Pie Throwers And Goon Squads

Reposted as history. Originally posted in April of 2005

Washington Times
Editorial - April 11, 2005

When two assailants attacked conservative columnist Ann Coulter with pies while she was giving a speech at the University of Arizona in October, most people, including the speaker, dismissed it as a prank.
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The media should highlight these cases not as the jokes they are perhaps intended to be, but as unacceptable perversions of the First Amendment. So far, however, the mainstream media has failed to do so. It also gave scant attention to last year's election-oriented violence directed almost solely against Republicans. Perpetrators shot at Bush-Cheney campaign headquarters and attacked volunteers and destroyed campaign offices across the country, to cite a few examples.

Here in the Roanoke Chowan area most people accept the "pranks" that are being committed in this story as pranks. I have a different perspective. I have shared with a few friends some of my stories about participation in the election of Arnold Schwarzenegger as Governor of California. The look in their eyes tells me that they find it hard understanding what is happening outside our area. That is because politics around here has not yet reached the vicious levels that it has in most of the country.

During the election for Arnold, I was spit on several times. They always liked to do it when there were several of the "demonstrators" around and you were alone. They would spit on you after you walked by. When you turned around they all just laughed because you could not tell who had done it. The amazing thing is that there was never a single day when democrats did not line up outside the campaign headquarters and berate us.

The democrats also regularly had someone with a bullhorn outside our headquarters, and they loved to get about 6 inches from your ear and bellow their insults and attacks as you walked towards the headquarters. Rapist. Nazi. Groper. Fascist. These were the non profane insults we endured on a daily basis. But profanity was a daily experience too. They continuously tried to incite people to anger, as they would then file exaggerated charges against anyone who displayed the least bit of irritation at their actions. The only intelligent answer is to smile at people who are so stupid this is the only way they can think of to disagree.

In all my years in politics I have never seen a group of Republicans gang up outside a democrat headquarters and hurl insults and epithets at the people who worked there. I have personally observed this behavior by democrats in 5 different campaigns, including one campaign back when I was still a democrat. I did not understand it then. Now I think I do.

What is the logic of this? These pie hurling incidents are just a continuation of a hate driven campaign by democrats to treat Republicans as evil people not deserving of civility. Every time it happens, the democrats say they are justified because "you started it first". However they cannot ever show any specific incident where Republicans did anything similar.

I think the Washington Times article is correct when it compares what is happening in these incidents with the escalation that happened in Holland. There too it started with pie throwing. But it ended with Pim Fortuyn's death. Does some Republican have to die before we will take this seriously?

[Update - 4/14/2005]

I have heard the argument of local democrats that "we don't do those things here". In reality, democrats have knowingly aligned themselves with people who do. How does that not make them equally guilty? Several people told me when I came back to Bertie County that this was democrat country and "You better not say you are a Republican". What is this but a threat that if I don't "keep quiet" the violence will escalate? The reality is that Republicans are no longer willing to "keep quiet". One reaction is to make fun of both the perpetrators and the people who tolerate these acts. After her attackers were set free by the local D.A., a rash of new attacks on other conservatives set Ann in motion with her usual sardonic style.

It's Only Funny Until Someone Loses A Pie
Ann Coulter - April 14th, 2005 - AnnCoulter.org

I'm not sure how these descriptions square with the fact that liberals keep responding to conservative ideas by throwing food. (Remember the good old days when liberals' "fact-driven" ideas only meant throwing money at their problems?)

If you don't think this article is funny, you're probably part of the problem.