Pirate's Cove

This is what we have to look forward to for the next 4 years from the mainstream left, starting with Crooks and Liars, the perfect name for a Progressive blog

As we predicted before the election, Barack Obama’s victory has loosed a flood of hatefulness from the racist right in America. Digby yesterday had a detailed post laying out some of the cases that have erupted so far.

From the Christian Science Monitor:

In rural Georgia, a group of high-schoolers gets a visit from the Secret Service after posting “inappropriate” comments about President-elect Barack Obama on the Web. In Raleigh, N.C., four college students admit to spraying race-tinged graffiti in a pedestrian tunnel after the election. On Nov. 6, a cross burns on the lawn of a biracial couple in Apolacon Township, Pa.

The election of America’s first black president has triggered more than 200 hate-related incidents, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center – a record in modern presidential elections. Moreover, the white nationalist movement, bemoaning an election that confirmed voters’ comfort with a multiracial demography, expects Mr. Obama’s election to be a potent recruiting tool – one that watchdog groups warn could give new impetus to a mostly defanged fringe element.

Yes, there is not doubt that there are jerks out there on both sides. People who go too far in expressing their so called First Amendment Rights. People who just do not take in to consideration what the phrase “being an adult” means.

According to that AP piece, neo-Nazi Web entities like Stormfront have seen a serious spike in business.

C&L then mentions the little t-shirt experiment that Chicago teen Catherine Vogt engaged in, seeing what would happen if she wore a “McCain Girl” t-shirt to school one day, then a “Obama Girl” one the next. But, according to C&L, what has been happening on “the right” is much, much worse. Of course.

There is a massive difference, though: most of these people expressing the hatred are massively far right, are massively fringe players, and are people that we do not want. We want nothing to do with people from sites like Stormfront, and, remember, Ron Paul was flayed for taking money from neo-Nazi’s like Leo Metzger and for an ad on Stormfront. We do not tolerate these folks, and want them to all piss off.

On the other side of the aisle, we have had massive hate on a continuous basis since Bush was elected. Michelle Malkin wrote a book about it. She has a whole category specifically about the Left’s fantasies about assassinating President Bush. The Huff Post has taken to closing posts that are about some bad thing, some hospital visit, some medical problem, etc, that happens to people on the right, for fear that bloggers on the Right will pick up on the massive hate and wishes for death. I have tons of hate posts and comments from those on the Left in several categories, as does Right Wing News, Moonbattery, and others.

We had years of those on the Left thrilling at the proposition of posting higher and higher body counts from Iraq. The blogging leader on the Left, Markos Moulitos, had his famous “screw ’em” post. And let’s not forget some of the comments by Democrat electa-critters, who compared G’itmo to a Soviet gulag, Abu Ghraid under the Coalition forces to Saddam’s thugs, and called our troops dumb, as well as cold blooded killers. The big difference here is that these are mostly the mainstream Left. Not fringe players. And those on the left rarely say “dude (or dudette), you are going way too far.” The typical behavior is to either ignore the issue, or cheer them on.

So, when it is the mainstream Right engaging in this type of behavior, then I’ll be concerned. Barking Moonbats on the left should clean their own house before casting aspersions. When commenters at Michele Malkin, Hot Air, Powerline forums, Ace of Spades, Free Republic, etc, start laughing at bad things that happen to Barry and his folks, then I’ll be worried. When Boortz, Hannity, or Rush start having assissination skits like the ones by Randy Rhodes (not that a comparison between the greats and a barely listened to hack are fair), then I’ll be concerned. Till then, keep your hysterical rhetorical BS to yourselves, Moonies!