Is no place sacred?
by digby
Today at Salon I talk about some horrible people who are showing up at Dealey Plaza in Dallas waving around guns and passing out literature spewing hatred for the president. This is not the first time people have done that. But it ended very badly last time.
The morning of November 22, the Dallas Morning News featured a full page ad “welcoming” the president to Dallas. After a preamble in which they proclaimed their fealty to the Constitution and defiantly asserted their right to be conservative, they demanded to be allowed to “address their grievances.” They posed a long series of “when did you stop beating your wife” questions asking why Kennedy was helping the Communist cause around the world. Here’s an example:
WHY has Gus Hall, head of the U.S. Communist Party praised almost every one of your policies and announced that the party will endorse and support your re-election in 1964?
WHY have you banned the showing at U.S. military bases of the film “Operation Abolition”–the movie by the House Committee on Un-American Activities exposing Communism in America?
WHY have you ordered or permitted your brother Bobby, the Attorney General, to go soft on Communists, fellow-travelers, and ultra-leftists in America, while permitting him to persecute loyal Americans who criticize you, your administration, and your leadership?
WHY has the Foreign Policy of the United States degenerated to the point that the C.I.A. is arranging coups and having staunch Anti-Communists Allies of the U.S. bloodily exterminated.
WHY have you scrapped the Monroe Doctrine in favor of the “Spirit of Moscow”?
MR. KENNEDY, as citizens of the United States of America, we DEMAND answers to these questions, and we want them NOW.
You get the drift. And you probably recognize the tone. The subject may have changed somewhat but the arrogant attitude combined with the aggrieved victimization is a hallmark of right wing politics even today.
As we all know, later that day the President was gunned down in Dealey Plaza. The entire world was shocked and traumatized by that event and the course of history was changed.
You’d think these allegedly patriotic Americans would have some respect. But that would be too much to ask. They are a vulgar lot who obviously cannot see that their hideous display on such hallowed ground is truly repulsive to decent people. It’s sick.
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