An Internet hub for moderates, centrists, and independents, with domestic and international news, analysis, original reporting, and popular features from the left, center, and right

« Twitter (Ab)Users: When Do You Tweet?

Obama’s ‘Muslim Country’ Remark: Knock Off the Handwringing »

Tiller is dead, but what happened?

Posted by JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor in Society.
Jun 3rd, 2009 | Comments

While my conservative friends continue to rail against the idea, it does indeed feel like we’re seeing a re-run of the same bad movie we watched during the 90s. Why is it that whenever a Democrat is in the White House it seems like the crazies come out of the woodwork? This is the subject of my column at Pajamas Media this week, and I invite you to read and comment.

In addition, though, I’ll share one item which doesn’t appear in the column. Our family had some personal experience with Randall Terry and his pack of miscreants from Operation Rescue back in the day. (Most of the people in upstate New York have their own personal memories of this crowd.) We have the memory of a young lady, short on money, who was attending college and taking advantage of the deeply discounted rates for OB-GYN care at a particular clinic. She was not pregnant, nor did she have any interest in anything to do with an abortion. Still, one of the lovely, compassionate, “pro-life” protesters decided to chuck a rock at her head, opening up a gash that required several stitches and covering her shirt in blood.

If Randall Terry had turned up dead back in the 90s, one of my uncles would probably still be sitting in jail for it today. (And rightly so, of course.) If you want to try to claim that this pack mentality and overheated rhetoric don’t matter and don’t lead to violence, well… good luck with that.

Ads by Project Wonderful! Your ad here, right now: $0

GeorgeSorwell

I think this is a little premature.

jwest

Randall Terry self-identified as a republican, but after running for minor office twice he was soundly rejected by the conservative voters.

Terry is a nutcase, not a spokesman for conservatives or the Republican Party.

If the point of this article is to imply Terry is representative of the right, let’s start the list on both sides and see who comes out more embarrassed.

DaGoat

I read your column here and at PJM Jazz, and while I agree that overheated rhetoric is not desirable, I question whether that is the difference in violence between the right and the left. Reading blogs over the past decade I don't see any less hatred and vitriol on the left than I do on the right.

What was different in Tiller's case was opportunity - he was unguarded and a fairly easy target. The other possible difference that comes to mind would be the availability of guns and willingness to use them may be higher on the right.

It seems to be a feature of society today that whenever something bad happens blame must be assigned not only to the perpetrator, but to a group.

Rudi

Terry is a nutcase, not a spokesman for conservatives or the Republican Party.

<strike>Terry</strike> Rush Limpbaugh is a nutcase, not a spokesman for conservatives or the Republican Party.

tidbits

DaGoat - Some of what you say makes sense, like availability of guns and the right's willingness to use them. You are also correct that both right and left engage in hatred and vitriol. The difference in my observations is that left wing extemists, at least in the last 30 or so years, do not call for violent action like armed revolution or vigilante justice as is often seen from right wing extremists. Both sides call each other names, but I don't recall attendees at Obama rallies calling out for the death of the opponent as happened at McCain/Palin rallies.

To be clear, I support the Second Amendment right to bear arms and free speech, and am no fan of Obama's economic policies. There is, however, a causal relationship between inflaming hatred combined with provoking violence and the result that some unstable individual who buys into that mindset will take it upon himself to act accordingly. Spewing vitriol ("idiot", "knuckledragger", "communist" and the like) is certainly distasteful, but it is different from advocating or approving, either subtly or overtly, acts of violence.

Followers of Randall Terry have long been associated with acts of violence, and that is not coincidence.

EEllis

Maybe it's that I see both sides of a conflict. I'm personally against abortion, but think it shouldn't be against the law. I have volunteered as an escort for a women's clinic and hate some of the despicable acts and hateful things said to clients, but I total understand why people feel compelled to try and do something. I'm a conservative not a republican but they are much closer to may values than the democrats so most of my votes go there. As I get older it gets worse. I hadn't noticed the correlation to who was in the white house, at least not consciously, but I think you're on to something on the bigger picture. I mean there were people going nuts when GW did something but gave Clinton and now Obama almost a total pass when doing the same thing. I wonder if it's just that the party in power having such a different ideology that they feel the situation is so bad they must go extreme? Or could it be that they don't think they could affect an administration with lesser "demonstrations"? Personally I think with Tillers killer it's probably a disturbed individual that had a stressor event and wanted to go out with a bang. No he is not dead but the rest of his life is pretty much set. Not so much living as just waiting. Plus to a certain crowd he would be a bit of a hero and attention like many who attempt suicide desire.

GreenDreams

From TPM:
"Roeder, the suspect in Tiller's murder, had apparently twice tried to vandalize another clinic in the last two weeks -- and in a way that suggested it might be setting the stage for a more serious break in. An employee at the clinic managed to get Roeder's license plate number and reported it to federal authorities, only to be told that nothing could be done before a grand jury had been impaneled.

It seems difficult to imagine that similar suspicious behavior, let alone actual vandalism, would have generated such a passive response if the clinic had been a synagogue or a federal building and the suspect had an Arab name. "

Roeder attended Tiller's trial and called the acquittal "a sham."

blog comments powered by Disqus