Isn’t it really time to say bluntly what all commentators and many citizens are not saying when stories come out about about this supposedly funny motif of some partisans seemingly suggest the assassinations of partisans on the other side in jokes, displays, etc.? Aren’t we inexorably moving to a day when a major figure of either political party is going to be killed because of the continued tolerance and unfettered enabling of this kind of “humor”?
No, don’t call it PC: call it “common sense.” Angry and hyperpartisan minds create things such as this; unhinged minds could be inspired by things such as this. Its latest incarnation comes in a display outhouse marked “Obama Presidential Library” at the Montana Republican convention, TPM reports:
Outside the Montana state Republican Party convention this weekend was an outhouse labeled the “Obama Presidential Library” and covered in painted-on bullet holes.
Inside the outhouse contained a fake birth certificate for Barack Hussein Obama, according to the Helena Independent Record.
It was stamped “Bull——.” A graffito advised “For a Good Time call 800-Michelle (crossed out), Hillary (crossed out) and Pelosi (circled in red.)”
State GOP Chairman Will Deschamps said he didn’t know who was responsible for the outhouse but called it a “sideshow,” the paper reported.
“It’s not something I’m going to agonize over,” he said. “Some of that stuff is not real good taste. We do have a president of the United States, and we have to honor that.”
Good statement from Deschamps. Now if it isn’t an empty statement the GOP will tell whoever hauled in this outhouse that needs to be moved to the city dump because the bullet holes suggesting the shooting of a President and scrawls deameaning Democratic women politicians don’t exactly belong at an o-f-f-i-c-i-a-l function of the Republican Party . And because doing so might be incorrectly construed by some voters that by allowing this display at a GOP convention it’s a tacit endorsement of possible violence towards politicians and contempt of women. (Uh, oh, here come the comments now about Bill Maher, as if that excuses a political display that comes suitably in the form of an outhouse.)
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.