Exposing Conservatives Gone WILD!!!

I haven't read Michelle Malkin's new book, so I can't make any comments on its veracity.  But if this post  is any indication, her book sounds like it will be filled with inaccuracies and simple stereotyping.  For example, she states that there are no Republicans/conservatives doing a wide variety of "unhinged" acts.  However, there is ample evidence of people on the right doing these things.   She states:

It’s not Republicans taking chainsaws to Democrat campaign signs and running down political opponents with their cars. It’s not conservatives burning Democrats in effigy, defacing war memorials, and supporting the fragging of American troops. And it’s not conservatives producing a bullet-riddled bumper crop of assassination-themed musicals, books and collectible stamps.

She's obviously attacking the lunatic fringe of the Democratic party here.  But the examples that she states that Republicans/conservatives aren't doing are wrong.

It’s not Republicans taking chainsaws to Democrat campaign signs

Chainsaws, no.  But there are multiple reports of vandalism and theft of Kerry-Edwards signs during the 2004 campaign.  For example:

Indeed, Travis Co. Democratic Party Chairman Chris Elliott said that he and his neighbors have seen the vandalism firsthand. Elliott said that the Kerry/Edwards signs in his yard (and in his neighbors' yard) have twice been shredded and strewn across his lawn – the second time it happened, Elliott said, the vandals stacked the wooden stakes on his front porch. And Elliott's car, on which he'd posted a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker, was egged in his driveway.

It’s not Republicans...running down political opponents with their cars.

First off, the person in question didn't run down anyone, although he did try to scare Katherine Harris with his car (a despicable act).  Now if we want examples of Republicans and violence against opponents, we could then bring up the College Republican that murdered his opponent* back in 1996.  Or we have Byron Looper, Republican state senate candidate in Tennessee that murdered his Democratic opponent (hat tip to Throatwobbler in the comments).

It’s not conservatives burning Democrats in effigy

Am I the only person who was stunned to read the Associated Press article about Kentuckians burning Hilary Clinton in effigy at a political rally attended by a congressman and a Kentucky gubernatorial candidtate?( For those who might not have seen the article in question, I'm talking about "Kentuckians Burn First Lady in Effigy" in the August 30 _Washington Post_ [p. A2]." I just know that when I got to the line, "'Burn, baby, burn,' chanted Stan Arachikavitz, president of the Kentucky Association of Tobacco Supporters", chills ran up and down my spine.

It's not conservatives....defacing war memorials

CRAWFORD, Texas - A pickup truck ran over wooden crosses erected at antiwar protester Cindy Sheehan's campsite on Monday night in the latest sign of tension over the peace vigil outside vacationing President Bush's Texas ranch.

Larry Northern, 46, of nearby Waco, Texas, was arrested and charged with criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Crawford Police Chief Donnie Tidmore said.

It's not conservatives....supporting the fragging of American troops

No...although this is a lunatic position that nearly no one would take.  However, there is a conservative on record supporting fragging Al Franken:

Okay, be honest with yourself here.  If you were in an active combat zone, and had a chance to accidentally shoot Al Franken, would you do it?

...

“I don’t know what happened!  I was standing there, watching the show, and the pin just fell out of the grenade!  Then, somehow, the grenade flew off my belt and spontaneously ended up wedged down Franken’s throat!  It was the damnedest thing I ever saw.”

And it’s not conservatives producing a bullet-riddled bumper crop of assassination-themed musicals, books and collectible stamps.

Well if we browse Right Wing Stuff, a conservative t-shirt site, we'll find quite a few shirts with the theme of killing liberals.  There's Save the Seals: Club a Liberal, Club Liberals: Not Sandwiches, Got Ammo (w/a donkey in the crosshairs), and the Liberal Hunting License.

And with regards to assassination, Ann Coulter stated that the focus of enquiry re: Clinton and Lewinsky shouldn't be on whether he did it, but should be "about whether to impeach or assassinate".

***

And that's just the first paragraph.  These are all things that conservatives supposedly don't do, yet there is ample evidence that some conservatives do engage in this type of behavior.

Now some basic points that I shouldn't have to clarify but will.  I am anti-political sign destruction, anti-scaring political opponents with moving vehicles, anti-memorial defacing, anti-fragging, and anti-assassination.  I'm sure that most liberals and conservatives are in the same boat here.

But you will have lunatics on both sides that do stupid things in the name of politics.  There are "unhinged" Republicans and "unhinged" Democrats.  I could take these examples (and many others) and write a book about "Exposing Conservatives Gone Wild", but that would be idiotic.  The actions of a few on the lunatic fringe should not be taken as a blanket description of a much larger group.

* - Note that the 1996 incident is of a College Republican murdering another College Republican.  I'm sure some will complain that this example doesn't count, he murdered a fellow Republican, he was obviously crazy, etc.  And that's my point.  I could generalize from this single incident and say that Republicans are bloodthirsty powerhounds that will even kill their own kind in order to get ahead.  But that would be a moronic stereotype.  Instead, it's clear that this fellow (and others that do similar things) has problems and is not reflective of his political affiliation.

Comments

[Throatwobbler]

A good example would be Byron (Low Tax) Looper, who killed his democratic opponent in Tennessee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byron_Looper

[L.N. Smithee]

The conservative who defaced the war memorial of Cindy Sheehan didn't do so out of malice for the military or the nation. It was striking out against what was -- and continues to be -- a grotesque display of using fallen soldiers to promote an antiwar/pro-communist/anti-Israel agenda that is and was not shared by the majority of the soldiers those crosses represent.

Cindy Sheehan waves the corpse of her dead son like a bloody flag to advance a cause she has provided NO proof he would approve. If Casey had agreed with her in the first place, he wouldn't have been in the military at all, and he wouldn't have volunteered to go to Iraq. Saying that he would approve of her actions would be tantamount to saying had he lived to see it, John F. Kennedy would be content with his former Attorney General Ramsey Clark heading up International A.N.S.W.E.R., the planet's premier Socialist front group.

Think about it.

[ScrappyT]

I think Llama School made it pretty clear that he didn't agree with these tactics whether they come from conservatives or liberals: "I am anti-political sign destruction, anti-scaring political opponents with moving vehicles, anti-memorial defacing, anti-fragging, and anti-assassination. I'm sure that most liberals and conservatives are in the same boat here."

You seem to be suggesting that you're ok with them when you agree with the sentiment, as if that somehow justifies vandalism.

[jimmy]

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[pics]

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