I gotta tell ya people, I'm really getting worried. The violence is spreading,

[napi21]

and the flames are being fanned. I scared somebody is going to get hurt or killed! My husband and I were talking about this at dinner tonight. He said he thinks we're heading for another civil war! I'm 66 yo, and I sure don't want to fight, and surely not with a bunch of insane people!

[LiberalLoner]

1. Then you remember the 1960's even better than I do - people are saying

this is no worse than the 60's, but I think it IS worse. And I share your fears.

[my2sense]

2. I agree - I hope this thing is shut down soon

before it is allowed to spread any farther.

If it comes to civil war - how the hell will we know who to fight?

[That Is Quite Enough]

3. I don't think it's worse yet, but it certainly is headed that way

[RandomThoughts]

7. I just try and calm down,

It is a meme spread quickly through media. A few nuts make threats, and the fear is brought back alive.

I think it is best to power through with courage and purpose.


Remember the 60s, or WTO, mostly people that are not violent, but a few violent people created hysteria.

The hysteria is the point, to create fear.

We had periods of history with thousands in wars with much more danger, and they made it through.


Don't let the fear distract you.

Call them out as fear mongers, but don't let the fear in you.

[SoCalDem]

15. even one deranged wacko can alter history.. the right breeds & cultivates them

:(

[ladywnch]

24. LOL.....I love your bunnies! n/t

[SoCalDem]

5. It IS worse.. why?

because "back then" most of the "war-opposers" were young people with little or no real "backing"...and the press was actually even on their side (to some degree, because EVERYONE who was not rich & connected had a young man who might be drafted..)..but the news back then was a 15 minute show on 3 networks..and newspapers..

These were not very well organized people..and MOST were UNARMED..and even against guns..

the civil rights people were also not all that protected..

the group of crazies now, ARE backed financially and protected by the republican party, and the corporations who backstop the party..and they have a whole "network" in their pocket, at the ready, to make excuses for them....and many , if not most of them are ARMED and proud of it..

[crazylikafox]

6. I think you have that exactly right

[Lebam in LA]

9. Exactly

I was around in the 60's and I think this is worse, much worse and much more dangerous.

[whathehell]

14. Yes, and in the Sixties we had something called "The Fairness Doctrine"

so there was NOTHING like the incredibly unbalanced (and I mean that in every way) level of Right Wing Hate Speech there is now.

[radical noodle]

20. Anti Civil Rights violence

was often supported and carried out by local law enforcement. There were police officers in uniforms and police cars who stopped and murdered those promoting voters' rights. Non-violent protestors were being beaten by the police. Churches were being bombed, not just having their windows broken with bricks/rocks. I would compare teabaggers to those who tried to stop civil rights and school integration.

While I think this has gone way too far and has too much encouragement from repugs, I can't think things are quite that bad yet. Oh, and don't forget some liberals are armed but are too smart to brag about it on the internet!

[EFerrari]

26. That's right. That was the sixties, too.

[napi21]

8. It's worse than the 60's because of the internet, cell phones,

texting etc. Whaat tok hundreds of phone calls back then takes seconds with a mass sent email or a post on the face book page of several leaders.

I'm not a fearful person, and usually ignore the BS i hear, but these people scare me more than any terrorist ever has!

[DeschutesRiver]

16. I was a young kid growing up in the 60s

and during the Civil Rights movement, people were beat up, houses torched, men whose only crime was to be black were hung in trees to swing to their death, and to die in many other creative ways that the opposition thought up. Even some of the lawyers who we knew who went South to fight for civil rights got the ever loving snot beat out of them. Those bastards wanted to even beat up little kids that just wanted the same education as the white kids had.

It is absolutely not yet as bad as then; however, I think we are likely well on our way there now. This is seriously not good, but otoh, this is what people do periodically. Read history, reflect, and then deal with the hand we may have been dealt now.

I don't see any way around it. And yes, it is scary to contemplate, and I also share everyone's fears. That said, I am not going to be a victim or live in a world run by these people.

[county worker]

19. I was around during the 60's. The funny thing is those who they talk about causing violence in the

60's were the anti war protesters.

Lot's of government places got fire bombed. I know this is not the revisionist history we like to tell at DU but the it's the truth.


There was violence caused by the Weather Underground, SDS and a few others. There were militant civil rights groups also.

The "establishment" caused violence too. See the Chicago police riots at the 1968 Dem convention and Kent state.

[goclark]

31. I remember the 60's well but we should have grown up by now

And what we are seeing is,IMO, worse than the 60's because...

I'm African American and in the 60's it was common to have behavior such as this ~

But America should have grown up by now and these NUTS are realizing that their power is slippin away from them.

They thought they owned the USA and they just realized that they DON't.

It's Dangerous IMO, very dangerous.

[WVRICK13]

36. During The 60s

people were active and vocal but a very very small percentage were violent. They praised flower power, these nuts are advocating and acting on extermination of the Democrats in Congress. Bit of a difference. Oops, I forgot the true violence in the 60s was the same as the tea party folks, killing people to prevent equal rights. It appears the violence in our country is almost always connected with the so called conservatives.

[Saphire]

4. Agreed. I blame Rush, Beck, Palin...the whole gang. Something

will happen, and it's not going to be good. They control these idiot people, and need to be careful what they wish for.

[NeedleCast]

10. Relax

Really.

[nevergiveup]

11. I believe the 60's were much worse.

In the 60's student protesters were actually shot and killed and black protesters were being beaten on a daily basis and we were losing thousands of young men in VietNam. It was a terrifying time.

[denverbill]

12. People have already died. But it may take more before anyone acts.

Remember Jim David Adkisson who shot up a Unitarian Church in Kentucky because liberals were destroying America? Car full of right-wing propaganda.

I guarantee more people will have to die before the right-wing hate machine can be overcome.

[MrSlayer]

13. I fear no terrorist.

Domestic or otherwise. The people doing this are lunatic fringe, not close to a majority and not close to being dangerous on a grand scale. There will not be a civil war. If these teabagging idiots even attempt some sort of armed insurrection they will be put down fast and easy. Do not worry.

[Raschel]

18. I feel the same way. There's more of us than there are of them.

They're a crackpot minority. And the people inciting violence need to be held accountable.

[FatDave]

34. Agreed.

I almost wish they'd hurry up and make their move so they can be crushed.

[WorseBeforeBetter]

35. Agreed. I wasn't afraid on 9/11; I'm certainly not afraid of a bunch of teabagging idiots.

I welcome them being put down. Crushed. Whatever.

[Frank Cannon]

38. Hear hear. I welcome the teabagger asshole...

who decides to get up in my grill.

The reason terrorists try to use fear as a tool is that it works so well on THEM. Just ask Batman.

[elocs]

17. As the freeper talking heads fan the flames, one of the nutjobs will actually do something evil.

Then it will be all over for them because they will lose any of the vast and sane middle that they even had a remote chance of winning.

So for the GOP a "successful" act of violence by the whackos against the left means "game over".

[awoke_in_2003]

29. I don't know...

these are republicans- I can see them rationalizing it and writing it off as a "bad apple"

[K8-EEE]

21. It's scary, but I'm not scared

I think it's kind of good that these people are showing their true colors

[virgogal]

22. Relax-----all the real fights these days take place online.

[kestrel91316]

25. Tell that to all the women's clinic workers who have been murdered (8),

all those who died in OKC, the people at the Unitarian Church back east who were murdered.

Tell that to the legislator's brother whose home was vandalized with a gas line cut that could have killed his entire family including 4 small children.

You are dangerously naive.

[virgogal]

28. Naive? There will always be idiots out there,there always will

be, but the sixties marches and sit-ins would never have happened if the internet was around then.

Killers have been around since man first crawled out of the ooze,but coordinated violence is rare.

[slackmaster]

23. What violence?

:shrug:

[TexasObserver]

27. You're right. They're throwing chum into the water.

Hate directed at "Democrats" (which means those perceived as Democrats - gays, minorities, Bohemians, intellectuals, etc.) is going to result in acts of serious violence.

They've already started inciting attacks on property of political opponents - attacks that could be properly characterized as domestic terrorism. The media are giving the right wing extremists cover by not attacking these heinous actions. Instead, they tout these extremists as someone regular Americans. They're not even "regular" Republicans. They're the lunatic fringe on the far right, led by the Clown Princess.

[estragon75]

30. not likely

I seriously doubt there will be a civil war. What the tea party terrorists are doing is serious and needs to be treated as such, but they are like the militia groups of the 90's. A surge in this type of thing was predicted should Obama win the presidency.

But should things escalate, in order to prevent war I would be willing to accept giving the teabuggers Texas or some other Southern state for them to turn into their Christian version of Iran. And we could build a wall around it to keep them the hell out of our country.

[Bitwit1234]

32. Where's their army. Wheres they orginization.

Just sows they are nuts. And the republicans won't get to be in charge again.

[Codeine]

33. Fat white men don't do shit.

They talk a good game, but that's it.

[deacon]

37. Rove/Bush planted new seeds during their 8 years. They ramped up division

with the thinking it will win elections. The politics of fear etc. This is a hangover of the bush years being treated with a shitload of whiskey - and the drinks are being served up by the GOP leadership, Fox "News", Rush Limbaugh, Mike Savage and yes, the MSM.

And, for what it's worth, the MSM added chaos to the multi-headed crisis the bush administration put us in. They are to blame for this mess also.

[saltpoint]

39. The tea baggers are loud and angry but there aren't that many of them.