Jim DeMint Must Stop

The recent conduct of U.S. Senator Jim DeMint is deeply troubling. Speaking to thousands of angry extremists at a demonstration against the United States government last weekend, DeMint attempted to score political points by implying that President Obama is a threat to their freedom and to our democracy. He encouraged their anger and their hate. He assured them that their anger was patriotic and that their actions were heroic as he gleefully addressed the crowd waiving signs calling the President of the United States a fascist, a communist, a Muslim, and an illegal alien. A few signs even suggested that the President is a terrorist. Others warned that armed revolution against the American government could be forthcoming.
Jim DeMint proudly proclaimed that the demonstration made him proud and that the demonstrators were very informed. As Jim DeMint knows, these people hate the President. They fear everything and understand little. Many blame their life failures on immigrants, minorities, and a changing society they cannot comprehend. In their dark and frightened minds, President Obama is an enemy to their way of life. Facts infuriate them. The fact that many of these folks would be able to afford health care and not have to worry about getting dropped by their insurance companies should they become ill should health insurance reform be enacted is completely lost on them. Instead, being confronted with facts simply intensifies their madness. They believe President Obama is lying and trying to trick them. After all, they think he's Hitler and a United States Senator like Jim DeMint assures them that they are right.

Of course, organizers of this demonstration against the American government claim that their purpose is to speak out against deficit spending. This claim is absurd. The last President and his Republican Congress inherited a huge budget surplus and turned it into the largest deficit in history in just a few years. President Bush's budgets raised-non military spending to all-time highs. These angry extremists were nowhere to be seen in those days. Neither was Jim DeMint.

By encouraging and appeasing angry extremists, Jim DeMint is trying to build a national following to further his own political ambitions. In the process, he's embarrassing his home state and causing immeasurable harm to the Republican brand. Most importantly, he's giving credence to their offensive and outrageous claims that President Obama is another Hitler or another Stalin.

It is easy to laugh off the claims of the angry extremists. It is comical how little many of these folks know about history. Most of them wouldn't know the difference between a fascist, a communist and a paleontologist. But they do know that Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin were very evil men. Combined, they killed tens of millions of people and were as brutal characters as this world has ever seen. The angry demonstrators freely and repeatedly compared our President to these two despots and Jim DeMint stood before them and egged them on. Hitler was such a ruthless and evil tyrant that he had to be killed. It is a tragedy that Stalin wasn't killed and was allowed to die an old man. Make no mistake about it; these angry extremists hate our President. They genuinely believe he is a Stalin and a Hitler - men who needed to be killed.

Our country experienced similar rhetoric in the mid 1990's when Bill Clinton became President. The internet was still primitive and much of the anti-government activities went unnoticed. That changed on April 19, 1995 when right-wing extremists bombed a federal building in Oklahoma City killing 168 innocent Americans, many of whom were children. Hatred of the American government led by a new progressive President fueled this tragedy.

When watching the news coverage of last weekend's anti-government demonstration, reading their signs and listening to their words, it is impossible not to be concerned about future tragedies. Chillingly, the US Secret Service reports that death threats to President Obama are more than double that of President Bush.

Most politicians are ambitious. I do not hold that against Jim DeMint. But, if he has any decency as an American and as a father, the Senator will denounce the messages being sent out at demonstrations like the one last weekend instead of embracing them. He should challenge President Obama on issues, not question his dedication to freedom. Whether intentional or not, Jim DeMint is empowering angry extremists encouraging them to spread their hate and their misguided and ill-informed historical comparisons. If Jim DeMint has any decency, he will hold a press conference tomorrow and denounce any comparison of our President to mass murderers like Hitler, Stalin and Middle Eastern terrorists. He should denounce anyone who would threaten an armed revolution against the American government, and remind these angry extremists that in the Unites States we choose our leaders at the ballot box and the American people chose Barack Obama. In 2012, the American people will have the opportunity to choose again.

Jim DeMint must stop inciting angry extremists. For the sake of freedom, he simply must.

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At last a call from somebody with some sense. This a SC blog.

moment from somebody. I'd even settle for a Margaret Chase Smith impression.

a member of the crowd and not of Congress? They were clearly identifying him as an outsider when he is a longstanding insider. I kept waiting to hear someone call him on that hateful speech and no one has to my knowledge.

They could never blame their situation on the factory owners who shipped their jobs at the cotton mill to China, while still expecting them to still buy clothes, sheets, and towels on their new minimum wage job flipping burgers.

That's why DeMint does what he does.