Who Demonizes Government?

Last week at a commemoration of the 15th Anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people in a federal building, former President Bill Clinton made the following statement:

"We shouldn't demonize the government or its public employees or its elected officials. We can disagree with them, we can harshly criticize them. But when we turn them into an object of demonization, we increase the number of threats."

The violence committed in Oklahoma City in 1995 was carried out by a homicidal sociopathic anti-government militant named Timothy McVeigh. He was not the type of person who participated in peaceful protests, as those in the current Tea Party movement do. Although Clinton avoided alleging outright that the anti-Democrat policy protest rallies that have occurred throughout the country over the past year under the Tea Party theme are advocating violence, he did state that right-wing talk radio shows that existed in 1995, as they do today, were "the instrument of carrying this [message of demonizing government] forward [since] they understand clearly that emotion was more powerful than reason most of the time. And it happened that they got much bigger listenership and more advertisers and more commercial success if they kept people in the white heat".

Clinton's clear suggestion is that the so-called "white heat" generated by opposition rhetoric on talk radio had as much to do with the Oklahoma tragedy as McVeigh's stated reason for attacking the federal government, which was his outrage over the acts of violence committed by federal agencies at Ruby Ridge and Waco.

With this belief that right-wing talk radio, which he said was "demonizing" government, was a contributing factor in a madman's terrorist act 15 years ago, Clinton went on to warn today's anti-government protesters to be careful not to cross the line from opposition rhetoric to triggering any of society's misfits to commit further acts of violence.


The anti-BIG government protests of the past year have, however, generally been more peaceful than many of the anti-war protests carried out during the administration of George W. Bush. In fact, many of the offensive signs associating President Obama with the Joker or Hitler were originally seen with Bush's image during the prior "regime".

The signs depicting Obama were NOT created by anyone connected with the Tea Party movement or the Republican Party. The Obama-Joker poster was created by a college student, who I believe is not very politically active, and the Obama-Hitler poster was created and made available on the website for Lyndon LaRouche, who has been politically active for decades, most prominently as a Democratic candidate for President in 1980, 1984, 1988, and 1992. In fact, the Obama-Hitler image and many comparisons between the current President's policies and Adolf Hitler's policies can still be found on the LaRouche website at http://www.larouchepac.com/obamawatch.

However, there is a long list of websites and blogs that compared George Bush to Adolf Hitler throughout Bush's years as President, which can be found here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x4750077

Michelle Malkin covered many of these comparisons and other forms of the Bush Derangement Syndrome for years on her blog. A summary of these political attacks with several links to other such Fascist comparisons to Bush can be found on Malkin's blog here:
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/08/04/how-quickly-they-forget/

In terms of actually advocating radical action, however, the protests against former President Bush were explicit in expressing their desire to eliminate Bush as President, not simply to make political statements in opposition to his policies.

And some of the anti-Bush protest expressions went even further:

Where was Bill Clinton's concern about harsh rhetoric demonizing government officials during the Bush administration? I guess we have to rely on his wife for that answer.

Hillary Clinton shouted out her view of the right to freedom of expression and dissent from the policies of government in 2003:

“I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you’re not patriotic, and we should stand up and say, ‘WE ARE AMERICANS AND WE HAVE A RIGHT TO DEBATE AND DISAGREE WITH ANY ADMINISTRATION!’”

It would seem that right-wing talk radio, as well as the Tea Party protesters, have the same right to debate and disagree with the current Administration that Mrs. Clinton asserted during the last administration. However, based on the examples shown above, it appears that the disagreements with the Bush Administration took a much more explicit approach to encouraging violent or aggressive action against government officials than those over the past year have. The Clintons seem to be a bit inconsistent in their views on freedom of expression.


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