After almost a century of fighting for universal care against obstructionists, passage of landmark legislation to bring secure, affordable health care to all Americans was always expected to be a difficult achievement. Given its enormous benefit to all citizens, however, it was not seen to be a dangerous goal.
Yet the rising level of rabble-rousing, fear-mongering vilification of Democratic advocates by Republican and Tea Party opponents of reform over the past nine months has begun to make it so. Their often vicious rhetoric, ramped up by the venomous excess of the right-wing cable and radio pundit world, has now spawned threats and outright acts of vandalism and physical intimidation.
Spit, bricks and worse
Democratic members of Congress were spat upon and verbally assaulted with racial and homophobic epithets at they entered the Capitol last week. Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights icon who was beaten by white officers as he led a voting rights demonstrators across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in March, 1965, was loudly called a n—–, the haunting taunt that forever reeks of predatory racism and cruel intimidation.
In the wake of last Sunday’s long session, marked by the spectacle of Republicans inciting the protesters from a Capitol balcony, the atmosphere of incivility has become overtly hostile.
In the past week, at least 10 Democratic members of Congress have reported incidents of threatening phone calls, faxes and property damage.
* A brick was thrown the glass door of the Monroe County Democratic Committee office in Rochester, N.Y., followed by a phone threat that said the children of anyone who voted for the health care bill would be assassinated.
* The full-length glass door of Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s office in Tucson was shattered by pellet gun.
* A propane gas line at the Virginia home of the brother of Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello was slashed after his address was published as Rep. Perriello’s by a Tea Party chairman in Lynchberg, Mike Troxel, who invited fellow Tea Partiers to “drop by” and give Mr. Perriello a “personal touch” to their opinions on health care.
* Someone threw a rock through the window of a Democratic office in Knox County, Ohio; windows were broken at a Democratic office in Kansas; and a coffin was placed in front of the home of Democratic Rep. Tom Carnahan of Missouri.
* Pictures of nooses were faxed to two congressmen — James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, and Bart Stupak of Michigan, the pro-life Democrat who Republican Rep. Randy Neugebaurer called a “baby killer” from the floor when Mr. Stupak rose to say that he would vote for the health care reform legislation after President Obama agreed to issue an executive order affirming that the law against using federal funds for abortions would be enforced.
* An envelope with white powder was sent to the office of Rep. Anthony Weiner of New York, along with a threatening letter regarding the health care bill. Police later learned the powder was harmless, but the incident shut down his office for the day as police investigated.
* And on Friday, someone apparently angry about the attacks against Democrats threw bricks through three windows of the Ablemarle County Republican headquarters in Charlottesville, Va.
It’s not hard to trace the arc from the frequent verbal demonizing of Democrats to the incitement to physical action by extremists. For their efforts to pass health care reform, Democratic lawmakers and President Obama have often been referred to as socialists, facists and communists. They’ve sometimes been compared to Hitler and Stalin — brutal leaders responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of people, and against whom Americans waged hot and cold wars, respectively. This isn’t just said on the airwaves; it is often repeated in vehement criticism in letters to newspapers, including this one.
Compared with monsters
No wonder so many extremists feel free to express their hostility to those with whom they disagree. Words have consequences; they cause actions, not just anger. Republican members of Congress and their doting broadcast bullies have recklessly incited their followers with viral messages, and the results reflect it.
When they demonize their opponents as evil over-reachers who are smashing our constitutional democracy, installing a government takeover of health care and education, banks and auto-makers, and turning the nation into a socialist or communist state, there is a good chance someone, somewhere, will respond with hostile actions.
The symbology that is precipitating political deadlock and spurring hate leads somewhere. When Sarah Palin’s facebook page puts the faces of a score of Democratic members of Congress she thinks should be Republican targets on her page behind a rifle telescope’s cross-hairs, someone may be tempted to use a gun.
Stop fear mongering
Political fear-mongers must do more now than just say people are angry. They must be accountable for their actions and take responsibility to dampen their rhetoric and urge civility. They must say that people who turn to hostile confrontation or violence over political decisions are wrong and should be prosecuted, not passively excuse them.
Republicans, Tea Partiers and right-wing pundits can’t take a pass on the atmosphere they have stoked. It began with propaganda and hateful incitement against Mr. Obama and his agenda during the last presidential campaign, was deliberately organized and stoked further in last summer’s town hall meetings on health care, and brought to boil when the health-care reform vote neared.
It’s not enough now to say they didn’t mean to incite hateful acts. If they don’t change their language and tactics in the run-up to the November vote, the hostility will surely worsen, and hope for civility and bipartisan governance will vanish entirely.