If You Were In the Park, and It Was 1968

Ms Giffords opponent last fall

 Let's start with this:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2011/1/8/934297/-Second-Amendment-Solutions-%28pictures,-continuing-updates%29

 The link presents the facts.  That is, the "atmosphere," if you like.  All the perfectly crafted responses from "Tea Party Spokesmen" and from various politicians and main stream media people mean absolutely nothing.  Also meaningless is the analysis of the kid's ravings, e.g., "Oh look, he mentions Marx, he must be a liberal."  This, Mrs. Angle, is a "Second Amendment Solution" in action.  This tasty phrase has been all the rage this political season.  It's in the water now.  

The sad fact is, the simple minded rhetoric about weapons is just as simple minded as the simple minded rhetoric about debt ceilings, and the simple minded rhetoric about government in general.  It is being proposed that we be led by the simple minded.  They are in fact winning elections.  Mrs. Virginia Fox (R, NC) is now head of the Education Committee in the US House of Representatives.  That picture is worth about the same as the one of Rummy shaking hands with Saddam.

If there is one lesson to be learned at this juncture, it is that people who bother to vote in some sort of seemingly special circumstance, such as the election of Barack Obama in '08, have got to understand that they can't just go back to their ordinary lives and forget about politics for another decade, until something else so bad develops that once again they decide to be bothered.  The right does not rest.  Their goal is utter destruction, and they are working on it without respite. Moreover, they have vast resources, including an army of highly effective sales personnel who command innumerable radio and television shows.  And the right, in the form of corporate dominance of the terms of discourse, is already so powerful in the US as to almost make democracy an illusion, just as things stands.  Don't expect an Obama to manage to change much. Read a little Chomsky if you want to understand the lay of the land.  But if you bothered to vote in '08, you'd best plan on staying in the game.  The alternative is out and out fascism, which is what assassination and terrorism amounts to.

What a tragic waste.

Update:  Laurie is correct that "their" goal is not really utter destruction.  Their goal is control and power.  They do hope to utterly destroy the New Deal and various assertions in law and fact that bring the founding phrase "all men are created equal" more to reality.  For more discussion see:
http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2011/01/police-are-seeking-possible-acccomplice.html
Be sure to read the comments.