Studied Innocence

(Originally published 1/11/2011)

The slogans on the signs in the comics are not direct quotes but naturally follow from the original statements. Each of the comic signs above is listed in the article, with a source.



Sources:

Nancy Pelosi "bullseye"

Melanie Morgan: "We've got a bull's-eye painted on [Nancy Pelosi's] big, wide laughing eyes." (Orcinus)

Democrats are Pure, Raw Evil

Amber Pawlck: I don't really consider the Democrat party a party of the people anymore, nor do I consider the socialist Democrats (they are not "liberal", that's just a euphemism for socialist anymore) "nice people who are misguided." I consider them to be pure, raw evil, who want to destroy everything rational or beautiful in sight: success, prosperity, even the very security of the country. (Orcinus)

Impeach/Censure/Asasisinate Clinton

Rep. James Hansen, on Bill Clinton: "get rid of the guy. impeach him, censure him, assassinate him." (skippy the bush kangaroo)  

Liberal Targets

Sarah Palin's Facebook page displayed a large map of the United States with crosshair patterns overlaid on target Democratic districts. (RawStory)

Kill Those Who Have the Liberal Taint

John Derbyshire:

"Chelsea is a Clinton. She bears the taint;" "Our humanity and forbearance, however, has a cost. The cost is, that the vile genetic inheritance of Bill and Hillary Clinton may live on to plague us in the future.

(National Review)

Don't Kill All the Liberals - Leave Enough So We'll Remember What They Stood For

Rush Limbaugh: "I tell people don't kill all the Liberals. Leave enough so we can have two on every campus – living fossils – so we will never forget what these people stood for." (Orcinus)

Make Liberals Realize They Can Be Killed Too

Ann Coulter: "We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate Liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed, too." (skippy the bush kangaroo)

Rat Poison for Justice Stevens

Ann Coulter: "We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee. ... That's just a joke, for you in the media." (Orcinus)

Get a Democrat Out of Office - Come Shoot With Us

Jesse Kelly event: "Get on Target for Victory in November. Help remove Gabriell Giffords from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly." (Views Across the Pond)

Use the Dirty Bomb to Eliminate All Liberals

Fresno City Council member Jerry Duncan: "If I had one dirty bomb and I could eliminate all the Liberals in Fresno at once." (skippy the bush kangaroo)

Hang Soros

Bill O'Reilly: "Where does George Soros have all his money? Do you know? Do you know where George Soros, the big left-wing loon who's financing all these smear [web]sites, do you know where his money is? Curaçao. Curaçao. They ought to hang this Soros guy." (Orcinus)

Speak to Liberals with a Baseball Bat

Ann Coulter:

LINDA VESTER (host): You say you'd rather not talk to liberals at all? COULTER: I think a baseball bat is the most effective way these days.

(Orcinus)

Hang Dean

Michael Reagan: "Howard Dean should be arrested and hung for treason or put in a hole until the end of the iraq war!" (skippy the bush kangaroo)

Hunt Democrats with Dogs

Senator Phil Gramm: "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with Dogs." (skippy the bush kangaroo)

Don't Retreat - Instead Reload

Sarah Palin on Twitter: "Commonsense Conservatives & lovers of America: 'Don't Retreat, Instead - RELOAD!'" (Twitter link)

If you think this isn't fair: Well, couldn't you just hear the screams of outrage if any of these had been said of Republicans? Or Presidents Bush (either one)? Or even someone like Rush Limbaugh?

But when Conservatives say these, they are expected to be regarded as jokes; rather than the malicious, bordering-on-incitement, attacks they really are.

Are Conservatives directly responsible for the Giffords attack? Maybe not, but they surely invite people to think along those lines.

Update 01/15/2010

In this article Paul Krugman describes the distinction between what he calls "eliminationist rhetoric" and normal political rhetoric:

The point is that there's room in a democracy for people who ridicule and denounce those who disagree with them; there isn't any place for eliminationist rhetoric, for suggestions that those on the other side of a debate must be removed from that debate by whatever means necessary.

To put this in a different way, there is an important difference between these two statements:

• "Disagree with me and you are an idiot."
• "Disagree with me and you must die."

The former is rude, no doubt about it. The latter is something else again.

Second update, 1/15/2011

I totally missed these liberal hunting permits: