Having joked less than a year ago about killing Mitt Romney (and his supporters), former Republican candidate for president, Mike Huckabee, has now made light of assassinating Sen. Barack Obama.
According to CNN, during his recent speech at the NRA convention in Louisville Kentucky, the former presidential candidate offered the following joke in response to a loud noise off stage:
"That was Barack Obama, he just tripped off a chair, he's getting ready to speak...Somebody aimed a gun at him and he dove for the floor." (from CNN PoliticalTicker.com)
As Huckabee transitions from presidential candidate to media pundit, his habit of joking about political assassination leads many Americans to question the place of violent rhetoric in the speech of high-profile political pundits, as well as the consequences that should result from it.
Why might McCain be reluctant to have himself officially listed on the NRA's event? The answer may well be his concern about being associated with Nugent who, less than one year ago, held up two machine guns at a concert and--in one of the most brazen displays of violent rhetoric by a pundit ever caught on video--threatened the lives of a Governor and three Senators.
Most kossacks know me as a New Yorker, but I am originally from Mitten State (Oakland County). So, I am thrilled to be here, today--mixing it up with local bloggers.
Among other things, I will have a chance to talk to Sen. Carl Levin, who is very interested in blogging. So if you have any questions, post them to the comment thread.
Live blogging starts after the break (follow me...).
For weeks, now, Rush Limbaugh has been trying to incite political violence by giving on-air military-sounding orders, effectively 'commanding' his listeners to wage war against the U.S. electoral system.
The right-wing pundit's 'orders' to his Republican listeners have been clear: vote in the Democratic primaries as a coordinated tactic for sewing division in the opposition party. The goal of such 'chaos,' Limbaugh has stated explicitly, is to foment hatred between different parts of the Democratic Party leading, ultimately, to street riots during the Denver convention.
The ongoing incident raises a serious question:
How does Limbaugh's bid to incite political violence with radio broadcasts differ from previous instances where radio has been used to that end (e.g., Rwanda)?
As usual, Ann Coulter's newest round of pundit appearances included going on CNN to call millions of Americans "traitors" (treason is a crime punishable by the death penalty) and suggest that Sen. Barack Obama is a covert terrorist assassin.
What did Ann Coulter do this week to earn this right to appear on the most trusted name in news?
She published a weekly syndicated column laced with violent-rhetoric in which she suggested than an Obama Presidency would result in the destruction of the U.S. by terrorists and--she joked about lynching Africa-Americans.
Is there nobody left at CNN who cares about this situation? I mean...why is it that a pundit who jokes about lynching blacks is allowed to appear on the largest broadcast platform in America?
Some advice for CNN:
When Ann Coulter jokes about lynching blacks in her weekly syndicated column, pull her from whatever appearances she has scheduled for that week.
Despite the constant flow of violent rhetoric from right-wing pundits, I am happy because my new book Outright Barbarous launches, today! Hurray!!
The book is a follow up to Framing the Debate, focusing not on the difficulty that progressives have in framing key issues, but on the aggressive, violent language and ideas that key right-wing pundits use. The end result of these pundits, I conclude, is not just a confrontational form of political debate, but a poisoning of the public sphere so integral to our democracy.
Progressives have come a long since the last Presidential election woke up so many people in this country. But we still need to dedicate ourselves to the massive project of rebuilding a democracy that inspires and protects Americas, and is capable of solving the huge pragmatic challenges sitting on our doorstep.
On April 5, 2007, FOX personality Bill O'Reilly unleashed a violent rant about Latino immigrants on live television:
What we see in this video of O'Reilly is a key example of a right-wing pundit who uses violent-rhetoric to undermine political debate in the United States--in this case, violent-rhetoric used to create an atmosphere of hate and fear for Latinos.
A little over one year later, Sen. Hillary Clinton--who enjoyed wide scale endorsements from Latino leaders in a variety of early primary states--is sitting down for an interview with O'Reilly.
This is a grave error that risks lending the prestige of a prominent Democrat to a pundit infamous for violent-rhetoric and ideas.
This weekend, FOX News and John McCain tried to convince voters that Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) was "endorsed" by Hamas--a lie created by FOX News.
Hamas is a Palestinian Sunni Islamist militant organization and political party listed by the U.S. Department of State as a foreign terrorist organization. By suggesting to voters that terrorists support Sen. Obama, Sen. McCain embraced the long-term effort by right-wing media to define Democrats as supporters of foreign terrorist groups and, by extension, potential violent threats to the American people.
The real story, however, may be that Sen. McCain's campaign laundered a false FOX story by running it through his campaign, giving voters a false impression about the story's veracity.
On Apr 16 FOX News reported that Hamas had "endorsed" Sen. Obama. Two days later, Sen. McCain sent out a mass email echoing the FOX story. FOX then reported McCain's letter and --voila! The original false story had become "real" news.
ABC has become the first major network to be duped into treating a right-wing smear of Sen. Barack Obama as a non-political news story.
Despite his own prior reporting in an Aug 2000 Salon.com piece--in which he deftly exposed the very same right-wing smear merchants behind the "Expose Obama" ad--ABC Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper has just published a piece on ABC.com that gives legitimacy to the blatant political agenda in the ad.
Although Ann Coulter originally achieved fame as a right-wing pundit by talking about President Clinton's penis on national TV, since 9/11 she has turned most of her attention on framing Democrats as terrorists.
During one TV spot in 2003, Coulter said, "Liberals...want there to be lots of 9/11s" (see Outright Barbarous, 74-75), followed by an entire book (Treason) in which she argued that the goal of Liberalism is the destruction of American civil society.
Lately, Coulter has focused her attention on convincing the American public that Sen. Barack Obama is a terrorist, an agenda that she she kicked into high-gear in her Apr 23, 2008 column which includes the line:
(DEVELOPING STORY: I will update this post as more information comes in...JF)
The Republican marketing man behind the "Willie Horton" television ad that helped to end the presidential bid of Michael Dukakis has resurfaced in a new ad that uses World War II style propaganda techniques to create the false impression that Sen. Barack Obama supporets inner city gang violence and "urban terrorism."
The ad, sponsored by a political group called ExposeObama.com, is the latest effort by well-funded right-wing pundits and political groups to define a Democratic candidate for president as a violent threat to the American people. Violent rhetoric from the right is an ongoing problem in American democracy that remains unchallenged by the media and by government oversight.
The new ad signifies a huge step into the center of the 2008 election for right-wing pundits and political groups pushing violent rhetoric.
This week on broadcast TV viewed by millions of Americans, two high-profile right-wing pundits made repeated statements implying that an elected member of the United States Senate and a leading Democratic candidate for President may be a terrorist. To date, not a single major news outlet has sought to discredit these statements which were tantamount to implying that a sitting member of the United States government holds treasonous political views and may well be a threat to the future safety of the American people.
The statements were made by former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and by former White House Press Secretary to George W. Bush Ari Fleisher, both of whom are now frequent pundits for FOX News.
For months, now, there has been an effort to frame the Democratic front-runner not just as a bad candidate, but as a potential violent threat to the American public. It is the familiar politics of violent rhetoric, which are being used in this election to undermine the candidacy of Barack Obama.
One of the violent frames pushed by right-wing pundits describes the dire consequences for the American public should Democrat be elected president. Once in office, according to this right-wing rhetoric, the new Democratic president will rework U.S. foreign policy in such a way that Americans will no longer be protected from enemy attacks. A vote for a Democratic President, in other words, is a vote to help the enemies who seek to destroy America.
This week, Bill O’Reilly invoked this violent logic to suggest that a Barack Obama Presidency could have dire consequences for American citizens.
Right-Wing pundit Pat Buchanan's last column uses the phrase 'black hustler' to describe Barack Obama
The phrase 'race hustler' dates back to the 1990s and has been widely used by conservatives as a racist description of black leaders
Buchanan used the phrase to frame Obama in a violent argument, wherein his Presidency would result in an open season for black on white violence from black communities
Buchanan's work regularly invokes the idea that the advancement of non-whites in American politics will bring violent suffering for whites
(Please note: Some revisions were made to this diary based on suggestions from the thread. I discuss the logic behind those revisions at the bottom of the diary. - JF)
KEY POINTS IN THIS DIARY:
The smear of Rev. Wright that has dragged his pastor through the mud is the second successful effort by right-wing pundits and media to frame the Democratic nominee as a VIOLENT THREAT to Americans.
The right-wing violent framing of Obama is increasing largely unchallenged on two fronts: the 'COVERT TERRORIST' frame and the 'ANGRY BLACK MAN' frame
Hillary Clinton showed weakness and short-sightedness as a candidate by explicitly parroting right-wing rhetoric, lifted verbatim from the transcripts of FOX News
Democratic Party leadership has been largely silent on the very problematic right-wing framing of the election
With an eye towards the general election, I am beginning a new project focused on the problem of violent rhetoric from the Right and the problems it poses--not just to Democratic Party prospects at winning the White House, but to American democracy itself.
So far, the working title for this project is "Violent Rhetoric Watch", which will take the form of regular postings on DailyKos.
I had planned to begin this a bit closer to summer, but because the right-wing framing of Barack Obama has begun in earnest--as revealed in last week's events--I now feel an urgency to start this project immediately.
Continue reading after the jump to learn more about this project, what I have done so far, and how you can help.
Barack Obama's speech on race in America contained some key wording very similar to a oft-cited quote from Bill Clinton's 1993 inaugural speech.
Speaking in reference to Thomas Jefferson's idea that democracy "needs great change from time to time," Clinton's offered the following observation in his inaugural:
Our democracy must be not only the envy of the world but the engine of our own renewal. There is nothing wrong with America that cannot be cured by what is right with America. (Bill Clinton, Jan. 21, 1993)
