Washington Post Cartoonist: Hey, I Can Blame The Tea Party For AZ Shootings Because The Right Hates The Government

First, check out the cartoon here.

Here's what cartoonist Jeff Danziger said when challenged on the accuracy and fairness of the image.

In a larger sense there is a link between anti-government rhetoric and the actions of this obviously deranged man. He is not “troubled”, he is crazed. But he knows that the larger enemy is the “government”, even though I suspect he has no idea, other than the police, what the government is.

Danziger professes the he is, "not a Democrat nor a Republican, neither left nor right' yet he's pretty sure that "anti-government rhetoric" only comes from the tea party.

Oh really?

Try Googling "Andrew Sullivan George Bush War Criminal" and see how many hits you get (like this one)

Or how about a group like The War Resisters League who advocated for "taking back our schools from the military"?

The National Lawyers Guild says the government has "targeted" (we now know that's a dangerous code word) animal rights activists as terrorists and that Lynn Stewart and Mumia Abu-Jamal have had their rights violated by the government.

The US Human Rights Network is full of all sorts of charges of government abuse of people at the hands of the government. A taste.

The U.S. Human Rights Network Political Prisoners and State Repression Working Group condemns this attack on anti-war, social justice, and human rights activists in the United States and the growing suppression of dissent and repression of dissidents. We stand in support of these and other activists fighting for peace, justice, and an end to unjust U.S. policies and practices at home and abroad. See U.S. Human Rights Network Reports to the UPR Working Group of the UN Human Rights Council

Charges that there was an "American Gulag" were pretty common (one example) during the Bush years.

The ACLU was pretty excited that the UN was finally examining America's protect "human rights".

"The UPR process provides an opportunity for the United States to identify human rights violations, develop real solutions and bring our policies in line with international human rights standards," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "There is no better time to reflect honestly and exhaustively on our country's human rights record and to find a path forward toward correcting our faults. The administration should continue to work with all relevant federal agencies and Congress until we can safely say the U.S. is beyond reproach when it comes to human rights."

"This unfortunately reminds me of when Hitler began rounding up the Jews for no reason and locking them up," Democratic Party activist Carla Vela said. "Now they're coming for the Latinos, who will they come for next?"

And plenty of Democratic politicians have gotten in on the act.

That represents about a half an hour worth of work last night and I've only scratched the surface of the left's "anti-government rhetoric".

I'd like to say there's some bigger point here beyond Jeff Danziger's dishonesty and ideological blinkers but there's probably not. Still I think there's some use in reminding people that the movement that produced Bill "The Bomber" Ayers was anti-government not only in rhetoric but action long before anyone ever dreamed up the tea party.

posted by DrewM. at 10:33 AM

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