David Frum: stupid conservatives, inciting violence like that!

by Lance Burri | August 13, 2009 6:22 pm

From the “when you’re on a roll, keep rolling” files, this is the second time this week[1] I’m taking after David Frum for saying something…well, stupid.

Writing in The Week,[2] Frum tells us that conservatives are inciting violence at health care town hall meetings:

A man bearing a sidearm appears outside President Obama’s Aug. 11 town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., under a sign proclaiming, “It is time to water the tree of liberty.”

That phrase of course references a famous statement of Thomas Jefferson’s, from a 1787 letter: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants.”

Earlier that same day, another man is arrested inside the school building in which the president will speak. Police found a loaded handgun in his parked car.

At an event held by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona last week, police were called after one attendee dropped a gun.

Let’s stipulate that these were stupid things to do. Stupid, as in “Ma, I got my head stuck in the toilet seat…again!” Not to mention: idiocies like these hurt the conservative cause more than help it. If nothing else, they give “conservative” pundits like David “I just want to be loved” Frum a chance to prove how very thoughtful and broad minded they are.

So. That’s stipulated, then. Frum should have stopped there. He didn’t:

Nobody has been hurt so far.

Okay, so he’s got a point there…oh, wait, wasn’t there one…I’m sure I saw something…what about this guy?[3]

Kenneth Gladney, 38, a conservative activist from St. Louis, said he was attacked by some of those arrested as he handed out yellow flags with “Don’t tread on me” printed on them. He spoke to the Post-Dispatch from the emergency room at St. John’s Mercy Medical Center, where he said he was awaiting treatment for injuries to his knee, back, elbow, shoulder and face.

Has Frum not heard of that? I know the MSM didn’t do much with it, but it was all over the Rightosphere all week. Doesn’t he read the Rightosphere?

Of course he does, but those weren’t gun-crazed conservatives being violent. So that doesn’t count.

Then Frum channels Bill Clinton, circa 1995, by blaming talk radio:

…firearms and politics never mix well. They mix especially badly with a third ingredient: the increasingly angry tone of incitement being heard from right-of-center broadcasters.

Frum is even one-upping Clinton by blaming talk radio for violence that hasn’t happened yet.

And then he praises the Homeland Security memo that warned about “right-wing political violence!”

The person who drafted that homeland security memo has gained very good reason to be worried. The guns are coming out. The risks are real.

It’s not enough for conservatives to repudiate violence, as some are belatedly beginning to do.

Do you suppose Frum could tell us: what violence is it we’re “belatedly” repudiating? The potential violence that might have happened …but didn’t?

Or the actual violence perpetrated by those Leftist union thugs?

Or maybe (via Instapundit[4]):

When Bush visited Portland, Ore., for a fundraiser, protesters stalked his motorcade, assailed his limousine and stoned a car containing his advisers. Chanting “Bush is a terrorist!”, the demonstrators bullied passers-by, including gay softball players and a wheelchair-bound grandfather with multiple sclerosis.

One protester even brandished a sign that seemed to advocate Bush’s assassination.

Let’s see: who would love to take the absolute worst things that happen during anti-Obamacare protests, and use them to prove that the entire movement is made up of inbred hillbillies who wear white hoods on weekends and think “shoot first, ask questions later” is one step too many?

Liberals. Socialists. Kneejerk partisan Democrats. That’s who. Them, and David Frum.

So Frum takes three examples. Three people, out of the thousands upon thousands who have attended dozens (or more) of Tea Parties and protests and town halls. No examples of actual violence, mind you. Just potential violence.

And he uses them to paint the entire movement as crazed, gun-happy, dangerous.

I’d thank him. But I’m sure Obama’s doing that already.

(Lance Burri is The TrogloPundit[5])

Endnotes:
  1. the second time this week: http://troglopundit.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/david-frum-how-stupid-can-conservatives-be-trying-to-win-the-health-care-fight/
  2. Writing in The Week,: http://www.theweek.com/bullpen/column/99474/The_reckless_Right_courts_violence
  3. what about this guy?: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/0470FEB3219207458625760B001142AC?OpenDocument
  4. Instapundit: http://pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/83358/
  5. The TrogloPundit: http://troglopundit.wordpress.com/

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