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As we go to press, we are hearing more and more about incidents of violence being organized against Congressional Democrats voting for the current health insurance “reform” bill.
From Massachusetts and Michigan to Arizona and Texas, Democratic Party offices were attacked with bricks, bullets and bats while messages containing death threats were left in numerous voicemails on the machines of local Representative offices.
On Saturday, several House Democrats were attacked as they walked from a nearby office building to the Capitol. African American representatives were spit on and called “ni**er,” while Barney Frank, an openly gay Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, and his partner were called “fa**ots.”
Democrats and some Republicans were quick to denounce the “violence” and call for “civility.” However, the GOP mouthpieces also felt the need to rationalize these terrorist attacks, calling these expressions of rightwing violence a kind of “legitimate anger.”
Admittedly, hearing that kind of cheap rationalization did make a number of us angry, even though we expected to hear it.
If we, as revolutionaries, had attempted to justify such actions this way, we wouldn’t even have the sound bytes completed before the black bag was put over our heads and we were on our way to Guantánamo Bay (or wherever it is “terrorists” are taken these days).
The media would have called us “terrorists” from the moment that the news broke, and we would be demonized until manufactured “public opinion” called for our heads.
This says a lot about the role of violence in society. When such actions are carried out by the exploiters and oppressors, it’s not “violence” or “terrorism,” but “legitimate anger.” It is only when the exploited and oppressed express their “legitimate anger” that it becomes “violence” and “terrorism.” |
