Remember that kid in third grade who always flipped insults? “I’m not stupid — YOU’RE stupid!”
That kid is now the Grand Old Party.
What to do, now that the zeitgeist has shifted? Tea party wackos berated a man in a wheelchair last week, then spit on members of Congress and called them “faggot,” “nigger,” and “wetback” over the weekend (while carrying RNC-supplied signage), and then reacted to the passage of health care reform by throwing bricks through windows. Rep. Anthrony Weiner’s office has received a white-powder Anthrax hoax letter.
Then the GOP reacted to their defeat by doubling-down on the obstructions and delays. It was enough that even Dana Milbank, the dean of Beltway journalism, took Republicans to task. The media narrative has shifted: Republicans are the bad guys, and the tea party is an escaped monster.
Republicans now condemn the violence, but warn Democrats to stop paying attention to the violence they stoked. It’s the bully taking your lunch money and warning you not to tell anyone. Meanwhile, the right-wingers outside of Congress say that Democrats are the ones spreading hate:
You may or may not have heard, but the far left and the drive by media are pushing a major narrative campaign in an attempt to paint the entire tea party movement as a fringe movement that uses violence and racism in its efforts. This effort is being orchestrated by left wing power brokers, and it’s a gross misrepresentation of what is really going on. (Emphasis original)
That’s Eric Odom, one of the chief architects of the tea party Frankenstein creature, claiming that this voicemail is “proof” that Democratic Congress members are inventing the whole thing to stir up left-wing hate:
Get that? Calling a Civil Rights hero “nigger” is not racism, but being angry enough to confront Eric Odom is racist. Or something. But Odom has nothing on Eric Cantor, whose Richmond, VA office was hit by a stray bullet on Tuesday:
A preliminary investigation shows that a bullet was fired into the air and struck the window in a downward direction, landing on the floor about a foot from the window. The round struck with enough force to break the windowpane but did not penetrate the window blinds.
Like manna from heaven, the Dobbsian incident allowed Cantor to claim yesterday that he has “been directly threatened.”
But the prize goes to Andrew Breitbart, the master of ceremonies for the high-tech lynching of the uppity black organization called ACORN:
Get that? Democrats “went looking” for the racists protesting on the Capitol steps, therefore the racist epithets were their own fault. Confronting the ugly somehow excuses the ugliness.
Meanwhile, David Frum — who had the temerity to question this new orthodoxy of insanity in his party earlier in the week — has been fired by the American Enterprise Institute. The right is determined to raise its zombie army, brooks no disloyalty, and blames its enemies for the resulting violence.
