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October 06, 2004

Analog Brownshirts

From Florida:

A group of protestors stormed and then ransacked a Bush-Cheney headquarters building in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday, according to Local 6 News.

Local 6 News reported that several people from the group of 100 Orlando protestors face possible assault charges after the group forced their way inside the Republican headquarters office.

While in the building, some of the protestors drew horns and a mustache on a poster of President George W. Bush and poured piles of letters in the office, according to the report.

As Rocketman pointed out, this makes Algore's "Digital Brownshirt" comment all the more ironic - since we're dealing with real brownshirts here.
"We told them to leave, they broke the law," Republican headquarters volunteer Mike Broom said.

Two protestors received minor injuries when the crowd stormed the building, including a Republican volunteer.

One of the protestors said she wanted to send a message.

"We want to send a clear message to Bush, we want him to take his hands off our overtime pay," protestor Esmeralda Heuilar said.

This is going to get much worse before it gets better.

I'll tell you why.

They say the worst wars are about religion, and they're right; the Hundred Years War, the Troubles, the Crusades, the Holocaust, and our current war all involve either one religion trying to stamp out another, a non-religious body trying to stamp out an ethic/religious group, a religious sect trying to destroy a secular one, or some combination of the above.

And to so much of the left, politics is religion - the core of the person's intellectual and moral being. To a person for whom the political is the personal, it's a short jump to seeing politics as the adjunct, or even replacement for, the spiritual.

All the caricatures of, say, fundamentalist Christians - the intolerant hellfire-and-brimstone book-thumper, the desiccated little crank with the moral checklists applied with zeal but no compassion, the smug self-satisfied pharisee, and the fevered soul who believes the ends truly do justify the means, as long as it's done in _____'s name - apply equally perfectly to political zealots of all stripes, whether Nazis, Ba'athists, or some Democrats.

And yeah, a few Republicans. But outside the extremely radical fringe of the pro-life movement, I have a hard time finding Republicans who truly do internalize politics to the extent they do religion (or supplant faith in a deity with faith in politics, or in the case of the radical pro-lifers, conflate the goals of the two) the way too many Democrats seem to.

And that's a problem. Politics was never meant to be the be-all and end-all of the human experience, especially in America.

And yet here we are: "Americans Coming Together" is allegedly fomenting voter fraud; blowhard Bush-bashing bloggers bloviate about the "armed revolution" they foresee if Kerry loses; citizens (and, apparently, their trade union) deciding that "opponent" is "enemy", and taking out their frustrations (whatever they are) with violence.

It's time for some people to develop some less-destructive addictions. Like heroin.

Posted by Mitch at October 6, 2004 11:32 AM | TrackBack
Comments

My brother-in-law, a new member of a pipefitters union has been instructed by his union reps that if he doesn't get out and vote for John Kerry in November that he will suffer the consequences. WTF over!

Posted by: fingers at October 6, 2004 02:11 PM

"Armed Revolution" huh? I thought those libs were ant gun and anti violence! Let just one Lib attempt to harm this Conservative or my family, and they will know first hand all about my second ammendment rights!!!

Posted by: Shawn at October 6, 2004 02:20 PM

This behavior is deplorable, unacceptable, and I hope they are prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Your religous analogy reminds me of a knock on the door I received Saturday AM, which I shared with the Elder when I stopped by to see your remote that aftenoon.

A couple ladies, bibles in hand, knock on my door. They comment/compliment me on my Kerry sign, and then ask me a question "Do you think we will ever see a day where we get everything we want out of government"

Hold on to your seats everyone, my response was. "First we have to determine if it is the governments job to provide everything we want to begin with. I don't think it is!"

I have never seen a door to door bible thumper speechless. An extended pause followed her asking to read me a 'verse' she had marked, I passed. Besides, I had a Jaguar dealership to go to.

Anywho, I think that is why Mitch calls me a 'good democrat' *laughing*

Flash
Centrisity

Posted by: Flash at October 6, 2004 03:16 PM

Sadly, Drudge is reporting that it has spread to Milwaukee, with the BC'04 office being taken over by protestors. I do not think that there is an organized conspiracy happening to suppress and intimidate Republican volunteers and the GOTV efforts, but there are a few Democratic leaders in the field coming up with concurrent bad "good ideas". I suspect that it will be a cold day before anyone in the MSM does a story about these criminal acts taking place from Seattle to Florida and Wisconsin to Tennesse and demands that John Kerry denounce the perpetrators.

Posted by: Rod at October 6, 2004 03:21 PM

Rod,

How many offices have to be attacked and/or ransacked before you will consider it a coordinated effort or, as you put it, an "organized conspiracy"?

With the invasion of an office in Minnesota today, that makes 5 different states in the past two weeks.

These are not random acts of civil disobedience.

Posted by: Trudger at October 6, 2004 05:37 PM

Organized Labor = Organized

As a one time card carrying union member, none of these tactics surprise me.

Posted by: fingers at October 6, 2004 09:21 PM

Trudger wrote that "these are not random acts."

Anyone care to wager money that if -- say -- hard core Pro-Lifer GOP supporters barged into Kerry campaign headquarters that it would lead the news for days?

Posted by: Mark at October 6, 2004 11:19 PM

Well this particular lefty doesn't support the acts of these people (organized or not) and any sort of intimidation they might be pulling against GOP volunteers. And Mark I'm not sure about hardcore Pro-Lifer GOP supporters barging into Kerry campaign offices, but I do know that in Minneapolis when the pro-lifers get physical with the volunteers at the abortion clinic, that doesn't make headline news. Granted, there are usually only two people involved, but in any case it happens and we don't hear about it... at the very least, I did hear about the labor folks barging in on Bush volunteers from a number of major news sources, and I don't even watch Fox News! :)

Posted by: Ryan Anderson at October 7, 2004 09:34 AM

I'll agree that the line between politics and religion has been greatly fuzzed, but I don't think only one party is to blame. Both have been equally free about mixing the two, using religious rheteric and otherwise insiting the masses.

We look for presidents who are morally pure instead of able to run a country. We don't just villify the other candidate, we seek to brand them as the anti-christ stepping forth to corrupt us all.

Dark times ahead, indeed.

Posted by: jr at October 7, 2004 06:28 PM
hi