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46 Years After Kennedy, the Virus of Hate Is Back

Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert panders to dangerous paranoids

By Will McCahill,  Newser Staff

Posted Nov 21, 2009 9:08 AM CST
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(Newser) – Tomorrow’s 46th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination provides an occasion for Mark Warren to examine “the paranoid strain in the American polity” that has reasserted itself since the election of President Obama, and finds in a Texas Republican congressman just the sort of “skinhead reprobate” whose demagoguery could move one of his constituents to violence. Meet Louie Gohmert.

A man with “the face of a hooligan and the politesse to match,” Gohmert “has screamed that the president is a ‘socialist!’ perhaps louder and longer than anyone else in his caucus (which is quite a distinction),” Warren writes for Esquire. He's also “a birther who believes that Obama is an an alien Muslim.” And while one can’t say Gohmert’s urging anyone to do anything as rash as shoot the president, there’s always the law of unintended consequences: “If you with abandon promulgate such outlandish distortions of the truth, and feel it your duty to stoke the fires of our baser instincts to the point of hysteria over the utter destruction of the American system, do you bear responsibility when someone who ingests your bile responds violently?”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.   (gohmert.house.gov)
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.   (gohmert.house.gov)
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.   (gohmert.house.gov)
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COMMENTS
Showing 3 of 92 comments
NewserScooter
Jan 22, 2010 4:23 AM CST
Why can't we all be equal, is the issue. All I am talking about is fairness, not exceptionalism.
thejoint00
Nov 26, 2009 12:54 PM CST
NO ONE ANY WHERE can say "Gohmert’s urging anyone to do anything as rash as shoot the president," The argument of the left is irrational and not at all related to what is actually being said, rather it is based on imaginary hopes for what they really want to hear and in this case the left is asking the right to suggest that they want the president killed, maybe they are too weak to actually suggest what they want for themselves.
thejoint00
Nov 26, 2009 1:03 AM CST
when I was a kid i said "I love cheese," and one of my classmates said "if you love cheese so much, why don't you marry it." after some reluctance, I finally said "I do love cheese so I will marry it." I didn't actually want to marry cheese and I never did. but that other kid certainly ran around telling everyone that I had finally agreed to becomeing betrothed to cheese. now here is an article from the left that has the same implications "if you think obama is a socialist so much, why don't you suggest that he be shot(so we can run around and tell everyone what you said)" this is the simplest form of manipulation ever.

 
Texas • John F. Kennedy • assassination • Louie Gohmert • President Obama • birther • skinhead

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