A guy with a gun walks into a bar...
by Tom Sullivan
Incitement: It's all fun and games until somebody shoots an eye out and you get called on it, as Carly Fiorina found out over the weekend. They are whipping themselves up into quite a frenzy on the right. This from Right Wing Watch:
Today is a big day for conservative activist and former Libertarian vice presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root, who, as the Republican presidential candidates descend on his home state of Nevada for tomorrow’s debate, joined Ted Cruz, Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson and Rick Santorum at a summit hosted by anti-Muslim activist Frank Gaffney before moving on to emcee a rally for Donald Trump.
The proximity of presidential candidates did not cause Root to hold back on his enthusiastic airing of conspiracy theories, telling the audience at Gaffney’s forum that Hillary Clinton has committed “a hanging, treasonous offense” involving foreign donors to the Clinton Foundation but is getting off the hook by blackmailing FBI Director James Comey and other Republicans in Washington.
“Can you imagine a Republican secretary of state working for a Republican president starting a foundation for charity that collects money from foreign governments by the hundreds of millions and billions and then takes the money and hands out government contracts to the same country that made the contribution from the State Department?” he asked. “That’s not a criminal offense, that’s a hanging, treasonous offense.”
Beset on all sides by lions and tigers and enemies of the state, this crowd will soon exhibit paranoia levels measurable on the Richter scale. Don't be surprised if more are inspired to act on those fears.
Root wasn't quite up to Dana Loesch's B-movie acting. She was just a smidge over the top in her trailer for Independence Day: NRA Resurgence released on the anniversary of Sandy Hook. Expect the rhetoric to get even harsher if the NRA keeps getting its clock cleaned.
TBogg writes, "We have let a collection of kooks and armed sociopaths bully us into accepting that the watering the Tree of Liberty with blood of first graders is the price of freedom and vigilance."
It's like trying to reason with people who go drinking at bars known for violent brawls, and who strap on guns so they can defend themselves.