Reason Magazine
- reason.com
- reason.tv
- reason.org
- Donate
- Site Search:
Reason on Facebook
Reason on Twitter
Reason on YouTube
Reason RSSGet Reason E-mail Updates!
Manage your Reason e-mail list subscriptionsadvertisements
About Those Violent Townhall Meetings....
If you get your news from mainstream outlets you might have the impression that the August season of townhall meetings with elected representatives was a dangerous cauldron of simmering, possibly racist (or fascist) violence. The Weekly Standard's Mary Katherine Ham decided to do what so many journalists echoing this line did not–actually tally up the numbers of townhall meetings and notable incidents. Her conclusion was much different:
One public calendar, compiled by RedState.com, lists more than 400 congressional town hall meetings in the month of August. It's likely not an exhaustive list, but it represents an average of more than 13 live town halls conducted per day in America during the monthlong span. At these meetings, there were fewer than ten documented incidents that could be described as violent, and most of them involved very little physical contact. [...]
That's the full list of documented violence from the August meetings. In more than 400 events: one slap, one shove, three punches, two signs grabbed, one self-inflicted vandalism incident by a liberal, one unsolved vandalism incident, and one serious assault. Despite the left's insistence on the essentially barbaric nature of Obamacare critics, the video, photographic, and police report evidence is fairly clear in showing that 7 of the 10 incidents were perpetrated by Obama supporters and union members on Obama critics. If you add a phoned death threat to Democrat representative Brad Miller of N.C., from an Obama-care critic, the tally is 7 of 11.
And if you extend the census into September, you can add the most severe injury of all, which happened during a fight at a September 2 rally backing Obamacare in Thousand Oaks, Calif., hosted by the left-wing activist group MoveOn.org. Police have not determined who started the fight, but it ended when one of the Obamacare supporters "bit off the left pinky" of counterdemonstrator William Rice after Rice threw a punch, according to police. The Obamacare supporter, who could be charged with mayhem, left the scene before police arrived, and though Rice's missing digit was recovered, doctors were unable to reattach it because "a human bite has so much bacteria," Rice told me. Several liberal commentators took the opportunity to hail the forcible amputation as a victory of government-run medicine over a hypocritical Obama critic.
Whole thing here.
Joe M|9.11.09 @ 10:51AM|#
Oh Jesus, here we go again. Just to get it out of the way, everyone is a nazi fascist racist homophobe leftist socialist truther birther terrorist un-American hatemonger. Proceed.
|9.11.09 @ 11:03AM|#
I've used this argument against liberals in conversation. Me paraphrasing their reaction: "Yeah, but seeing teh guns make me pee my pants."
JB|9.11.09 @ 11:10AM|#
Leftists are scum. I suggest they move to a country more hospitable to their shithead views.
Tomcat1066|9.11.09 @ 11:11AM|#
Obamacare supporters aren't violent, they're "passionate".
However, if those who oppose it so much as shout, we're brownshirt
goons and jackbooted thugs.
Funny how that works out, ain't it?
|9.11.09 @ 11:19AM|#
I was driving to work today and there was a sign on the side of
the road for the big tax payer march tommorow. Someone had defaced
it with "abort Republicans". Now, I have seen ANSWER signs defaced.
But it was always with something like "lies". It was never anything
violent. The phrase "abort" really got me. Do these people really
want to kill anyone who disagrees with them? Probably not. But
certainly they are such petulent children that they think that
joking about killing your opponents is somehow funny or ever
appropriate.
Leftists won the election and they still seem as angry, bitter an
alienated as they always have been. These people seem to have no
personal identity beyond hating the other side. It makes their
accusing their critics of being violent fascists more than a little
ironic.
|9.11.09 @ 11:19AM|#
Nick, I was reminded of a good video by you... It was a video
from a town hall protest in Alabama (?) There was a young black man
who was open carrying an AR-15, and he had a confrontation with a
white woman. She said that his gun made her nervous. He
replied:
"Not too long ago the color of my skin would have made people
nervous too."
Yeah, he played the race card, but he played it so well.
|9.11.09 @ 11:20AM|#
A thousand people in the street
Singing songs and carrying signs
Mostly say, hooray for our side
|9.11.09 @ 11:25AM|#
Hey John? Have you noticed JB on the comments here for 2 or 3 weeks saying that Obama supporters should be aborted? I don't recall you expressing dismay over the libertarians wanting to kill people that disagree with them. Did I just happen to miss your outrage or was it okay since he/she is one of you?
|9.11.09 @ 11:26AM|#
Say, have any charges been brought against the SEIU goons who beat up that black guy outside the town hall?
|9.11.09 @ 11:27AM|#
Have you noticed JB on the comments here for 2 or 3 weeks
saying that Obama supporters should be aborted?
No doubt millions of them were.
|9.11.09 @ 11:29AM|#
I don't want a baby that looks like that
No one wants a baby that looks like that
|9.11.09 @ 11:29AM|#
"Hey John? Have you noticed JB on the comments here for 2 or 3
weeks saying that Obama supporters should be aborted?"
No. I haven't actually. Seriously. It is nasty language. Moreover,
again for the millionth time, "they did it to" is not an
excuse.
Kent|9.11.09 @ 11:35AM|#
derp,
I wish my home state of AL could claim credit for the brother with
the AR-15, but I think it was in one of the other "A" states -
Arizona.
|9.11.09 @ 11:47AM|#
I don't recall you expressing dismay over the libertarians
wanting to kill people that disagree with them. Did I just happen
to miss your outrage or was it okay since he/she is one of
you?
I don't know if I would go so far as to kill people that
disagree with me, but after seeing the patently craven and
dishonest behavior by leftists these past few weeks, all in the
name of forcing a coercive and decidedly non-liberty-friendly
system upon us all, I'm open to the idea of hunting them for
sport.
Don't worry, it'll be catch and release. Usually. There might be
exceptions made.
Xeones|9.11.09 @ 11:51AM|#
Don't worry, it'll be catch and release.
Are you thinking rifle loaded with tranquilizers, or some kind of
large trap? If the former, are there any tranquilizers that are
known to cause explosive diarrhea as a delayed side effect?
|9.11.09 @ 11:59AM|#
John, I wasn't trying to say, "but they do it too." I was pointing out that you seemed to have your knickers in a twist over a sign you saw. The sign had language that you have either ignored or didn't see when jb used it on threads that you were also commenting on. Threats of death don't suddenly become wrong when made against your team.
JB|9.11.09 @ 12:01PM|#
Hey John? Have you noticed JB on the comments here for 2 or
3 weeks saying that Obama supporters should be aborted? I don't
recall you expressing dismay over the libertarians wanting to kill
people that disagree with them. Did I just happen to miss your
outrage or was it okay since he/she is one of you?
It's more ironic when I talk about aborting Leftists. They always
say 'it isn't murder, it's abortion' or 'it's just a medical
procedure'.
We aren't at that point yet, but the way Obama is spending like a
drunken sailor with an STD, we might be soon. Once he runs this
country into the ground, it will be open season on fetuses and
zombies.
|9.11.09 @ 12:05PM|#
Are you thinking rifle loaded with tranquilizers, or some
kind of large trap? If the former, are there any tranquilizers that
are known to cause explosive diarrhea as a delayed side
effect?
We should probably hire the Nuge as a consultant and he's fairly
bow-heavy in his arsenal, but we shouldn't rule any one technique
out.
Consider it the marketplace of very specific ideas.
JB|9.11.09 @ 12:05PM|#
brotherben, I haven't made any death threats. It's all
hypothetical and saying that people deserve to die (guess what?
everyone does).
So are you and McChangey going to ban hope now? Because my hope is
that Leftists either get a clue, move to a country more to their
liking, or just die.
|9.11.09 @ 12:07PM|#
Thank goodness the town hall meetings had unruly incidents.
Shows Americans are alive. But it was more than "notable" or
"violent" incidents that news stories focused on. Frightened
geezers and visitors from "other planets" and the like contributed
to the cacophony that made the town halls sound raucous.
Americans are generally accepting of authority. That all sorts of
people took the time to face their "representatives" and ask them
questions that they were obliged to answer is a good thing.
We should require that all our politicians hold regular town halls
when they are not collecting fat checks from fat cats.
|9.11.09 @ 12:08PM|#
JB, I'm not sure if a ban on hope is required. Surely it needs more regulation though as the anti-leftist crowd seem to be operating clandestine hope growing operations in their basements.
|9.11.09 @ 12:11PM|#
[GODWIN SHIELDS DOWN]
Yes, a little dissent against authority is a good thing. One of the
reasons the Nazis were able to hold power was the German tendency
(especially in the military) to respect authority. Screw authority.
Most of those jokers know less than we, not more. And God knows
that their character isn't something to respect.
[GODWIN SHIELDS UP]
JB|9.11.09 @ 12:15PM|#
JB, I'm not sure if a ban on hope is required. Surely it
needs more regulation though as the anti-leftist crowd seem to be
operating clandestine hope growing operations in their
basements.
It's called being prepared. I wouldn't put any faith and credit in
the US government. They are completely leveraged to the Chinese at
this point.
|9.11.09 @ 12:15PM|#
Pro Lib, what's the html thingy for the godwin shields? That's one I don't know;}
Joe M|9.11.09 @ 12:17PM|#
[GRAMMAR SHIELDS DOWN]
Most of those jokers know less than US, not more.
[GRAMMAR SHIELDS UP]
|9.11.09 @ 12:20PM|#
Oh yeah? Let's find out:
Most of those jokers know less than us [do], not more.
OR
Most of those jokers know less than we [do], not more.
Joe M|9.11.09 @ 12:24PM|#
That's different. "Us" is a prepositional object, "we" is the subject of a new clause. "Than" is functioning as a preposition in your first sentence, and a conjunction in your new examples.
|9.11.09 @ 12:33PM|#
"Not too long ago the color of my skin would have made people nervous too."
Frankly, I'd not be at all surprised if the color of his skin still
makes that woman nervous.
I'm afraid that from my viewpoints the over the top complaints
about racism from white liberals all have a "the lady doth protest
too much" air about them.
A lot of that white guilt is about what their true feelings are,
methinks.
@|9.11.09 @ 1:25PM|#
August, 2009 is textbook Big Lie propaganda. "Crazy/fascist/racist/right-wing teabaggers" was repeated so often and insistently by our leftist media that it became an irrefutable fact among many. Never mind that it didn't happen. It took only a tireless repetition of the same few "violent" incidents on the far-left news networks to reinforce what half the nation already suspected.
Untermensch|9.11.09 @ 3:44PM|#
For those who are on facebook, you can see the latest in liberal
anti-conservative propaganda
here.
For those who can't see it, it leads to a facebook collection of
people with signs full of stupid grammatical errors described
as:
Morons holding signs:
Tea Party protesters lacking the ability to critically think due to extreme cognitive dissonance, inadequate education, and enslavement to corporate media.
At least one is a pretty obvious photoshop job (the guy who posted
them claims none of them are, but at least one definitely is) and
any number of the other ones may have been staged. In short, the
purpose of these photos is to confirm to those on the left that the
only reason to oppose the Obamessiah is sheer, mouth-breathing,
rotten-teeth idiocy. I think that's the general assumption on the
left about libertarians and conservatives: the only reason we don't
agree is that we are thralls to corporate media too stupid to know
our own good. False consciousness, hegemony, etc., etc.
Whenever I have friends on the left tell me that the town hall
people are particularly violent, disruptive, and obnoxious, I
wonder at the selective amnesia that must be at work to say that
with a straight face. (Although I suppose it's no worse than those
who blast Obama for something that Bush did and pretend Bush was
great by comparison.)
Site comments/questions:
Media Inquiries and Reprint Permissions:
(310) 367-6109
Editorial & Production Offices:
3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd.
Suite 400
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(310) 391-2245