The "Becking" Of America: How Right-Wing Media and Politicians Incite Violence

by: OpenLeft

Mon Jan 10, 2011 at 09:00

The Coalition To Stop Gun Violence has built an "insurrectionism timeline".  It lists hundreds of incidents of right-wing speech and of acts of violence clearly incited by such speech.

The timeline pre-dates the election of President Barack Obama, beginning after June 26, 2008, when the U.S. Supreme Court embraced the National Rifle Association's contention that the Second Amendment provides individuals with the right to take violent action against our government should it become "tyrannical."

The timeline also unintentionally chronicles the "Becking" of America, in which right-wing media personalities and lawmaker employ violent metaphors or thinly-veiled suggestions of violence to demonize their opponents.

The Giffords' shooting brought this phenomena home when reports surfaced that Sarah Palin - who had quite literally targeted Gabrielle Giffords with her "Take Back The 20" campaign - was quietly scrubbing a map with Giffords' district marked with gun sight crosshairs from her PAC website.

Yet Palin's defenders, and some in the mainstream media, have tried to claim Democratic lawmakers and media personalities are equally to blame for the toxic political environment because a diarist on the liberal website, Daily Kos, posted that Giffords was "dead to him" after she cast a vote against Pelosi as House Minority Leader (the diarist later apologized for the wording and took the post down).

Palin defenders have also quoted Obama as saying, "Don't bring a knife to a gunfight." during the 2008 campaign, and although I can find this quote plenty using Google, I can't it attributed directly to Obama.

Compare this to the dozens of incidents of right-wing "Becking" CTSGV has documented from the last two years listed below (and it's by no means an exhaustive list), and the violence that's resulted.

Our country is, in a word, well and truly "Becked".

Erickson v Erickson

by: Paul Rosenberg

Sun Apr 04, 2010 at 21:30

Red State's Erickson: "It is and has always been the left" who resorts to violence
March 08, 2010 5:34 am ET by Media Matters staff

From Erickson's March 7 Redstate.com blog post:

At least since the 19th century, it has been the left employing murder and death as a political weapon. From Hitler to Mao to Lenin to Stalin to Chavez to Castro to Guevera to Arafat to Pol Pot to Mugabe to [insert your favorite American union] to Margaret Sanger the left and its heroes have used death, violence, and murder to advance their agenda.

For every Pinochet or Netanyahu the left grasps for, the list is three times as long on the left. It is inconvenient. The left will try to laugh it off or attack the person pointing out, but the truth remains.

It is not conservatives burning down homes in Washington State with the ELF. It is not conservatives throwing blood on women wearing fur. It is not conservatives burning down the Texas Governor's Mansion during riots. It is not conservatives rioting during G-8 summits.

It is and has always been the left. Deal with it.

And via Think Progress in April:

ERICKSON: This is crazy. What gives the Commerce Department the right to ask me how often I flush my toilet? Or about going to work? I'm not filling out this form. I dare them to try and come throw me in jail. I dare them to. Pull out my wife's shotgun and see how that little ACS twerp likes being scared at the door. They're not going on my property. They can't do that. They don't have the legal right, and yet they're trying.

Of course, Think Progress goes on to note that:

According to the Census Bureau, response to the ACS "is required by law (Title 13 , United States Code, Sections 141, 193, and 221). The same law protects the confidentiality of the information." Erickson basically repeated his comments on RedState this morning, complaining that "naturally the left is out today saying I was on the air advocating killing census workers."

But, more importantly, I want to know if the only reason liberals haven't threatened to kill census workers is just because they want to make Erickson look bad?

I know I've made a great personal sacrifice for precisely that reason.  After all, this is a chance that only comes around once a decade....