The campaign manager of Arkansas Democratic congressional candidate Ken Aden arrived home last night to find his child’s pet cat murdered on the front porch with the word “LIBERAL” scrawled across its lifeless body.The usual denunciations are flowing. No doubt many will call it "cowardly".
On the contrary, it is an act from one of the few honest conservatives out there.
If it is, indeed, the case that liberals are not just our fellow citizens who have slightly different views regarding the best way to govern the country, but active, hostile threats to the Constitution of the United States, then aren't acts of violence against them, including intimidation, not only acceptable but morally justifiable? Seems to me, like all those doctors killed by right-to-lifers, there is most definitely a logic to this act that makes "cowardly" unintelligible in context.
Which, perhaps, should lead some few of us to shut the hell up. Stop the fear-mongering about what might happen to America if a Republican is elected President. Stop claiming that America might collapse should Obama be re-elected. Stop saying that Pres. Obama is destroying the country. Stop the apocalyptic rhetoric, right and left, that sees the US perched on the precipice of collapse depending on who is elected in November, and who is doing the viewing.
I don't believe for one moment that candidates from the two major parties will stop it. They have far too much invested in using fear-mongering to energize an electorate that just doesn't see any candidates addressing the real issues - real, normal, bread-and-butter issues of proper governance and Administration - that need to be faced.
We, however, can do better. We can refuse to be cowed by the rhetoric from some, "Beware Newt/Mitt/Santorum because they'll take away your abortion rights/impose Christianity/steal the middle class's money". None of that is going to happen. Neither with the alleged disarming/destruction/Islamification of America should Pres. Obama be re-elected. The House Republicans are obstructionist and, largely, incompetent. That doesn't make them dangerous, just a good source of both amusement and frustration. Mitch McConnell is not a threat to American Democracy from his perch as minority leader in the Senate; he's a ridiculous clown who is grasping at what little power he has.
The election of liberals or conservatives will not cause the collapse of the US. Neither will it save us from the nightmare in which we find ourselves.
Until we can all accept this reality, the true believers - killing cats to intimidate potential candidates for public office from any particular ideological perspective - are both honest and brave. If you listen to our public rhetoric, that is.
