Call it like it is. In fact they have deliberately set out to do this kind of harassing. They enjoy it, they have fun doing it, and they do it to piss us off. They even have organized groups to plan things to make us mad. You know, like the Purple Band-aid harassment of John Kerry, and the continued playing of the Catch an Illegal Immigrant Day.
These things are not accidental at all. They are planned and organized.
They call their outrageous behavior "controlled controversy"Unlike chapter-based political organizations, CLP clubs are unaffiliated with either the Leadership Institute or each other. According to Blackwell, this trait offers a serious advantage: "No purges." The clubs' independence also comes with the benefit of plausible deniability. "You can get away with stuff that you would take a lot of flak for doing in the College Republicans," says CLP director Dan Flynn. "Because we're independent, we can do activities that push the envelope," agrees University of Miami senior Sarah Canale, whose CLP-organized Advocates for Conservative Thought threw an affirmative action bake sale last year in which the price of a cupcake varied according to the race of its buyer. That it was controversial, she believes, was a victory in itself.
The Leadership Institute teaches the same principle. Controlled controversy -- making your point in a manner so bombastic that your opponents blow their cool -- is a Blackwell specialty. Before the 2004 Republican Convention, the conservative elder personally went to a drugstore and bought little pink heart stickers, bandages and purple nail polish. At home, he made the "Purple Heart Band-Aids" that he later distributed in Madison Square Garden to mock John Kerry's war wounds. From Blackwell's perspective, the Kerry camp's outrage at the gag was a tactical disaster. Democratic Party chairman Terry McAuliffe, Blackwell says, kept the story alive for days by "running around like a chicken with its head cut off."
What Coulter said, what these guys are doing to talk radio lately, how they are attacking Democrats to take up for their beloved Anne Coulter. As Andrew Sullivan said it is apparent she has become the face of the new Republicanism.
There is a lot in the post above, but it is very long. One part states they are out to destroy the left, to make us afraid of speaking out against them. They will do anything. The younger generation of Republicans is falling for this stuff, the more outrageous and nasty, the better.
And now for Crockett's great post today. He knows what they are doing also. He calls them out on their harassment of radio hosts on the left. It is just more their organized outrageous behavior. They appear to answer to no one.
Democratic Activists Harassed by Republican LunaticsPopulist Democratic activists are routinely being harassed by the lunatic fringe of the Republican Right and fanatics from the anti-Democratic Left. Lately, it seems increasingly likely that some of those on the Internet harassing Populist Democratic activists are actually supporters of the Republican Right pretending to be from the anti-Democratic Left.
The idea seems to be to make political activism personally unpleasant and nasty. The Republican Right has routinely acted in this manner to keep voters from the polls. New activists and writers are often discouraged by these tactics. Many veterans of Democratic Internet activism are encouraged. I certainly am emboldened and delighted by the harassment. It means I am being effective and the opposition would like to silence me.
When I first started writing the Democratic Voices column and airing Democratic Talk Radio (
http://www.DemocraticTalkRadio.com ),
the Republican Right lunatic fringe tried to harass us out of business with a tidal wave, frontal assault of insults, venom, profanities, obscenities, occasional death threats, anthrax hoax letters, etc. Once I wrote about how delighted these Republican attacks made me, they slowed to a mere trickle....."Frankly, I have very good relations with many real Populists, Libertarians and Greens. We often agree on issues and work together to promote specific positions or policies. Democratic populists have a great deal in common with many third party supporters. In time, many of these third party supporters will find it comfortable to become either Democrats or Democratic-leaning Independents if populism in Democratic circles continue to grow..
Populist Democrats do often struggle against “Republican-lite” elements inside our Party. I believe that the populist Democratic approach now dominates in Democratic circles. The populist control is increasing in strength day by day in community after community. Certainly, Howard Dean, as the national leader of the Democratic Party, is a great example of the rising national ascendancy of Democratic populism.
I was on an email group with some professors from the Tampa area. They knew first hand how dangerous this type is. They were experiencing harassment from them for speaking any view those guys considered "liberal". Some were being threatened with lawsuits. There was no administration backing them up because they got threatened also by these conservative Republican groups.
Those who are saying ignore them are wrong. We ignore folks like this at our peril.
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