Jonathan Tobin writes at National Review Online that media outlets have remained strangely silent about violence inflicted on a Republican congressman after a town hall event.
Where do you draw the line between the right of voters to vent their anger at public officials whose policies they oppose and actual violence? The answer is pretty obvious: at the point where verbal abuse turns to action that puts the safety of the officials in danger.
That line was crossed earlier this month when a Tennessee woman began chasing Representative David Kustoff as he drove away from an appearance. Fearing for his safety as the woman tried to force his car off the road, the GOP congressman pulled off and was then confronted by 35-year-old Wendi Wright, who struck his vehicle and then reached into a window, all the while expressing her anger about his vote on the Obamacare repeal-and-replace bill. She was ultimately charged with felony reckless endangerment but only after she had bragged on Facebook about running Kustoff to ground and giving him a piece of her mind. …
… [N]o one in the media has attempted to connect the dots between liberal anger and what happened to Kustoff. But if it was appropriate for Obama to declare that there should be limits to political rhetoric in 2011, perhaps Democrats ought to hear the same sermon now.
Calling Democrats who voted for Obama’s stimulus and the Affordable Care Act socialist thieves who were robbing the taxpayers was harsh. But it’s pretty tame compared with the current effort of liberals to demonize those who wish to repeal and replace Obamacare, portraying them as literally seeking to kill Americans who might be negatively affected by the changes the House bill will create if it becomes law. If you call Republicans murderers, why would you be surprised when some aggrieved Democrats or critics of the GOP bill think that Republicans should be treated like killers?
