Canada and the World
Current Events with a Canadian Perspective
Last update
12 January 2011
The Angry Right in America
Is the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords another manifestation of deeply rooted extremism in American politics?
In the wake of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and 19 other people some Americans are asking whether the extremism of the right might have played a part. Others say that the actions of a deranged shooter cannot be blamed on partisan politics.
One of the most divisive figures in American politics is former Republican vice-
As a
“marked off in gun sights. Ms. Giffords was among those in the cross hairs.”
She then told her followers on Twitter: “Don’t Retreat, Instead -
Can such extreme political tactics incite a mentally ill person to act as Jared Loughner allegedly did in the shooting that took six lives and wounded 14 others in Tucson, Arizona? America is now debating that question.
In the election of 2010, contests across America turned into ugly battles between the political ideology of the right and supporters of President Barack Obama’s more centrist approach, which included Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Senatorial Race in Nevada
In The Globe and Mail (October 10, 2010) Konrad Yakabuski reported on a typical contest
in recession-
The battle was between incumbent Democratic Senator Harry Reid and Republican challenger
Sharron Angle. Reid threw his support behind President Obama’s recovery plan of bailing
out banks, stimulating the economy, and extending health-
Carrying the Republican banner was Sharron Angle, of whom Yakabuski writes: “In a
year when the Republican Party is fielding some of its most radically right-
Hartry Reid held on to the seat; Sharron Angle managed to get 45% of the votes with 320,996 against Reid’s 55% or 361,655 votes.
History of U.S. Anger
In August 2009, Rick Perlstein, wrote an op-
During the summer of 2009 many town hall meetings were hijacked by hecklers accusing Democrat politicians of betraying the United States by supporting President Barack Obama.
Democratic Senator Arlen Specter had a taste of the boiling rage abroad in some sectors of American society. At a town hall meeting in Lebanon, Pennsylvania on August 11, 2009 an infuriated man get in the Senator’s face and started yelling at him.
CBS News reported on the outburst: “One day, God’s gonna stand before you,” the worked-
The man’s fury was based on Specter’s support for Obama’s health care reforms.
At other town hall meetings, voters have accused President Obama of being a Communist bent on undermining the American state. And, some have shown up carrying guns.
Washington’s Restoring Honour Rally
Glenn Beck is one of many right-
Their attacks on the President are often filled with inaccuracies but they find resonance
in a population deeply hurt by economic insecurity and in need of someone to blame
for their misfortunes. Beck has accused Obama of being a racist who “has a deep-
On August 28, 2010 Beck organized what he called the Restoring Honour Rally in Washington (below). The gathering attracted a large crowd (estimates of the number vary wildly from 80,000 to 1.6 million) of mostly white Americans and Tea Party supporters.
Bloomberg News reported (August 30, 2010) “The ‘Restoring Honour’ rally was billed as a ‘nonpolitical’ celebration of the military, patriotism, and American heritage. Beck, 46, shied away from the partisan commentary that has made him famous during the rally, focusing instead on religious themes.”
President Obama said he didn’t watch the rally but understood the frustration of
the American people: “I think that Mr. Beck and -
Jimmy Carter Blames Racism for Anti-
What’s behind this anger? Former President Jimmy Carter thinks he knows. In an interview with NBC Television in September 2009 he said, “I think that an overwhelming proportion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he’s a black man.”
Mr. Carter is not alone in this view. Writing in The New York Times (September 2009) Maureen Dowd opined that Mr. Obama is “at the centre of a period of racial turbulence sparked by his ascension…This President is the ultimate civil rights figure – a black man whose legitimacy is constantly challenged by a loco fringe.”
Irate Opposition to Presidents not New
In his article in The Washington Post, Rick Perlstein points out there’s a long history of this kind of hostility. “In the early 1950s, Republicans referred to the presidencies of Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman as ‘20 years of treason’ and accused the men who led the fight against fascism of deliberately surrendering the free world to communism.”
Democrat John F. Kennedy, the first Catholic to be elected President came in for more than his fair share of outrageous accusation.
And, Lyndon Johnson, who followed Kennedy, was the object of vitriolic attacks over his civil rights legislation. Bogus stories circulated in the south that whites were going to be enslaved, just as there are false claims today from Sarah Palin and others that Barack Obama intends to set up “death panels” under his health care reforms that will decide who gets medical treatment and who doesn’t.
Leadership Vacuum Filled by Loudmouths
Writing in The Independent (September 17, 2009), Johann Hari puts forward the theory that the outbursts of hatred against Obama and centrist Democrats are the result of a lack of leadership on the political right.
“The twin shocks of the financial meltdown and the Democrats’ landslide election
victory last November,” he writes “have pole-
In the absence of a voice of moderation from the Republican Party, hotheads such
as radio talk-
Hari says “It is the slogans and paranoid world view of these ‘shock jocks’ that have inspired opponents of health care reform.” He suggests that there will be more of the same until the Republican Party rises from the ashes of its defeat.
Sources
“Tea Party Extremism may Backfire in Nevada.” Konrad Yakabuski, Globe and Mail, October 10, 2010.
“In America, Crazy Is a Preexisting Condition -
“Angry Man Tells Specter: God Will Judge you.” Brian Montopoli, CBS News, August 11, 2009.
“Beck Says his ‘Restoring Honor’ Rally Shows Discontent with U.S. Direction.” Lisa Lerer and John McCormick, Bloomberg News, August 30, 2010.
“Boy, Oh, Boy.” Maureen Dowd, New York Times, September 12, 2009.
“A Dangerous Distraction for President Obama.”
Johann Hari, The Independent, September 17, 2009.
“Republicans Capture U.S. House, CBC News, November 3, 2010.
“U.S. Voters Punish Obama.” Mark Mandel, BBC News, November 3, 2010.
“A Disturbing Story about American Political Culture.” Globe and Mail Editorial, January 10, 2011.
© Canada and the World, October 2010
Updated November 2010, January 2011,
All rights reserved
WHAT IS
THE TEA PARTY?
To start with it’s not a party; it’s a movement that covers a wide variety of causes and angry protests.
There is general agreement that it was started by an irritated rant from CNBC Business News editor Rick Santelli. Broadcasting live during the wreckage of the economic meltdown of 2008, Santelli said what America needed was another Tea Party.
He was referring to the original Boston Tea Party of 1773. In a protest over taxation, colonists boarded ships and dumped taxed British tea into Boston Harbour.
The elements that unite modern Tea Partiers are a desire for smaller government and lower taxation, along with a deep distrust of politicians, government, and the media.
Its focus is primarily economic and its ideology is deeply conservative.
The Tea Party is not allied with the Republican Party and is, in many ways, opposed to it.
The Tea Party has no official leadership although unofficially Glenn Beck and former
vice-
According BBC News correspondent Katie Connolly (September 15, 2010) “Demographically, several polls show that the Tea Party is overwhelmingly white and older than 45, and more likely to be male.
“The group has been accused of racism…allegations most members vehemently deny.
“Still, many do not believe President Obama is an American and…one group erected a billboard in Iowa comparing Mr. Obama to Hitler and Stalin.”
“Some Democrats and liberal activists wondered aloud whether heated Republican and conservative attacks against Democrats and the government over the past two years had contributed to a climate in which the gunman found a target in a member of Congress.”
Jeff Zeleny/Jim Rutenberg
January 9, 2011
“For as long as I’ve been alive, cross hairs and bull’s-
Jack Shafer
January 9, 2011
“We have to be very careful about imputing the motives or the actions of a deranged individual to any particular group of Americans who have their own political beliefs. We ought to cool it, tone it down, treat each other with great respect, respect each other’s ideas and...do our best not to inflame passions.”
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander, CNN
January 9, 2011
“...history teaches that in climates of political polarization, spontaneous acts of political extremism are more likely to occur. And, if politicians routinely use the language of violence, actual violence is more likely to break out. President Obama has urged all Americans to ‘come together and support each other’ in the wake of the shooting. No doubt they will do so. But what the U.S. needs even more is for those who aspire to political leadership to at last start showing some responsibility.”
Editorial
January 10, 2011
MIDTERM REBUKE
Angry American voters turned to the Republican Party during midterm elections on November 2, 2010.
The painfully slow economic recovery caused many to abandon President Barack Obama’s Democrats.
The Republican Party has taken control of the House of Representatives but fell short
of the gaining a majority in the Senate. And, reports CBC News, “Republicans also
made gains in the 37 governors' races at stake Tuesday, capturing at least 10 governorships
from Democrats and several state legislatures.”
BBC News’ North American Editor, Mark
Mandell writes that “This is a stinging setback for a president who was elected with
so much hope and so much exuberance just two years ago. But it is more than a rebuke.
It will stop him turning his plans into laws.”
ATTACK JOURNALISM
“If bad institutions and bad men can be got rid of only by killing, then the killing must be done.”
That’s what an editorial in the New York Journal said on April 10, 1901 in an attack on U.S. President William McKinley.
Five months later, an assassin shot and killed President McKinley.
Source: HistoryNet.com