What will the demagogues and their media enablers say when someone gets hurt or killed?

[Empowerer]

The rising vitriol, hatred, increasingly unveiled racism and outright viciousness of many of the President's opponents is starting to really scare me.

I'm not so worried about him. I have great faith in the Secret Service and their ability to keep our President and his family safe. But these people are no longer just expressing a point of view - they're on the verge of encouraging and even engaging in violence to a degree that they're starting to resemble a nascent lynch mob and somebody's going to get hurt, even killed.

This is not hyperbole - it's likely to be a reality.

What are the demagogues - the Becks, the Limbaughs, the Dobbses going to say when this happens? They're very glad to take credit for this "uprising" right now, while it is still only spitting, angry shouting. But are they going to take the blame when it crosses the line, the line it is right up against right now?

And what will the media who have been so willing and eager to highlight and even encourage these people as if they are a viable movement rather than an emerging lynch mob have to say when this mob begins acting on their anger and threats? Will they accept responsibility for what they have wrought? Will they apologize to the individuals and families they have had a hand in destroying? Will they pull back, take a close look at their "reporting" "standards" and make some major changes in what they cover and how they cover it?

And if the answer to this is yes, shouldn't they take preemptive action and pull back and adjust their approach now, while they can help staunch the madness? Or are the ratings and competition too much for them to take any responsibility - so they'll just ride the wave and deal with the consequences when they occur?

Sadly, I think I already know the answer. But maybe it's not too late for all of us, by speaking up and calling all of these irresponsible players to account NOW, to actually prevent the tragedies that I see coming if this course isn't changed immediately.

[Lint Head]

1. They will shout hooray. That happened in my middle school

class when the news that JFK had died was broadcast over the intercom. Not all people did that. Just the ones ones that were obviously racist bigots. We live in dangerous country and the ones that are dangerous are the racists. They have lynched, murdered and degraded minorities and people that don't believe the way they do for a long time.

[bluestateguy]

2. Excuses, deflections, change the subject

We often forget that in the mid-90's there was a group of Oklahoma City "truthers" on the far right who were convinced that it was all a big government inside job.

[mucifer]

3. Really really sick! I've been worried for quite a while.

[dgibby]

4. It's already happened several times.

Unitarian Church shootings, Holocaust Museum, Dr. Tiller, Dem. chairman in Arkansas.

IIRC, they were terribly offended that anyone would try to blame them for fomenting these violent acts.

[Bluzmann57]

5. They will say,

"It ain't my fault. It was the work of a lone gunman." or something like that. They simply cannot accept responsibility for their actions.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. "Don't blame me . . ."

"It was the victim's fault for getting in the way of the bullet. The gentleman with the assault weapon, whom the liberal medai unjustly calls "killer", was just exercising his Second Amendment rights."

[intheflow]

7. They'll say it was an isolated incident from a small, rogue element.

Like Abu Ghraib, the OK City bombing, or the My Lai Massacre.

[Parker CA]

8. They will feign disappointment, claim that actions of lunatics are unpredictable, and then slip in a

comment about how polarized Obama and his admin have made our nation, but continue un-phased with their display of faux emotion.

[emulatorloo]

9. They will say it is the fault of the "Liberals". They already did that with the Holocaust Museum

Shooter.

EX:

Limbaugh on Holocaust museum shooter: "This guy is a leftist if anything"
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200906110014