Tell it like it is, and not this sanitized stuff like we see on CSPAN when Congress has all these meetings, discussions, votes, etc. Do they think we believe this crap about “the Chair recognizes the gentleman from California” or “the chair recognizes the distinguished Senator from New York”, or even “the Senator from Ohio will yield the remainder of his time to the distinguished gentleman, and his good friend from Kentucky?” They would have us believe they are actually genteel. Governor Ed Rendell even said so himself, back in December, when he called out the bunch of wusses who wouldn’t play football because it was too cold and snowy outside.
The events that led to the shooting in Arizona did not come to pass because of politics. It was because of some young man and his mental instability. However, many liberals have blamed the Tea Party, Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and countless others. They’re being accused of all this vitriolic rhetoric. If you take a stroll back through history, you will discover that all this anger started with our fight for independence.
The elected officials who birthed this nation were also full of anger, or at least some of them were. Look below at a list of those involved with duels. Yes, duels, you know, where they took to the street bearing handguns and have a go at it. There may be a few in DC today who would go at it bare knuckles, but I think many of them would wet their pants at the thought of that, but would in no way consent to a duel. Oh, they may talk tough, but they would rather have their friends in the media and their voters fight their battles for them. Governor Rendell was right, except he was referring to the wrong group of people.
From wikipedia:
- May 16, 1777: Button Gwinnett, signer of the Declaration of Independence, dueled his political opponent Lachlan McIntosh; both were wounded, Gwinnett died three days later.
- July 11, 1804: U.S. Vice President Aaron Burr and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton; Hamilton was killed.
- Main article: Burr-Hamilton duel
- * May 30, 1806: Andrew Jackson and Charles Dickinson; Dickinson was killed, Jackson wounded.
- * August 12, 1817: Thomas Hart Benton (senator) and Charles Lucas (Missouri) on Bloody Island
- (Mississippi); Attorneys on opposite sides of a court battle – Lucas challenged Benton’s right to vote and Benton accused Lucas of being a “puppy”; Lucas was shot in the throat and Benton shot in the leg; Benton released Lucas from his obligation.
- September 27, 1817: Benton and Lucas rematch on Bloody Island; Benton challenged Lucas after Lucas said the first fight at 30 feet (9.1 m) was unfair because Benton was a better shot. Benton killed Lucas at nine feet and was unhurt.
- March 22, 1820: Stephen Decatur and James Barron; Decatur was killed.
- June 30, 1823 Joshua Barton and Thomas C. Rector on Bloody Island (Mississippi River); Rector was critical of Barton’s brother, Senator David Barton’s blocking the appointment of Rector’s brother William Rector to General Surveyor position. Barton was killed and Rector unhurt.
- April 26, 1826, Henry Clay and John Randolph of Roanoke; at Pimmit Run, Virginia; Both unhurt.
- August 26, 1831: Thomas Biddle and Spencer Darwin Pettis on Bloody Island (Mississippi River); Biddle challenged Pettis for comments about Biddle’s brother who was president of the United States Bank. Both died after firing from five feet.
- September 25, 1832: James Westcott and Thomas Baltzell; Baltzell unhurt, Westcott injured but survived to become a U.S. Senator.
- February 24, 1838: Kentucky Representative William Jordan Graves killed Maine Representative Jonathan Cilley in a pistol duel. Congress then passed a law making it illegal to issue or accept duel challenges in Washington, DC.
- September 22, 1842: Future President Abraham Lincoln, at the time an Illinois state legislator, accepted a challenge to a duel by state auditor James Shields. Lincoln apparently had published an inflammatory letter in a Springfield, Illinois, newspaper, the Sangamon Journal, that poked fun at the Illinois State Auditor-Shields. Taking offense, Shields demanded “satisfaction” and the incident escalated with the two parties meeting on a Missouri island called Sunflower Island, near Alton, Illinois, to participate in a duel. Just prior to engaging in combat, the two participants’ seconds intervened and were able to convince the two men to cease hostilities, on the grounds that Lincoln had not written the letters.
- July 26, 1847: Albert Pike and John Selden Roane; declared a draw, no injuries.
- June 1, 1853: U.S. Senator William McKendree Gwin and U.S. Congressman J.W. McCorkle, no injuries.
- August 26, 1856: Benjamin Gratz Brown and Thomas C. Reynolds on Bloody Island (Mississippi River); In what would be called the “Duel of the Governors” Brown was then the abolitionist editor of the St. Louis Democrat and Reynolds a pro-slavery St. Louis district attorney fought with Brown being shot in the leg and limping for the rest of his life while Reynolds was unhurt. Brown would become a Missouri Governor and Reynolds would become a Confederate Governor of Missouri.
- September 13, 1859: U.S. Senator David C. Broderick and David S. Terry, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of California; Broderick was killed.
- June 7, 1882: Louisiana State Treasurer Edward A. Burke was seriously wounded by C. Harrison Parker, the editor of the New Orleans Daily Picayune, in a duel with pistols. After Parker published unflattering remarks about Burke, Burke challenged him to a duel
In Mother Jones, Arizona Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva waxed poetic about the hatred, anger, and division…and look who he blames.
From Reuters, you can see more finger-pointing, except it’s not pointed to the actual sicko who did the killing.
Not to disappoint, there is the New York Times weighs in with their opinion.
Democrat Harry Mitchell Places Opponent in Crosshairs, is the title of this campaign ad, where Mitchell has this same “gun sight” trained on his opponent, J.D. Hayworth.
Oh, and lastly, this same vitriolic rhetoric goes straight to the top, to President Obama.
Now, let’s talk about that little pesky clause regarding the right to bear arms. Didn’t these fellows use handguns in their duels? If duels were legal, then I would suppose that the weapons were legal as well. This wasn’t a couple of state militias fighting one another. This was two individuals. What’s the point, you may ask? It’s pretty simple.
Back in those days, before political correctness castrated our country, these politicians were more honorable than those today. Sure, there were crooks in their midst, but when they had a beef, they settled it between one another, and amongst themselves. Of course, they didn’t have the internet, YouTube, cable TV, talk radio, and all that, but they did have those old-fashioned town halls, and they didn’t hide behind any skirts, gated communities, and locked doors. They didn’t go out and entice and incite their constituents to get in the face of their “enemies”, and if the opponents bring knives, then you take guns. But these are the same people today, who take pride and priority in reading talking points but balk at reading the Constitution.
What it comes down to, is this:
DC is the stage. The politicians are the actors, the media outlets are the producers, and we the people are the audience. They’re the players…and we’re being played. It’s not the people and electors that keep things stirred up. It’s the media. They take it upon themselves to explain to the sheep what we are supposed to hear what was said, and what was the intent, and what we should say or do in response. They tell us what we see, what we think, what we believe, and even try to reason it away, and unfortunately, they still have many followers left, willingly partaking in this mess. I’m surprised one of our devout elected has not already surmised about WWJD. As for me, as I’ve said before, WWJD? I think He would walk inside the Capitol and start turning over tables, slashing and cracking everyone within reach with a cat-o-nine tails, while shouting, “What was it that you asked my Father to do to America”…and then they would tell Jesus it was the Tea Party’s fault.
