The dangerous American left
Liberals say they hate "dangerous" talk and violence in the public square.
Except, of course, when liberals talk "dangerous" and initiate violence in the public square.
Then the liberal establishment becomes the clueless parent of a terrible bully. They can't see the misbehavior of their own child.
Their kid is a good kid. Doesn't belong in jail. Not dangerous just a misunderstood youngster.
Never mind that the budding little psychopath just shaved his sister's cat, defecated in the neighbor's car and wrung the necks of the ducklings at the city Easter celebration.
For a real-time extension of this dynamic, look no further than the thuggery on display in Madison, Wis.
Unionistas surround government offices to protest Gov. Scott Walker's "budget repair bill." The bill calls for a number of things, but sparking union ire the most is the elimination of most collective bargaining rights for public employee unions.
At one point, the Wisconsin Legislature adjourned early because the angry union crowd grew louder and meaner. That, coupled with a series of real death threats made against legislators and the governor, raised concerns for the safety of elected officials.
Sadly, the precaution turned out to be a wise move. As buses of out-of-state union protesters arrived, wearing union shirts like team jerseys, the mood of the crowd turned ever more ugly. They carried mass-produced signs depicting Walker as Adolf Hitler and one with the governor's head inside the cross hairs of a rifle scope.
They routinely surrounded and impeded Republican legislators trying to do their jobs. Incidents of minor violence escalated. Video evidence of the pushing and the shoving and the mindless arguments populate the Internet.
And Democrat leaders in other states encouraged an escalation of the violence.
Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., told a crowd of unionistas in his own state, who had gathered in solidarity with the unions in Wisconsin, it wasn't enough to only send letters and e-mail. "It's time to get a little bloody."
Capuano apologized soon thereafter, to his credit.
But the worst came (and let's hope it is the worst) last Monday after a particularly long session in the Wisconsin Assembly. Democrat state Rep. Gordon Hintz squared up on Republican state Rep. Michelle Litjens inside the chambers and yelled: "You are (expletive) dead!"
Where are the liberals who begged for civility after the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabby Giffords? The arbiters of "dangerous" speech were front and center when Democrats thought they could pin the violence on conservatives.
Even the president got into the act calling, as The New York Times reported, "for Americans to draw a lesson" from the tragedy "and usher in a new era of civility."
Or, to use the president's words exactly:
"At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do, it's important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."
That was Jan. 12 -- only 53 days ago.
Where is the president now?
Where are the liberal commentators who within minutes of the shooting of Rep. Giffords attempted to link it to some kind of shadowy conservative hate group?
Where are the Democrats who tried to link GOP presidential contender Sarah Palin to the shooting because she used targets on campaign material?
Can you imagine the outrage from the left had some protester for a conservative cause yelled: "It's time to get a little bloody!" And then another voice in the crowd yelled at U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., "You are (expletive) dead"?
You couldn't begin to measure the outcry from the selectively outraged American left.
In the meanwhile, words and deeds dangerously escalate in Wisconsin, meriting nary a word from the left.
More's the pity, because in this environment what you don't condemn, you condone.
Sherman Frederick (sfrederick@reviewjournal.com), the former publisher of the Las Vegas Review-Journal and a member of the Nevada Newspaper Hall of Fame, writes a column for Stephens Media. Read his blog at www.lvrj.com/blogs/sherm.
