One Man’s Tea Partier is Another Man’s Embryonic Terrorist

Bill Clinton was heard on the news today describing the Tea Party movement as somehow reminiscent of Timothy McVeigh, the notorious Oklahoma City bomber, responsible for the deaths of over 160 people in 1995. Clinton claims the activism and anger of the Tea Partiers mirrors the anger of McVeigh which ultimately led to his despicable act which included the deaths of 19 children.

This clearly is either delusional on the part of our former president or it is a blatant attempt to discredit an organization which seeks rightful active participation in government. Clinton is not alone in this. From the very beginning of its administration the Obama White House and its supporters have resorted to ad hominem attacks on opponents, labeling them as racists, ignorant, angry, recalcitrant and worse. Now, nascent terrorism is on the menu.

That Clinton would chose anger as one focus of his argument is ironic. One remembers a day in the not too distant past when a sitting President of the United States chose to lie to the nation, angrily stating, “I did not have sex with that woman.” Did his anger lead to an act of terrorism? I doubt he has the testicular fortitude for such an act, except perhaps by proxy. Is he capable of such a thing? Well, to quote someone, “It depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.”

Speaking of that famous quote (right up there with, “I am not a crook”), this is an attempt at controlling speech. In a tyranny, one of the first things to go is freedom of expression. It was done in China. It was done in Germany. It was done in the Soviet Union. It has been done all over the world with the same disastrous results. Joseph Goebbels famously said, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” He also went on to state that truth is the greatest enemy of the state. This is control of speech at its utmost height. To challenge the truth as proclaimed by the state is to be traitorous. Yes, it is that serious. But it also is ridiculous.

This is all too ridiculous to even note except for the fact that so much effort is being put into an effort to quell criticism of the government. If argument is fair and open, what does anyone have to fear? It is as if government had never in the history of the world been questioned. All the criticism is being treated as a blasphemous, heretical challenge to Holy Writ, which is not surprising since Mr. Obama was elected on a wave of what can only be called a kind of messianic fever. But there is just one more thing that rankles.

Clinton has managed to cheapen the deaths of over 160 people by his comments. He has used the Oklahoma City murders to make a political point, a point, by the way, which really is lost in translation. Clinton joins the ranks of those who compare their ideological enemies to Nazis. It is a cheap shot, easily made and without basis. Once the charge is made it tends to stick. I quoted Joseph Goebbels above, not to compare him and Clinton, but to point out the direction the whole debate is taking. Looking down the road, it doesn’t look as if it will get any better soon.