{"id":569,"date":"2009-08-23T22:05:42","date_gmt":"2009-08-23T22:05:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html"},"modified":"2009-08-23T22:05:42","modified_gmt":"2009-08-23T22:05:42","slug":"threats-and-acts-of-violence-f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html","title":{"rendered":"Threats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe – What is a Repubican Senator to Do?"},"content":{"rendered":"

This op-ed by the New York Times Frank Rich called Guns of August<\/a> articulates what I have been thinking for the last months.  Two months ago I wrote a piece on the shooting at the holocaust museum<\/a> and before that about the killing of the doctor in his church<\/a>.   Rich’s piece is a frightening portrayal of the rising violent rhetoric and actions of the right fringe and the inability or unwillingness of the mainstream right politicians to confront it.  Read it and weep…<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

“IT is time to water the tree of liberty” said the sign carried by a gun-toting protester milling outside President Obama’s town-hall meeting in New Hampshire two weeks ago<\/font><\/a>. The Thomas Jefferson quote that inspired this message, of course, said nothing about water: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” That’s the beauty of a gun — you don’t have to spell out the “blood.”<\/p>\n

The protester was a nut. America has never had a shortage of them. But what’s Tom Coburn’s excuse? Coburn is a Republican senator from Oklahoma, where 168 people were murdered by right-wing psychopaths who bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995<\/font><\/a>. Their leader, Timothy McVeigh, had the Jefferson quote on his T-shirt<\/font><\/a> when he committed this act of mass murder. Yet last Sunday, when asked by David Gregory on “Meet the Press” if he was troubled by current threats of “violence against the government,” Coburn blamed not the nuts but the government<\/font><\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Well, I’m troubled any time when we stop having confidence in our government,” the senator said, “but we’ve earned it.” <\/p>\n

Coburn is nothing if not consistent. In the aftermath of the Oklahoma City bombing, he was part of a House contingent that helped delay and soften an antiterrorism bill. This cohort even tried to strip out a provision blocking domestic fund-raising by foreign terrorist organizations like Hamas. Why? The far right, in league with the National Rifle Association, was angry at the federal government for aggressively policing America’s self-appointed militias. In a 1996 floor speech<\/font><\/a>, Coburn conceded that “terrorism obviously poses a serious threat,” but then went on to explain that the nation had worse threats to worry about: “There is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own government.” As his remarks on “Meet the Press” last week demonstrated, the subsequent intervention of 9\/11 has not changed his worldview.<\/p>\n

I have been writing about the simmering undertone of violence in our politics since October<\/font><\/a>, when Sarah Palin, the vice-presidential candidate of a major political party, said nothing to condemn Obama haters shrieking “Treason!<\/font><\/a>,” “Terrorist!<\/font><\/a>” and “Off with his head!<\/font><\/a>” at her rallies. As vacation beckons, I’d like to drop the subject, but the atmosphere keeps getting darker. <\/p>\n

Coburn’s implicit rationalization for far-right fanatics bearing arms at presidential events — the government makes them do it! — cannot stand. He’s not a radio or Fox News bloviator paid a fortune to be outrageous; he’s a card-carrying member of the United States Senate. On Monday — the day after he gave a pass to those threatening violence — a dozen provocateurs with guns<\/font><\/a>, at least two of them bearing assault weapons<\/font><\/a>, showed up for Obama’s V.F.W. speech in Phoenix. Within hours, another member of Congress — Phil Gingrey of Georgia — was telling Chris Matthews on MSNBC that as long as brandishing guns is legal, he, too, saw no reason to discourage Americans<\/font><\/a> from showing up armed at public meetings.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Read more of Frank Rich’s Guns of August<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This op-ed by the New York Times Frank Rich called Guns of August articulates what I have been thinking for the last months.  Two months ago I wrote a piece on the shooting at the holocaust museum and before that about the killing of the doctor in his church.   Rich’s piece is a frightening portrayal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[375,69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-race-2","category-terrorism"],"yoast_head":"\nThreats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe - What is a Repubican Senator to Do? - Progressive Revival<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Threats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe - What is a Repubican Senator to Do? - Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This op-ed by the New York Times Frank Rich called Guns of August articulates what I have been thinking for the last months.  Two months ago I wrote a piece on the shooting at the holocaust museum and before that about the killing of the doctor in his church.   Rich’s piece is a frightening portrayal…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Progressive Revival\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-08-23T22:05:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Paul Raushenbush\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Threats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe - What is a Repubican Senator to Do? - Progressive Revival","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Threats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe - What is a Repubican Senator to Do? - Progressive Revival","og_description":"This op-ed by the New York Times Frank Rich called Guns of August articulates what I have been thinking for the last months.  Two months ago I wrote a piece on the shooting at the holocaust museum and before that about the killing of the doctor in his church.   Rich’s piece is a frightening portrayal…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html","og_site_name":"Progressive Revival","article_published_time":"2009-08-23T22:05:42+00:00","author":"Paul Raushenbush","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html","name":"Threats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe - What is a Repubican Senator to Do? - Progressive Revival","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-08-23T22:05:42+00:00","dateModified":"2009-08-23T22:05:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/79cf4745abafd37be8b44cd0493ca805"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/2009\/08\/threats-and-acts-of-violence-f.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Threats and Acts of Violence from the Right Fringe – What is a Repubican Senator to Do?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/","name":"Progressive Revival","description":"Politics from the New Religious Progressives","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/79cf4745abafd37be8b44cd0493ca805","name":"Paul Raushenbush","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8a4\/8a469b4689362184dbcd8bfb43296365x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/8a4\/8a469b4689362184dbcd8bfb43296365x96.jpg","caption":"Paul Raushenbush"},"description":"Rev. Paul B. Raushenbush is the moderator of the Progressive Revival blog and the Associate Dean of Religious Life at Princeton University. .An ordained American Baptist minister, Rev. Raushenbush speaks and preaches at colleges, churches and institutes around the country including the College of Preachers at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., The Chautauqua Institute in upstate New York, and the New America Foundation. Rev. Raushenbush has served at Seattle First Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Chaplaincy at Columbia University and as College and Young Adult Minister at The Riverside Church in New York City. He has appeared on ABC World News Tonight and is a repeated guest on CNN. He has been quoted in The New York Times and The Washington Post and is a contributing editor for Beliefnet.com. His first book, Teen Spirit: One World, Many Faiths (HCI) was released in the Fall of 2004. He is the editor of the 100th Anniversary edition of Walter Rauschenbusch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book Christianity and the Social Crisis \u00e2\u20ac\u201c In the 21st Century (HarperOne). His work at Princeton includes strengthening the interfaith community on campus. He is the Co-Director of the Program on Religion, Diplomacy and International Relations at The Liechtenstein Institute on Self Determination at Princeton University. Rev. Raushenbush studied religion at Macalester College before attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City where he graduated with distinction.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/author\/praushenbush"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/progressiverevival\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}