Man with Gun at Obama Townhall Ready to "Water the Tree of Liberty" with Blood?

by bartleby the scrivener | Peter Daou at Consider This News:

"I am deeply concerned that the summer of 2009 has set the stage for bloodshed to come. The kind of rage we’re seeing, based on Limbaugh, Coulter and Hannity-style soundbites, is dangerous. It’s like a cancer that grows with time and we need to be vigilant in defending against it."

There is most definitely cause for concern.  The right-wing response to extremism, as we've all seen before, is to quietly cheer it on till the moment when somebody snaps, when suddenly even the most unrestrained hate-mongers suddenly deplore the real-world consequences of the hate they've successfully fostered.... 

A man carried a handgun strapped to his leg to a town hall meeting being held by President Obama in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Tuesday....Talking Points Memo points out that the man was carrying a sign referencing this Jefferson quote: "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants."  (HuffPost)

I'm sure John Wilkes Booth would agree.  In fact, we know for a fact he did. 

Conservative Allahpundit commented:

People are going to beat the Second Amendment drum in the comments, but (a) I doubt it would have sat well with our readers if lefties carrying Bushitler signs had shown up to Dubya’s events packing heat and (b) having a right doesn’t mean you’re obliged to exercise it, particularly in circumstances where it would be provocative to do so.....The worst part? According to a new book about the Secret Service, the number of daily threats against Obama is already four times the number Bush faced. Every pair of eyes diverted to watch this tool make his point about liberty is a pair that’s not watching the rest of the crowd.

Blackfive ain't happy about it either:

On so many levels and for so many reasons this freedom exercising douchebag hurt the right to carry, the health care debate and the image of those who disagree with the President's many over reaches. FFS, what was this idiot not thinking? And to top it off this bandito of ass was carrying a sign that said "It's time to water the tree of liberty" Good God, the rest of the quote is about killing tyrants.

John Cook at Gawker said what we' re all thinking:

[L]et's be clear: anyone watching the mounting rage over, of all things, health care — perhaps one of the most boring and complex policy subjects — has to worry that these people are going to try to kill Barack Obama. That's not an extrapolation from unhinged rhetoric, or a partisan reading of the imagined intentions of our political enemies. It's a rational reading of the anticipated behavior of a man who brandishes a gun at the location where the president is expected to imminently arrive while holding a sign that openly advocates his assassination. And the astonishing, breathtaking, maddening fact that he hasn't been violently taken to the ground by large men wearing suits and earpieces is an open encouragement to anyone else so inclined to give it a shot....

Did extremists on the left adopt the same tone against Bush? Yes. And there is an element in this wingnuttery of the same sort of dispossessed rage and periodic venting that many liberals felt under the last administration. But it's different when that rage is being purposefully manipulated to (imagined) political advantage by the GOP. And it's different when there's actually a guy with a gun waiting for the president to show up.  (emphasis added)

More blogger discussion at Memeorandum

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