Shutting out the public
by digby
This is a perfect example of how the Republicans will use political violence to shut down Democratic processes:
Rep. Lou Barletta (R-PA) on Wednesday said members of Congress should “absolutely” cut down on public events in the wake of a shooting at Republican lawmakers’ baseball practice that left six people injured, including Senate Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA), who remains in critical condition.
“Do you think that for now members of Congress and the Senate should curtail that kind of activity until perhaps we agree that we need to be more civil?” Pennsylvania radio station WILK’s host Sue Henry asked Barletta, as flagged by CNN’s KFILE.
“I think absolutely,” Barletta replied. “There’s no question.”
Barletta said he has “been at the end of some of those town halls where the police had to carry people out.”
“You get concerned not only for your own safety but for the safety of the people who are there,” he said. “Even if you have an opposing opinion, that’s great, that’s what these events are for, but there’s a level, you know, when people cross a line to actually inciting other people and when individual safety becomes an issue, well, then the purpose of doing it is lost.”
Barletta said he believes town halls have “become such, really, just targets for people to try to incite other people.”
“It’s not good,” he said.
There’s been no evidence of people showing up at townhalls brandishing guns as they did in 2009 and 2010.
Nearly 350 right-wing protestors crowded a New Mexico town’s busiest intersection yesterday to protest President Obama’s supposed anti-gun agenda and the “government takeover of our health care system.” While the event mostly looked like any other recent right-wing rally — complete with signs reading “replace the communists in DC” and “the sky is falling! A black man is president!” — what set this protest apart was that there “were plenty of handguns and rifles displayed.”
The local Tea Party and a group called the Second Amendment Task Force (2ATF, a reference to the ATF, which enforces gun laws) encouraged people to bring guns to the event in Alamogordo, NM, in order to “put a positive light on gun ownership,” said 2ATF’s founder Dan Woodruff. While the two protests were technically separate, they were planned together for the same day in adjacent locations. Otero Tea Party Patriots coordinator Don Omey said he was “proud” of the gun-toters. “That’s what we need to turn some minds around,” Omey said. Under New Mexico law, it’s legal for anyone over the age of 19 to open-carry a holstered firearm in most public places.
And while there was no violence during the event, one protestor wearing a Tea Party shirt said his loaded gun was a “very open threat” to anyone who might “try to take over the country completely as a socialist communist [state].” The New Mexico Independent attended the protest and put together a report on the event. Watch it:
They didn’t have to commit violence. All they had to do was show their guns and hold their signs to get the message across.
Today, Republican representatives don’t want to face their constituents on the health care and Russia stuff. They are cowards. But they are also looking for more and more ways to govern in secret, the mark of an authoritarian government.
.