Michele Bachmann calls for a revolution and wants people “armed and dangerous”:
Link(this is to the Huffington Post, but has the audio of the interview in which she made the above statement).
How is this not sedition? How is it possible that a sitting U.S. Representative is allowed to advocate for citizens to arm themselves in order to initiate a revolution? This needs to be addressed by Congress and (proper, legal) steps need to be taken to have her removed from office.
Failing that, I’d be alright with someone pushing her down the Capitol steps.
Can we tax her God or something?
I’d like to see what she’s like when she’s genuinely angry.
All this bloviating strikes me as faux outrage, weak tea.
At last I can see it taking shape: the Republican strategy, oozing back together like the liquid Terminator. The passions of even the most ignorant redneck are flammable in the presence of revolutionary rhetoric and imagery, hearkening vaguely back to a youth where flags were uncomplicated symbols of our God-granted superiority and teeth were relatively plentiful. It’s taking the form of “tea parties,” ambiguous insurrectionary language, and every move and statement of the Obama administration will push him farther into the prefab caricature of a modern King George III (ok, that level of historical familiarity may be asking a bit much… but I bet a lot of voters remember that “fought the bloody British” song, so let’s build on our strengths). The “revolution” will be fomented not with firearms, but with ballots. Vote out the tyrant; restore America to the golden age of freedom when taxation was unheard of and everyone wore hats with belt buckles. “Don’t tread on me”… that was us, right?
Four posts and nobody has yet called her “batshit crazy”? I am disappointed, people.
OK, why not. She’s batshit crazy.
That would be Johnny Horton, The Battle of New Orleans. A real American would know that.
Sedition? Please. That’s exactly the kind of thing Bachmann herself would argue. In fact, during the Red Scare, quoting Thomas Jefferson was exactly the kind of thing that would land you in front of the HUAC.
She was making a political point. And even if she wasn’t, this kind of vague advocacy of overthrow of the government is entirely protected by the First Amendment. If she told some specific people to go out and buy guns so that they can shoot federal agents in Minnesota, that would be one thing. Quoting Thomas Jefferson and saying we need to “fight back,” not so much.
Don’t gaze too far into the abyss that is Michelle Bachmann, lest you she gaze back into you.
You seem to have misspelled “abcess.”
Seriously, though, you are correct. Calling for the overthrow of our government is not something you can land in jail for. The crime of sedition might still be on the books, but it isn’t enforced.
Believe me…I’m no fan of Bachman. She can lick Barney Frank’s hairy nutsack, that crazy-ass bitch.
That said, does anyone really think she meant “guns” armed and not “information” armed?
If there’s a revolution, she’s one of the first I want up against the wall. And :
: she my represents my district. (We really do need the barf smiley.)
This. It seems quite clear to me that she’s calling for Minnesotan’s to know the issues, and be politically active in opposing what she believes is bad policy (the “energy tax”). It’s not sedition in the least.
I can’t believe someone needed to misrepresent what Bachmann was saying in order to pit her…what, there’s not enough genuinely crazy comments for you to pit? Or are they already all taken?
Taxes are a red herring, and anyone harping on them is either an idiot or someone who makes their living off of people being idiots.
Meh. Not much different from Pat Buchanan’s “jackbooted thugs” comment, really.
Is Ann Coulter retiring? Michelle looking to replace her?
Taken with all the very thinly (and outright) threats of violence that have been coming from the Right recently, I think that she’s trying to play both sides of the fence. I think she worded it in such a way that she could certainly claim innocence and play it off as a reference to information. If this was an isolated incident, I’d believe her. Combine this with all the rhetoric we’ve been hearing since the campaign, I’m starting to think the calls to arm yourself and take back the country from the Socialist in the White House are not as metaphorical as we’d all like to think. At the very least, this was an irresponsible thing to say. Am I scared that a large group of people are going to be moved by statements like this to actually wage a revolution? No. Do I think it’s highly likely that more than a few nuts are going to commit acts of violence, spurred on by people like Bachmann? Absolutely.
Nitpick: “Jackbooted Thugs” in recent political parlance came from Congressman John Dingell (D - Michigan). It was then used by the NRA as well to refer to the ATF raids of the time.
I did not “misrepresent” her at all. I quoted her words and provided a link to the audio so you could hear the words from her mouth. We are obviously interpreting her words differently, but I did not misrepresent.
Ick, I’m gonna have to take a shower after defending her…but you very much seemed to misrepresent, not just interpret differently, her “armed and dangerous” comment in order to make a mountain out of a molehill.
Misrepresenting would have been providing my interpretation without providing the quote in context. I gave her exact quote with the words around it, plus my interpretation. That is enough information for all of you to get an honest representation of what she said and either agree or disagree with my opinion, which some of you have. Are you saying that I changed what she said or did not provide enough context for you to form an honest opinion?
The fairness of your context is implied in your title, it presumes a certain awareness of Ms. Bachman (R, Batshit), and advises that she has done it again. As she has. Taken alone, from a person who does not have a record of rising in the night to feed on the living, this might allow some more generous interpretation: a psychotic episode arising from ergot poisoning, or some such.