The War on Dissent : Marching Onward

Atrios has been doing a bang-up job (per usual) recording the rising tide of thuggery and eliminationist hatred being aimed at anti-war protesters and liberals in general, something I warned a couple of days ago was the kind of phenomenon that represents a very dangerous undercurrent in the body politick.

The reports are starting to roll in from all over. I'll be trying to keep track of them here. Here are the Atrios links:

A letter calling for "doing away with" Democrats

"Go back to France"

A poem of hate for liberals

Rhetoric at pro-war rallies

This is an important point. The supposedly "pro-war" rhetoric is remarkably thin on actual expressions of sentiment in support of the war or the troops, or against Saddam Hussein, and very heavy on demonization of liberals.

Over at Shock and Awe, Kynn remarks on the hateful expressed by right-wingers about the death of Rachel Corrie, the young Olympia woman who was killed by a bulldozer in Palestine the other day:

Next time someone asks, "Why do they hate us?", I'll just point them in the direction of the gleeful gloaters -- a kind of mockery of human suffering, pain, and death that was legitimized by the Republican party's embrace of Rush Limbaugh and his sadism.

And Eric Muller over at Is That Legal? points out the story of the young rodeo attendee who was assaulted merely because he refused to stand for that gag-inducing Lee Greenwood song, "Proud to be an American," and sums it all up nicely:

These are dangerous times.