Their Fear Tells Us a Lot
Posted by Shannon Love on July 17th, 2009 (All posts by Shannon Love)
Apparently, for some people, there is nothing more terrifying than a couple of dozen frumpy, middle aged, middle-class white people. [h/t Instapundit]
Honestly, they called the cops on these people? What did they think, that a church’s ice cream social had got out early and now the participants were roaming the streets in a sugar and milk-fat induced frenzy seeking to drink the blood of leftists?
I make a point of the protesters being white because it feeds into the same perception that I touched on in the Neo-Nazi Boogyman. A lot of leftists have heaped abuse on various tea party protesters as being racist and violent based on no other criterion than that they were non-leftist whites. Clearly, these people have wildly exaggerated, hysterical fears of politically active non-leftist white people, and they lump all of these ordinary people in with the racist, left leaning, white-supremacist micro-minority.
Somehow, I don’t think that if a bus load of leftist, African-American protesters showed up that the first response of the staff members would be to close the blinds, lock the doors and call the cops. Even though I know absolutely nothing about Senator McCaskill, this little incident tells me a lot about how the people in the Senator’s office, and therefore the Senator herself, view their fellow citizens.
chicagoboyz.net
Good comments:
I agree that the time when large demonstrations exerted a powerful effect on politics has passed… on the left. Leftists turned political protest into a form of entertainment and socialization. If you read most non-leftists critiques of the anti-democracy rallies during the liberation of Iraq, you will see that the major critique centered on the immaturity and fecklessness of the demonstrators. Leftists protest at the drop of a hat, mostly because they’re either young or they’re old with no responsibilities.
On the other hand, there is no protest party culture among non-leftists. It really means something when even a small group of middle-aged, middle-class people with families and economic responsibilities take time to show up at a demonstration. Politicians can reasonably assume that for every adult body at such a demonstration there are hundreds and perhaps thousands of voters who fill the same way but just don’t think about physically protesting or can’t make time in their busy schedules to do so.
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You aren’t likely to be a good representive when your subordinates greet your constituents with a middle finger.
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McCaskill's Office Locks Doors, Pulls Blinds, Calls Cops & Forces Obamacare Protesters Off Public Property
Local Tea Party patriots held an anti-Obama Care protest at Senator Claire "ACORN" McCaskill’s district offices on Delmar Boulevard today.
The protest was organized by Americans for Prosperity and the St. Louis Tea Party Coalition.
McCaskill's office manager locked the doors, pull down the blinds, called the cops and forced the protesters across the street.
Local tea party protesters Dwight and Lynn talked about the reception they received from McCaskill's office staff:
Dwight claimed that one office worker flipped off the protesters!
Here comes the police-- Notice the chants in the background "Where is Claire?"
Glenn Reynolds adds, "Yeah, it’s not like these are constituents or anything."
McCaskill's staff told the police they were being threatened.
They look like a rowdy bunch, huh?
A staff member opened the door for the police and said they were being threatened. The staff member took some notes from a few protesters while the police were there and said she'd pass them on to Senator McCaskill.
Glenn Reynolds has updates on Obamacare protests in Raleigh, Dallas and Cleveland. Steve Sabolich sends an email from Cleveland and says that Dennis Kucinich’s staff was shocked so many concerned working Americans took off work to be there.
UPDATE: Donna sent this video from the protest at McCaskill's office today.
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