The New Sedition

Since seeing, unbelievably, the scenes of vicious teabagger crowds hurling obscenties at members of the Congressional leadership Sunday, liberals have struggled to find words to express our outrage. I, like others, was reminded of the civil rights movement, particularly the beatings of protesters on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in 1965.

But Melissa Harris-Lacewell drew on a different historical era to explain what she calls sedition.

I appreciate the parallels to the civil rights movement drawn by the MSNBC crowd, but they are inadequate. When protesters spit on and scream at duly elected representatives of the United States government it is more than act of racism. It is an act of sedition.

John Lewis is no longer just a brave American fighting for the soul of his country- he is an elected official. He is an embodiment of the state.

Commentators and observers need to move their historical lens back a little further. The relevant comparison here is not the mid-20th century civil rights movement. The better analogy is the mid-19th century period of Reconstruction. From the end of the Civil War in 1865 until the unholy Hayes-Tilden compromise of 1877, black Americans enjoyed a brief experiment with full citizenship and political power sharing.

During this decade black men voted, held office and organized as laborers and farmers. It was a fragile political equality made possible only by the determined and powerful presence of the federal government. Then in 1877 the federal government abdicated its responsibilities to new black citizens and withdrew from the South.

When it did so it allowed local governments and racial terrorist organizations like the KKK to have the monopoly on violence, force and coercion in the South for nearly 100 years.

As I watch the rising tide of racial anxiety and secessionist sentiment I am not so much reminded of the Bloody Sunday protests as I am reminded of D.W. Griffith's Birth of Nation. This 1915 film depicts the racist imagination currently at work in our nation as a black president first appoints a Latina Supreme Court Justice and then works with a woman Speaker of the House to pass sweeping national legislation.

This bigotry assumes no such government could possibly be legitimate and therefore frames resistance against this government as a patriotic responsibility.

There are historic lessons to be learned. But they are the lessons of the 19th century not the 20th. We must now guard against the end of our new Reconstruction and the descent of a vicious new Jim Crow terrorism.

Read the whole thing.

Zandar looks at the seditious demands coming from members of Congress istelf:

Seriously, guys. This is a sitting member of Congress saying the teabaggers should "start a country" and "beat the other side to a pulp", "chase them down", and "take them out."

Over health care legislation. How long before one of these nutjobs "takes out" a congressional staffer, or a lawmaker, or a White House staffer? We've got irresponsible idiots like King, who I remind you is a sitting member of Congress, advocating violence and secession here against the government and the people who in a democracy voted for the Democrats who campaigned on...surprise!...passing health care legislation.

If you're that upset with the government you're a part of, resign, King. Hit the road. But don't call for violence against people just because you guys lost fair and square.

President Obama and the Democratic Congress could repeal the entire New Deal and Great Society - eliminate social security, medicare, workplace safety, consumer safety, clean water, clean air, civil rights, voting rights - make into reality the whole repug wet dream, and repugs would still be screaming it was a socialist takeover and calling for a violent revolution.

Because to them, no government run by the Democratic Party can ever be legitimate. No black man can ever be president, no penis-less female can ever give orders to congressmen. Obviously, they've taken power illegally. It's unconstitutional on its face. Only repugs are Real American leaders.