Rules for Dealing with Radicals

By Henry Fernandez, New America Media / Center for American Progress

Progressives around the country are pointing with concern to the antics of conservative activists over the course of the last few weeks. Left-leaning blogs such as DailyKos and ThinkProgress are afire with examples of conservatives acting badly:

* The hanging of Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) in effigy at a rally
* Groups of conservative activists disrupting town hall meetings
* Leaders in the conservative movement calling now Supreme Court Justice Sotomayor an affirmative action hire and a member of the Latino KKK
* CNN talking head Lou Dobbs legitimizing fringe characters' racist conspiracy nonsense about President Barack Obama being born in Kenya
* Fox News's Glenn Beck calling on patriots to take back America while saying that President Obama hates white people

Progressives deride these awful, frequently dangerous, and racist behaviors, and they then rightly call on conservative leadership to distance itself from these activities. Let me suggest though that if we wait for conservative leaders to show concern about the threat to civility and public safety in this new wave of "activism," then progressives might as well surrender on climate change, health care reform, immigration, and just about everything else we stand for.

For many progressives, this same type of angry, scary conservative activism was first on full display less than a year ago at the presidential rallies of Sen. John McCain (D-AZ) and Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, when activists at their rallies shouted "terrorist," and "kill him" about Barack Obama. But for those of us who work on immigration reform, we had seen this type of extreme right political theater well before then.

MUCH MORE (with links)...


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