The growing threatened and actual violence in American politics should terrify all citizens concerned about a robust and strong Republic. We’ve had people showing up with weapons at rallies with, at least, implicit threats against the President. In August 2009, many showed up at Democratic politicians’ public fora with an intent to scream and intimidate rather than any interest in dialogue and informed discussion. In recent weeks, we’ve seen incidents related to Climate Zombie Senate campaigns such as Alaska’s Joe Miller’s hired goons (almost certainly) illegally detaining (handcuffing) a reporter and physically harassing several others. And, yesterday, Kentucky Senate Candidate Rand Paul’s supporters forced a woman to the ground and one stomped her on her head while another held her to the ground.
Rand Paul has issued a bland condemnation of violence in campaigning, certainly implying that this is a ‘everyone does it’ problem, without any serious call for his supporters to surrender themselves to police currently investigating this crime.
We want everybody to be civil. We want this campaign to be about issues. I will tell you that when we arrived there was enormous passion on both sides. It really was something where you walk into a haze of lights flashing, people yelling and screaming, bumping up. And there was a bit of a crowd control problem. I don’t want anybody though to be involved in things that aren’t civil. I think this should always be about the issues. And it is an unusual situation to have so many people so passionate on both sides jockeying back and forth. And it wasn’t something that I liked or anybody liked about that situation. So I hope in the future it is going to be better.
Amid all this, a comment from Dr Rand Paul’s campaign (from Dr Rand Paul, himself?) jumped out:
We are relieved to hear that the woman in question was not injured
The following is from my inbox from someone in contact with the victim:
She’s “devastated” but extremely grateful for the well wishes. Contrary to Paul’s claims that she was uninjured, she was diagnosed at the hospital with a concussion and a sprained arm and shoulder.
Again, it should distress us all that Rand Paul supporters have joined legions of others threatening — and actually moving to — violence in our political space. And, we should be concerned that Kentucky police seemed more concerned about questioning the battered woman rather than catching those who assaulted her. Understanding all that, Dr. Rand Paul’s long-distance incorrect diagnosis of the victim’s condition seemed all too reminiscent of when Dr. Republican Senator Frist diagnosed Terri Schiavo long-distance via video-tape. Dr Paul’s and Dr Frist’s diagnoses seem to have about the same degree of legitimacy.
Now, of course, this post seems a bit far afield from this site’s normal conversation. The ability to magically diagnosis (incorrectly), at odds with the facts, seems to be contagious among Republican Senate candidates not just when it comes to medical conditions that have political implications but also when it comes to the science of climate change. With that “Dr” mantle, Rand Paul’s virulent denial of climate science likely carries weight with people not greatly informed about the state of the science. Just as Dr Paul was wrong about the victim’s injuries, Dr Paul is wrong about climate science — and his uninformed views are at odds with the opinions of every single relevant major scientific institution around the globe which lay out the very strong case that climate change is real, that humanity is driving modern climate change, and that we must act if we wish to avoid extremely dire circumstances.