On second thought, don’t be like Mike

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Odd choice of venue for last night's Pima County GOP unity rally. Not a restaurant or hotel, but Bob Beaudry's RV Center. I guess he needed the money after filing for bankruptcy in 2008. Tucson RV dealer declares bankruptcy.

What is up with the New Car Dealers Association in this town? Where's the gratitude? But for the Obama administration acting to save the American automobile industry, 10% of the American economy would have joined Bob Beaudry in bankruptcy and liquidation, everyone from manufacturers GM and Chrysler, to parts manufacturers and suppliers, to auto dealerships, and down the line to your corner auto repair shop – and all the employees who work for these businesses. Perhaps these car dealers would have preferred financial ruin and a full-blown Depression.

But I digress. Michael Steele "rallied" the GOP faithful last night by resorting to threats of violence and eliminationist rhetoric, just like the teabaggers have done for more than a year now. It is one thing for some yahoo in a silly costume to do this at a Tea Party rally, it is quite another for the Chairman of the Republican National Committee to stoop to this ignorant level. At Beaudry, Steele urges GOP to visualize Nov. 3 headline:

Citing Thomas Jefferson's proclamation that liberty occurs when government fears the people, Steele pledged, "Come this Nov. 2, the government will stand in fear of the people of the United States of America."

I believe the Thomas Jefferson quotation you were looking for, often shortened and taken out of context by the far-right militia movement, is "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." What, you didn't want to go so far as to exhort the crowd to assert their Second Amendment rights, i.e., turn to violence to overthrow the government if you lose this election, as Sharron Angle does? I'm pretty sure her fans were in the crowd.

But [Steele] spent the bulk of his time rallying the base, saying that when the government drove the economy into the ground, the people drove themselves to tea parties.

* * *

"You've had enough," he said. "I've had enough. America has had enough. The fog has been lifted from our eyes, the Kool-Aid drained from our veins."

The first step to taking the country back, he said, is to fire U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and retire U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Steele blames an amorphous "government" – typical of far-right rhetoric – for driving the economy into the ground. The "government" is the people we elect to run it, and the people who drove the economy into the ground were the Bush-Cheney regime and a Republican controled Congress. 30 years of conservative supply-side "trickle down" GOP economic policies were exposed as a lie and completely disproved and discredited. That is what destroyed the economy.

Steele apparently has never actually been to a Tea Party rally because Kool-Aid is most definitely what is running through their veins. I don't know what the hell he is talking about.

But Steele was not the worst at resorting to threats of violence and eliminationist rhetoric, oh no. That award goes to "Joe Jr.," Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, who is an embarrassment to law enforcement officers everywhere. "Joe Jr." said:

America is "sprinting down the path of socialism," criticized President Obama for not coming to the border to see conditions here. "We're going to take a frying pan and we're going to smack the president in the face on Nov. 2," he said to applause.

It's not the first time this idiot has used such outrageous violent rhetoric in reference to the president. Keep it up asshole and you will be getting a visit from the Secret Service.

How out of touch is Michael Steele? He cautioned the crowd to remain unified. "I'm sick and tired of Republicans chewing up and spitting out their own," he said.

Well Mike, here in Arizona the far-right Tea-Publicans have managed to purge the last of the moderate Republicans from the party in Republican primaries over the past three election cycles. The last "RINO" is extinct. The far-right fringe of John Birchers, Tenthers, Christian Nationalists, states rights secessionists, and assorted racists and religious bigots have hijacked the Arizona Republican Party.

Steele suggested listeners visualize what the headline should say on Nov. 3, the morning after the midterm elections. After the election Steele will have to stand for election as Chairman of the RNC. I want Mike to visualize what the future holds for him – "You're fired!" Maybe they can get Donald Trump to deliver him the news.