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Various members of the DNC — including Chairman Tim Kaine, Executive Director Jen O’Malley Dillon and Communications Director Brad Woodhouse — contacted their respective RNC counterparts this week in hopes of getting RNC Chairman Michael Steele to co-sign a document with Kaine that, in part, called for “elected officials of both parties to set an example of the civility we want to see in our citizenry.”

“We also call on all Americans to respect differences of opinion, to refrain from inappropriate forms of intimidation, to reject violence and vandalism, and to scale back rhetoric that might reasonably be misinterpreted by those prone to such behavior,” read the proposed joint statement, which came at the end of a week which saw acts of vandalism and threats of violence directed at members of Congress from both parties, but mostly aimed at Democrats who voted “yes” on the health care bill.

Republicans see the statement as an attempt to force them to either reject the statement — allowing Democrats to say the RNC finds the incidents acceptable — or to sign on to something that the DNC would later wield against them.

The proposed statement was faxed and hand-delivered to the RNC at midmorning Friday. POLITICO learned Friday afternoon that the RNC would not sign the DNC statement.

RNC Communications Director Doug Heye told POLITICO that Steele chose not to agree to the statement because “we don’t need to do anything on their schedule or on their timetable.”

“Obviously, a large majority of Americans —ka broad coalition of Republicans, Democrats and Independent —kare upset that President Obama, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid pushed through health care legislation that increases premiums and raises taxes and did so through strong-arm tactics, closed-door meetings and sweetheart deals. Voters have a right to be angry. Unfortunately, some have chosen to engage in language and actions that go too far,” Heye said, insisting that “among the first voices to condemn such activities was Michael Steele’s.”

Referring to an appearance by the two chairmen Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” during which Steele called tea party protestors who used racist language during a weekend rally “idiots,” Heye said that Kaine “did not take the opportunity to condemn these activities on ‘Meet the Press,’ we are glad he is now willing to do so.” Steele’s condemnation came after he was asked about the protesters’ behavior, while Kaine was not asked the same question during their joint appearance.

“Further, we hope the Democratic National Committee and, indeed, all party committees will cease and desist any efforts to politicize or raise money — such as Organizing for America’s recent fundraising solicitation — off of rhetoric and behavior that is so clearly over the line,” Heye concluded.

Republicans and Democrats have been fighting all week over who is to blame for the acts of vandalism and threats of violence aimed at members of both parties, but mostly at Democrats.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday that Republicans are not going far enough to condemn attacks against Democratic members — who Hoyer said are at risk — while House Minority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) contends that Republicans also face threats and charged Democrats with using the attacks to score political points.

Woodhouse told POLITICO that the DNC is “disappointed” that the RNC would not agree to a statement that “would carry a lot weight symbolically.”

“It’s very disappointing, but perhaps not surprising, that Chairman Steele, who authored a fundraising presentation that depicted the President as the Joker, the Speaker of the House as Cruella de Vil, raised money online showing the Speaker on fire and said she should be put before a firing squad would refuse to do a joint statement with Chairman Kaine to ratchet down the rhetoric and condemn the violence and threats which Republican supporters have engaged in since the passage of health reform,” Woodhouse said.

“Chairman Steele’s own overheated rhetoric and the Republican Party’s fear tactics have contributed to an environment of anger and frustration that is unhealthy and counterproductive to our political dialogue,” he added. “Rather than take responsibility for their own actions, Chairman Steele not only refused the good faith offer of issuing a joint statement, he then sent his spokesperson out to go on the attack in a breathtaking display of chutzpa and hypocrisy. Chairman Kaine and Democrats will continue to work towards a civil and responsible debate on the issues of the day even as Republicans continue to be pulled farther and farther towards the radical extreme.”

Both of the committees have been accused of using controversial fundraising tactics this week in the wake of Sunday night’s passage of health care reform.

The RNC raised more than $1 million in a “Fire Nancy Pelosi” fundraising campaign that depicted the House Speaker surrounded by flames.

The DNC meanwhile was criticized by Republicans for sending out an e-mail from Kaine to its donors under the subject line “Heroes under attack” urging its supporters to defend the threatened members via funds to the committee.

“They’ve launched a campaign to ‘fire’ Nancy Pelosi, complete with imagery of the first female Speaker of the House surrounded by flames. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter had a brick thrown through her office window. A Virginia blog posted Congressman Tom Perriello’s home address, urging tea partiers to ‘drop by,’” the fundraising e-mail read. “The Democratic National Committee is already fighting back hard, with a sophisticated ad strategy, events on the ground, and the best rapid-response program in the history of politics. But we need your help to keep it up.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0310/35096.html#ixzz0jKowCuqH

At an Iowa City rally promoting the recently signed health care legislation, President Barack Obama confronted both right wing attacks calling his bill “Armageddon,” and left wing criticisms that the bill lacks a public option.

“I’m not exaggerating,” Obama told the crowd, “leaders of the Republican party, they called the passage of this bill ‘Armageddon!’ Armageddon. End of freedom as we know it. So after I signed the bill, I looked around to see if there were any asteroids falling, or some cracks opening up in the Earth. Turned out it was a nice day.”

Those attending the rally burst into laughter and applause.

“Birds were chirping, folks were strolling down the mall,” the President continued, “people still had their doctors.”

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) and RNC Chairman Michael Steele have both suggested that reform is akin to Armagedoon. Obama made a similar joke in a speech shortly after signing the bill into law on Tuesday.

Later in the speech, Obama was interrupted by a man shouting “What about the public option?”

“That’s not in the bill,” said Obama.

The heckler shouted back, “Why not?!”

“Because we couldn’t get it through Congress,” Obama explained. “There’s no need to shout, young man! Thirty-two million people are going to have health insurance because of this legislation. That’s what this bill is about.”

The heckler shouted back, but was drowned out by cheers and applause from the audience.

Now that health care reform is the law of the land, however, Americans across the country are going to be hearing that message fromDemocrats.

The Democratic National Committee is launching a series of radio ads touting the benefits of their health care package and hammering Republicans who voted against it. But in a twist, the DNC is co-opting the message of conservatives, warning voters that their newly-minted consumer protections will be stripped away if they put the GOP back in power.

“Leading Republicans are vowing to repeal reform and put the insurance industry back in charge of your health care,” a narrator says in the radio spots airing in districts of Republican members. “Call [your congressman] and tell [him], hands off our health care!”

Listen:

It’s evidence that Democrats think the health care debate has been turned on its head since President Obama signed the reform bill into law on Tuesday. They’re counting on voters to recoil at the thought of losing the concrete, tangible benefits that health care reform provided.

A DNC official says the above spot features prominently in a seven-figure ad buy in 35 congressional districts, which also includes a spot set to run in Democratic districts thanking Members of Congress for supporting the bill.

 Provides Americans with better coverage and the information they need to make informed decisions about their health insurance. Creates health insurance Exchanges – competitive marketplaces where individuals and small business can buy affordable health care coverage in a manner similar to that of big businesses today.

 Offers premium tax credits and cost-sharing assistance to low and middle income Americans, providing families and small businesses with the largest tax cut for health care in history. Ensures access to immediate relief for uninsured Americans with pre-existing conditions on the brink of medical bankruptcy.

 Creates a reinsurance program in support of employers who offer retirees age 55-64 health coverage.

 Invests substantially in Community Health Centers to expand access to health care in communities where it is needed most.

 Empowers state insurance commissioners and the Department of Health and Human Services to conduct annual reviews of new plans demanding unjustified, egregious premium increases.The Role of Public Programs Expands eligibility for Medicaid to include all non-elderly Americans with incomes at or below 133 percent of the Federal Poverty Level (FPL). The federal government will pay 100 percent of the cost of covering these newly-eligible individuals for the first three years of the expansion, will decrease its contribution incrementally from 2017 to 2019, and then will pay 90 percent of costs in 2020 and beyond.

 Maintains current funding levels for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for an additional two years, through fiscal year 2015. Increases payments to primary care doctors in Medicaid.Improving Medicare

 Adds at least nine years to the solvency of the Medicare Hospital Insurance trust fund. Fills the Medicare prescription drug donut hole. In 2010, Medicare beneficiaries who go into the donut hole will receive a $250 rebate. After that they will receive a pharmaceutical

manufacturers’ 50 percent discount on brand-name drugs in 2011 and 75 percent coverage for all brand name and generic drugs, phased in to fill the donut hole by 2020.

 Provides new, free annual wellness visits, and eliminates out-of-pocket copayments for preventive benefits under Medicare, such as cancer and diabetes screenings.

 Provides better chronic care, with doctors collaborating to provide patient-centered care for the 80 percent of older Americans who have at least one chronic medical condition like high blood pressure or diabetes.

 Improves Medicare payments for primary care which will protect access to these vital services.

 Reduces overpayments to private Medicare Advantage plans. Medicare currently overpays private plans by an average of 14 percent. This legislation reins in those overpayments to ensure a fair payment system that rewards quality.

 Encourages reimbursing health care providers on the basis of value, not volume. The bill includes a number of proposals to move away from the “a la carte” Medicare fee‐for‐service system toward paying for quality and value while reducing costs for America’s seniors.

Preventing Chronic Disease and Improving Public Health

 Promotes preventive health care at all ages and improves public health activities that help Americans live healthy lives and restrain the growth of health care costs over time.

 Eliminates cost-sharing for recommended preventive care, provides individuals with the information they need to make healthy decisions, improves education on disease prevention and public health, and invests in a national prevention and public health strategy.

Health Care Workforce

 Makes key investments in training doctors, nurses and other health care providers. Currently, 65 million Americans live in communities where they cannot easily access a primary care provider. An additional 16,500 practitioners are required to meet their needs. The legislation addresses shortages in primary care and other areas of practice by making necessary investments in our nation’s health care workforce.

 Invests in the National Health Service Corps’ scholarship and loan repayment programs to expand the health care workforce.

 Includes incentives for primary care practitioners and other providers to practice in underserved areas.

Transparency and Program Integrity

 Provides consumers with information about physician ownership of hospitals and medical equipment companies, as well as nursing home ownership and other characteristics.

 Cracks down on fraud, waste, and abuse in Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP and private insurance.

 Establishes a private, non-profit entity to identify priorities in patient-centered outcomes research that will provide doctors with information on how to best treat patients and end wasteful overspending.

Improving Access to Innovative Medical Therapies

 Establishes a regulatory pathway for FDA approval of biosimilar versions of previously licensed biological products.

 Expands the scope of the existing 340B drug discount program to allow more Americans to have access to medicines at lower costs.

Community Living Assistance Services and Support (CLASS)

 Makes long-term support and services more affordable for millions of Americans by providing a lifetime cash benefit that will help people with severe disabilities remain in their homes and communities. CLASS is a voluntary, self-funded, insurance program provided through the workplace. For those whose employers participate, affordable premiums will be paid through payroll deductions. Participation by workers is entirely voluntary. The Congressional Budget Office confirms that the program, which has been revised from earlier versions, is actuarially sound.

Revenue Provisions

 Reduces the deficit in the next ten years and beyond. The bill is fully paid for with revenue provisions that focus on paying for reform within the health care system.

 Tightens current health tax incentives, collects industry fees, institutes modest excise taxes, and slightly increases the Medicare Hospital Insurance (HI) tax for individuals who earn more than $200,000 and couples who earn more than $250,000. The taxable base of the HI tax is also broadened by including net investment income. The HI tax increases will not only help fund health care reform, but, when combined with other provisions in the bill, will also extend the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by at least nine years to 2026.

 Includes a fee on insurance companies that sell high cost health insurance plans. The fee is designed to generate smarter, more cost-effective health coverage choices. The reconciliation bill delays this new fee until 2018 so that plans have time to implement reform and begin to save from its efficiencies.

 Changes health care tax incentives by increasing penalties on nonqualified distributions from HSAs, capping FSA contributions, and standardizing the definition of qualified medical expenses. The industry fees and excise taxes reflect responsible contributions from health care stakeholders who will benefit from the expanded coverage of millions of additional Americans under health care reform. The bill also assesses a small excise tax on indoor tanning services.

 In total, the revenue provisions in the bill represent a balanced, responsible package of proposals that bend the health care cost curve by putting downward pressure on health spending, close unintended tax loopholes, and promote tax compliance

No one was inside when the brick was hurled through the Democratic Patry Headquarters on University Avenue. Attached was a note quoting conservative Barry Goldwater: “Exremism [sic] in defense of liberty is no vice”. [...]

[Rep. Louise] Slaughter has been at the center of the push for reform.Last Thursday she received a chilling recorded message at her campaign office. “Assassinate is the word they used…toward the children of lawmakers who voted yes.”

The FBI is now investigating.

Mike Vanderboegh of Sipsey Street Irregulars is taking credit for inspiring the vandalism, saying that he’s urging people to break Democratic offices’ windows. He insists that he’s not advocating violence. (HT: BruinKid)

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now.  You’ve lost me and you’ve lost most of America.  Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I’d like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation:  Come back to us.

Now the advice.  You’re going to have to come up with a platform that isn’t built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more.  But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party — the GOP — and the conservative end of the American political spectrum has become irresponsible and irrational.  Worse, it’s tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred.  Let me provide some expamples — by no means an exhaustive list — of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you’re going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you’ll have to start by draining this swamp:

Hypocrisy

You can’t flip out — and threaten impeachment - when Dems use a prlimentary procedure (deem and pass) that you used repeatedly (more than 35 times in just one session and more than 100 times in all!), that’s centuries old and which the courts have supported. Especially when your leaders admit it all.

You can’t vote and scream against the stimulus package and then take credit for the good it’s done in your own district (happily handing out enormous checks representing money that you voted against, is especially ugly) —  114 of you (at last count) did just that — and it’s even worse when you secretly beg for more.

You can’t fight against your own ideas just because the Dem president endorses your proposal.

You can’t call for a pay-as-you-go policy, and then vote against your own ideas.

Are they “unlawful enemy combatants” or are they “prisoners of war” at Gitmo? You can’t have it both ways.

You can’t carry on about the evils of government spending when your family has accepted more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts.

You can’t refuse to go to a scheduled meeting, to which you were invited, and then blame the Dems because they didn’t meet with you.

You can’t rail against using teleprompters while using teleprompters. Repeatedly.

You can’t rail against the bank bailouts when you supported them as they were happening.

You can’t be for immigration reform, then against it .

You can’t enjoy socialized medicine while condemning it.

You can’t flip out when the black president puts his feet on the presidential desk when you were silent about white presidents doing the same.  Bush.  Ford.

You can’t complain that the president hasn’t closed Gitmo yet when you’ve campaigned to keep Gitmo open.

You can’t flip out when the black president bows to foreign dignitaries, as appropriate for their culture, when you were silent when the white presidents did the same. Bush.  Nixon. Ike. You didn’t even make a peep when Bush held hands and kissed (on the mouth) leaders of countries that are not on “kissing terms” with the US.

You can’t complain that the undies bomber was read his Miranda rights under Obama when the shoe bomber was read his Miranda rights under Bush and you remained silent.  (And, no, Newt – the shoe bomber was not a US citizen either, so there is no difference.)

You can’t attack the Dem president for not personally* publicly condemning a terrorist event for 72 hourswhen you said nothing about the Rep president waiting 6 days in an eerily similar incident (and, even then, he didn’t issue any condemnation).  *Obama administration did the day of the event.

You can’t throw a hissy fit, sound alarms and cry that Obama freed Gitmo prisoners who later helped plan the Christmas Day undie bombing, when — in fact — only one former Gitmo detainee, released by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, helped to plan the failed attack.

You can’t condemn blaming the Republican president for an attempted terror attack on his watch, then blame the Dem president for an attemted terror attack on his.

You can’t mount a boycott against singers who say they’re ashamed of the president for starting a war, but remain silent when another singer says he’s ashamed of the president and falsely calls him a Moaist who makes him want to throw up and says he ought to be in jail.

You can’t cry that the health care bill is too long, then cry that it’s too short.

You can’t support the individual mandate for health insurance, then call it unconstitutional when Dems propose it and campaign against your own ideas.

You can’t demand television coverage, then whine about it when you get it.  Repeatedly.

You can’t praise criminal trials in US courts for terror suspects under a Rep president, then call it “treasonous” under a Dem president.

You can’t propose ideas to create jobs, and then work against them when the Dems put your ideas in a bill.

You can’t be both pro-choice and anti-choice.

You can’t damn someone for failing to pay $900 in taxes when you’ve paid nearly $20,000 in IRS fines.

You can’t condemn critizising the president when US troops are in harms way, then attack the president when US troops are in harms way , the only difference being the president’s party affiliation (and, by the way, armed conflict does NOT remove our right and our duty as Americans to speak up).

You can’t be both for cap-and-trade policy and against it.

You can’t vote to block debate on a bill, then bemoan the lack of  ’open debate’.

If you push anti-gay legislation and make anti-gay speeches, you should probably take a pass on having gay sex, regardless of whether it’s 2004 or 2010.  This is true, too, if you’re taking GOP money and giving anti-gay rants on CNN.  Taking right-wing money and GOP favors to write anti-gay stories for news sites while working as a gay prostitute, doubles down on both the hypocrisy and the prostitution.  This is especially true if you claim your anti-gay stand is God’s stand, too.

When you chair the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, you can’t send sexy emails to 16-year-old boys (illegal anyway, but you made it hypocritical as well).

You can’t criticize Dems for not doing something you didn’t do while you held power over the past 16 years, especially when the Dems have done more in one year than you did in 16.

You can’t decry “name calling” when you’ve been the most consistent and outrageous at it. And the most vile.

You can’t spend more than 40 years hating, cutting and trying to kill Medicare, and then pretend to be the defenders of Medicare

You can’t praise the Congressional Budget Office when it’s analysis produces numbers that fit your political agenda, then claim it’s unreliable when it comes up with numbers that don’t.

You can’t vote for X under a Republican president, then vote against X under a Democratic president.  Either you support X or you don’t. And it makes it worse when you change your position merely for the sake obstructionism.

You can’t call a reconcilliation out of bounds when you used it repeatedly.

You can’t spend tax-payer money on ads against spending tax-payer money.

You can’t condemn individual health insurance mandates in a Dem bill, when the madates were your idea.

You can’t demand everyone listen to the generals when they say what fits your agenda, and then ignore them when they don’t.

You can’t whine that it’s unfair when people accuse you of exploiting racism for political gain, when your party’s former leader admits you’ve been doing it for decades.

You can’t portray yourself as fighting terrorists when you openly and passionately support terrorists.

You can’t complain about a lack of bipartisanship when you’ve routinely obstructed for the sake of political gain — threatening to filibuster at least 100 pieces of legislation in one session, far more than any other since the procedural tactic was invented — and admitted it.  Some admissions are unintentional, others are made proudly. This is especially true when the bill is the result of decades of compromise between the two parties and is filled with your own ideas.

You can’t question the loyalty of Department of Justice lawyers when you didn’t object when your own Republican president appointed them.

You can’t preach and try to legislate “Family Values” when you: take nude hot tub dips with teenagers (and pay them hush money); cheat on your wife with a secret lover and lie about it to the world; cheat with a staffer’s wife (and pay them off with a new job); pay hookers for sex while wearing a diaper and cheatingon your wife; or just enjoying an old fashioned non-kinky cheating on your wife; try to have gay sex in a public toilet; authorize the rape of children in Iraqi prisons to coherce their parents into providing information; seek, look at or have sex with children; replace a guy who cheats on his wife with a guy who cheats on his pregnant wife with his wife’s mother;

Hyperbole

You really need to dissassociate with those among you who:

• assert that people making a quarter-million dollars a year can barely make ends meet or that $1 million “isn’t a lot of money”;
• say that “Comrade” Obama is a “Bolshevik” who is “taking cues from Lenin”;
• ignore the many times your buddies use a term that offends you and complain only when a Dem says it;
• liken political opponents to murderers, rapists, and “this Muslim guy” that “offed his wife’s head” or call then “un-American”;
• say Obama “wants his plan to fail…so that he can make the case for bank nationalization and vindicate his dream of a socialist economy”;
• equate putting the good of the people ahead of your personal fortunes with terrorism;
• smear an entire major religion with the actions of a few fanatics;
• say that the president wants to “annihilate us”;
• compare health care reform with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a Bolshevik plot the attack on 9/11,or reviving the ghosts of communist dictators (update: it’s also not Armageddon);
• equate our disease-fighting stem cell research with “what the Nazis did”;
• call a bill passed by the majority of both houses of Congress, by members of Congress each elected by a majority in their districts, an unconscionable abuse of power, a violation of the presidential oath or “the end of representative government”;
• shout “baby killer” at a member of Congress on the floor of the House, especially one who so fought against abortion rights that he nearly killed health care reform (in fact, a little decorum, a little respect for our national institutions and the people and the values they represent, would be refreshing — cut out the shouting, the swearing and the obscenities);
• prove your machismo by claiming your going to “crash a party” to which you’re officially invited;
• claim that Obama is pushing America’s “submission to Shariah”;
• question the patriotism of people upholding cherished American values and the rule of law;
• claim the president is making us less safe without a hint of evidence;
• call a majority vote the “tyranny of the minority,” even if you meant to call it tyranny of the majority — it’s democracy, not tyranny;
• call the president’s support of a criminal trial for a terror suspect “treasonous” (especially when you supported the same thing when the president shared your party);
• call the Pope the anti-Christ;
• assert that the constitutionally mandated census is an attempt to enslave us;
• accuse opponents of being backed by Arab slave-drivers, drunk and suicidal;
• equate family planing with eugenics or Nazism;
• accuse the president of changing the missile defense program’s logo to match his campaign logo and reflect what you say is his secret Muslim identity;
• accuse political opponents of being totalitarians, socialists, communists, fascists, Marxists;  terrorist sympathizers, McCarthy-like, Nazis or drug pushers; and
• advocate a traitors act like seccession, violent revolution , military coup or civil war (just so we’re clear: sedition is a bad thing).

History

If you’re going to use words like socialism, communism and fascism, you must have at least a basic understanding of what those words mean (hint: they’re NOT synonymous!)

You can’t cut a leading Founding Father out the history books because you’ve decided you don’t like his ideas.

You cant repeatedly assert that the president refuses to say the word “terrorism” or say we’re at war with terror when we have an awful lot of videotape showing him repeatedly assailing terrorism and using those exact words.

If you’re going to invoke the names of historical figures, it does not serve you well to whitewash them. Especially this one.

You can’t just pretend historical events didn’t happen in an effort to make a political opponent look dishonest or to make your side look better. Especially these events. (And, no, repeating it doesn’t make it better.)

You can’t say things that are simply and demonstrably false: health care reform will not push people out of their private insurance and into a government-run program ; health care reform (which contains a good many of your ideas and very few from the Left) is a long way from “socialist utopia”; health care reform is not “reparations”; nor does health care reform create “death panels”.

Hatred

You have to condemn those among you who:

• call members of Congress n*gger and f*ggot;
• elected leaders who say “I’m a proud racist”;
• state that America has been built by white people;
• say that poor people are poor because they’re rotten people, call them “parasitic garbage” or say they shouldn’t be allowed to vote;
• call women bitches and prostitutes just because you don’t like their politics     ( re - pea -ted - ly );
• assert that the women who are serving our nation in uniform are hookers;
• mock and celebrate the death of a grandmother because you disagree with her son’s politics;
• declare that those who disagree with you are shown by that disagreement to be not just “Marxist radicals” but also monsters and a deadly disease killing the nation (this would fit in the hyperbole and history categories, too);
• joke about blindness;
• advocate euthanizing the wife of your political opponent;
• taunt people with incurable, life-threatening diseases — especially if you do it on a syndicated broadcast;
• equate gay love with bestiality — involving  horses or dogs or turtles or ducks — or polygamy, child molestation, pedophilia;
• casually assume that only white males look “like a real American”;
• assert presidential power to authorize torture,  torture a child by having his testacles crushed in front of his parents to get them to talk, order the massacre of a civilian village  and launch a nuclear attack without the consent of Congress;
• attack children whose mothers have died;
• call people racists without producing a shred of evidence that they’ve said or done something that would even smell like racism — same for invoking racially charged “dog whistle” words (repeatedly);
• condemn the one thing that every major religion agrees on;
• complain that we no longer employ the tactics we once used to disenfranchise millions of Americansbecause of their race;
• blame the victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks for their suffering and losses;
• celebrate violence , joke about violence, prepare for violence or use violent imagery, “fun” politicalviolence, hints of violence, threats of violence (this one is rather explicit), suggestions of violence oractual violence (and, really, suggesting anal rape wth a hot piece of metal is beyond the pale); and
• incite insurrection telling people to get their guns ready for a “bloody battle” with the president of the United States.

Oh, and I’m not alone:  One of your most respected and decorated leaders agrees with me.

So, dear conservatives, get to work.  Drain the swamp of the conspiracy nuts, the bold-faced liars undeterred by demonstrable facts, the overt hypocrisy and the hatred.  Then offer us a calm, responsible, grownup agenda based on your values and your vision for America.  We may or may not agree with your values and vision, but we’ll certainly welcome you back to the American mainstream with open arms.  We need you.

(Anticipating your initial response:  No there is nothing that even comes close to this level of wingnuttery on the American Left.)

Written by Russell King