdoings of the previous administration. There's talks of states seceding. You've got these teabag parties sponsored by Fox News which in theory were supposed to be about government spending and nonpartisan in nature but in reality turned into giant right wing Obama hate circle jerks, and people are being exceedingly defensive when you dare suggest there might be some racist overtones involved. And the scariest thing is that guns and ammo are flying off the shelves. Today I found a great piece that details the first 100 days of the far right. Here are some tasty tidbits... When Sean Hannity runs a poll asking whether his viewers prefer a military coup, secession, or armed rebellion -- and armed rebellion wins -- that's evidence of this kind of shift. Right-wing talkers have built careers out of demonizing liberals; but when they start talking about what specific steps should be taken against them, that's not something we should ignore. ... Up is down. Black is white. Obama's not a citizen, he's going to take our guns, Congress is about to legalize incest....this we believe, and there's no expert and no amount of real-world evidence that can ever convince us otherwise. The right wing's retreat from consensus reality has finally left them living in an Orwellian alternative universe all their own. ... This overweening humiliation is growing every day that the Democrats and their new president stay in power. It's a pain that will not go away, and it's likely to curdle into something far more venomous in time. The result, unfortunately, is probably going to be more violent attacks on government authority like the one in Pittsburgh last month. ... At the same time, the past 100 days have seen record gun sales and nationwide ammo shortages as terrified conservatives buy up guns in anticipation of a total weapons ban. This seems like just another curious only-in-America news story -- until you realize that the far right is already sporting most of the earmarks of a group that's gearing up for violent action. Given the rest of the pattern, we should take this trend very, very seriously. You really should read the whole article. It may be a tad alarmist, but it brings up some very valid points. The scary people are getting scarier and the pieces are falling in place for the shit to really hit the fan. I don't have any solutions beyond mandatory sedation of these people, but despite the good intentions, that would be fascist. All joking aside, we've got a very serious potential threat on our hands. What do we do?