DC Trawler

Either violent rhetoric creates a climate of hate or it doesn’t

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On Monday, Jimmy Hoffa said the following at a union rally in Detroit, a short time before Obama spoke (emphasis mine):

We like a good fight. And you know what, they got a war and they got a war with us and there’s only going to be one winner and it’s going to be the workers of Michigan and America. We’re going to win that war. All the way. But it starts with your involvement. It starts with next November. We got a bunch of people there that don’t want the president to succeed. And they’re called the tea party. The people that don’t want him to do anything right and he’s working hard for us. And president Obama is frustrated by what’s going on. Well guess what. We got the vote. And the answer what we say is, ‘we remember in November.’ We will beat the tea party and give this country back to workers and America…

We’re going to hear from President Obama in a few minutes. And I’m so glad he’s come to Michigan because this is where he sees the real America. He looks out on this army of people and you know what I say, “President Obama, this is your army. We are ready to march.” And President Obama, we want one thing – jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs… That’s what we’re going to tell him. When he sees what we’re doing here he’s going to be inspired. But he needs help. And, you know what. Everybody here’s gotta vote. If we go back and keep the eye on the prize – Let’s take these sons of bitches out and give America back to America where we belong. Thank you very much.

The prevailing opinion, among Democrats who find themselves in the unenviable position of defending Jimmy Hoffa, seems to be that when he was originally quoted, “Everybody here’s gotta vote” was left out. All the “war” and “army” and “take these sons of bitches out” stuff is immaterial, we’re being told, because Hoffa wasn’t calling for a literal war. His intent was to get out the vote, not to physically hurt anybody.

That’s too bad, lefties, because after Tucson, intent no longer matters.

Remember this?

Of course you do. It’s the map that Sarah Palin’s PAC put up for the 2010 elections, pointing out members of Congress who voted for Obamacare. One of the crosshairs was over Gabby Giffords’ district. When Giffords was shot months later, she’d barely made it to the ER before the leftwing blogosphere started blaming Palin.

Now, nobody but the most venomous Palin-haters tried to claim she wanted Giffords to be shot. They didn’t claim that was her intent. No, they claimed that by using a gun-based metaphor, she contributed to a “climate of hate.” She put the idea in Jared Lee Loughner’s head, supposedly. It didn’t matter whether he ever even saw the map (if there’s evidence he did, let me know), because its mere existence somehow magically commanded him to lash out. Therefore, Palin was reckless and irresponsible to use such violent imagery.

So that’s the standard now. Cause and effect are beside the point. It doesn’t matter if you intend to incite violence when you talk about “waging war” and “marching as an army” and “taking these sons of bitches out” while you’re warming up a crowd for the President of the United States. Gaia forbid that such rhetoric will be seized upon by the mentally unstable, but if it is, any blood they spill will be on your hands. That’s how you want it to be, lefties, so that’s how it is.

Your rules. Your turn.

P.S. Longshoremen storm Wash. state port, damage RR.

Hundreds of Longshoremen stormed the Port of Longview [WA] early Thursday, overpowered and held security guards, damaged railroad cars, and dumped grain that is the center of a labor dispute, said Longview Police Chief Jim Duscha.

Six guards were held hostage for a couple of hours after 500 or more Longshoremen broke down gates about 4:30 a.m. and smashed windows in the guard shack, he said.

No one was hurt, and nobody has been arrested. Most of the protesters returned to their union hall after cutting brake lines and spilling grain from cars at the EGT terminal, Duscha said.

Opening salvo?