Liberal Vitriol

Vitriol (noun) bitterness Synonyms: acrimony, contempt, disdain, hate, hostility, malevolence, malice, nastiness, sarcasm, venom, virulence.

By now, you should've heard what Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) said last week about the tea party movement. If not, here it is:

I’m not afraid of anybody. This is a tough game. You can’t be intimidated. You can’t be frightened. And as far as I’m concerned — the tea party can go straight to hell.

The intellectual level of liberal debate is mind-boggling and Rep. Waters is far from the only one on this lofty level of discourse. There are those who would have us alter this discourse. In the wake of the Arizona shootings early this year, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said:

I think the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business and what [we] see on TV and how our youngsters are being raised, that this has not become the nice United States of America that most of us grew up in.  And I think it's time that we do the soul-searching.

"Vitriolic rhetoric" is the stuff we don't say in polite company. It's also known as "hate speech" and a few other things. The implication we all got from this very liberal sheriff (if we were paying attention) is that this vitriol is the sole and exclusive product of conservatives like Limbaugh, Hannity, Ingraham, Beck, Sowell, etc. Likewise implied is that good liberals would never insult people the way conservatives do. They are the nice folks who treat everybody well, while conservatives are the one trodding on the downtrodden.
 

Well, like so many other claims made by liberals, this is a load of manure big enough to fertilize Nebraska! Allow me to share a few examples of the deep intellectuality that comprises liberal rhetoric:

I hate it when I wake up and Sarah Palin is still alive

I hate it when I wake up in the morning and Glenn Beck is alive.

–actual Facebook page titles

The Assassination of George Bush

–2009 novel (assassination is discussed but not attempted)

Death of a President

–2006 docu-drama depicting a Bush assassination

The Assassination of Richard Nixon

–2004 movie about a failed 1974 assassination attempt

It has become commonplace to call the tea party faction in the House “hostage takers.” But they have now become full-blown terrorists. They have joined the villains of American history who have been sufficiently craven to inflict massive harm on innocent victims to achieve their political goals. A strong America has always stood firm in the face of terrorism. That tradition is in jeopardy, as Congress and President Barack careen toward an uncertain outcome in the tea party- manufactured debt crisis.

—William Yeomans, "The tea party's terrorist
tactics," Politico.com, 29 July 2011

I’m proud to be here with people who understand that it’s more than just sending an email to get you going.  Every once and awhile you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary.

—Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) to a group of
union members in Boston, 22 Feb 2011

Webster might survive a 9mm, but doubtful he’d survive a 50 cal. There’s a lot of 50 cals in Maine.  He should change his tune because a lot of people are really mad.

—Voicemail by unknown male to Maine Republican
Party Chair Charles Webster, 13 Jan 2011

The NRA should change their name to 'the Assassins Lobby' . . . if you love guns, just admit it like it's a vice, it's like alcohol or drugs or sex addiction or gambling.  It's just a vice . . . The 'right wing' loves the...the go-to rhetoric for them is "Wouldn't it be fun to kill the people we disagree with?" . . . Left wingers don't talk that way . . . and, also, left wingers, even if they do make a gun analogy or something, their audience isn't hysterical . . . [R]ight wingers . . . are already hysterical and are highly armed to begin with.

—Bill Maher, The Tonight Show,
11 Jan 2011 [emphasis added]

The Republican V.P. nom would be "gang-raped by my big black brothers" if she enters Manhattan, Bernhard said.  Palin is said to be making a campaign stop in New York next week. The gang rape comment "is part of a much larger, nuanced, and yes, provocative (that's what I do) piece from my show about racism, freedom, women's rights and the extreme views of Governor Sarah Palin, a woman who doesn't believe that other women should have the right to choose," Bernhard told the Daily News today.

—Tracy Miller, staff writer, "Sandra Bernhard issues
'gang rape' warning to Sarah Palin," New York
Daily News, 19 Sep 2008 [emphasis added]

I’m just saying, if he did die, other people, more people would live.  That’s a fact.

—Bill Maher, Real Time with Bill Maher, 2 Mar 2007,
on a failed assassination attempt on VP Cheney
during a visit to Afghanistan

I hear about Tony Snow and I say to myself, well, stand up every day, lie to the American people at the behest of your dictator-esque boss and well, how could a cancer NOT grow in you? Work for FoxNews, spinning the truth in to a billion knots and how can your gut not rot?

—Charles Karel Bouley, Huffington Post, on
the Bush White House Press Secretary
who died from colon cancer in 2007.

And, of course, the pies-de-resistance, from the Great One himself:

To his Party:  "They bring a knife, we bring a gun"
To his supporters:  "Get in their faces!"
To his mercenary army:  "Hit back twice as hard."
To voters:  "Republican victory would mean hand-to-hand combat."
To liberal supporters:  "It’s time to fight for it."
To Latino supporters:  "Punish your enemies."
To Democrats:  "I’m itching for a fight."

–President Barak Hussein Obama II

Now, I know as well as anybody that the right wing has a few nutcases, just like the left. But, look carefully – the mainstream media doesn't report language like this from the right, because it is extremely rare. The left, which so often claimed the high moral ground, lied. Again.

Thanks for listening, tune in next week for another rant.