# How'd we get to the point where members of Congress are openly advocating violence? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 21, 2021, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739 "2021-11-21T22:29:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/21 "2021-11-22T19:11:24Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > My point is that this is at least the thousandth thread on this subject. Asking how we got this far has beaten deader into the ground than the moderate or even rightist wing of the Republican Party. > > We all know what the GOP is like. The only possible question is how we stop them. And that too has been beaten into the ground. > > The answer is door-to-door networking and building from school board level up, just the way the right has been doing for decades. Stop looking at the Presidency as the only election. Stop expecting that it can be turned around in one election cycle. Treat it like global warming and do a thousand little things as well as a few big ones. > > But don’t ask how we got here. Excellent points. The one that hasn’t been done to death is why Democrats haven’t taken that same step (of building from school board on up). The only answer that I can come up with, which isn’t at all satisfactory, is that Democrats find that manner of doing things unacceptable. The Democratic electorate isn’t interested in playing the long game, even though that seems to be the best strategy. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/22 "2021-11-22T19:40:32Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > The only answer that I can come up with, which isn’t at all satisfactory, is that Democrats find that manner of doing things unacceptable. The Democratic electorate isn’t interested in playing the long game, even though that seems to be the best strategy. I think it’s a matter of motivation. Most of the GOP grassroots stuff seems to be motivated by people’s religious beliefs. That’s what gets them out to attend school board meetings all the time, that’s what gets them out to vote in every election. They think they’re doing “God’s work”. If you’re already going to church every week for God, how much harder is it to add a few meetings here and there? Particularly if there’s important members of the church who make a point of reminding everyone to get out and do these things. The Democrats don’t have nearly the same motivation. “Do it to stop the religious right” has far less impact on people. If you don’t already have the habit of Doing Things For This Reason, it’s much harder to develop the habit. How many Democrats have people like their church reverend telling them to get out a vote every election? There are organizations like BLM that are trying to build that motivation, but it’s an uphill battle in the middle of the overall uphill battle of trying to fight the Republicans. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/23 "2021-11-22T19:46:34Z")
> [@Velocity](#): > > Senators used to beat each other with canes. > > I’m not saying that’s right, but it’s not like we haven’t seen worse before. That happened a long time ago, it certainly didn’t happen that often, and it doesn’t take a vast amount of bravery and decisiveness for one to say that it is most assuredly _wrong_. I remember when the go-to answer when someone did something wrong _wasn’t_ “Someone else, somewhere else did something somewhat like that too!” ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/24 "2021-11-22T22:00:53Z")
I don’t think Rittenhouse can pass a clearance check … ---
**Author:** ![Drum\_God](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drum_god/32/44_2.png) [@Drum\_God](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drum_God)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/25 "2021-11-22T22:07:17Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Destroying voting rights for Others is about political power. Eliminating abortion is about religion. Political power is needed to achieve it, but that’s not the issue itself. No, the abortion issue is about power, too. The power is who gets to make the decisions. Maybe one’s religion says that abortion is wrong. Therefore, that person craves the power to apply his religious faith to everyone. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2021, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/26 "2021-11-22T22:20:35Z")
But that makes everything political power and then the term has no meaning and neither does voting on issues. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/27 "2021-11-23T01:41:10Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Eliminating abortion is about religion. No it’s just a wedge issue. Republicans amplified and pushed it because it wedges large sections of religious people off the Dems. Nominally anti-abortion policy making Republicans don’t actually care about it and would get their daughter an abortion in a heartbeat. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/28 "2021-11-23T02:39:36Z")
You mean like this? “We’ve got to get more confrontational. We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” … “I don’t think anything about curfew. Curfew means I want you all to stop talking. I want you to stop meeting. I want you to stop gathering. I don’t agree with that.” … “If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. People need to be more forceful, more confrontational, and more prepared to push back on this administration.” -Maxine Waters “There needs to be unrest in the streets for as long as there is unrest in our lives, and unfortunately there’s plenty to go around,” -Ayanna Pressley “I just don’t know why there aren’t uprisings all over the country, and maybe there will be.” -Nancy Pelosi “Michelle Obama always says, ‘When they go low, we go high, No. No. When they go low, we kick them.” -Eric Holder “Please, get up in the face of some congresspeople,” -Corey Booker “You can’t be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for and what you care for." -Hillary Clinton ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/29 "2021-11-23T02:50:42Z")
So it is o.k. for Congresscritters to openly advocate for violence? ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/30 "2021-11-23T03:11:33Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > The Democratic electorate isn’t interested in playing the long game, even though that seems to be the best strategy. The best strategy for what goal tho? For keeping political power, maybe. Is that what we want American politics to be about? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/31 "2021-11-23T03:24:48Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > No it’s just a wedge issue. Are we using different dictionaries? A wedge issue is an issue. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/32 "2021-11-23T03:28:42Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > So it is o.k. for Congresscritters to openly advocate for violence? No, I think they are all shitheads, including Gaetz and anynother Republicans saying inflammatory things. Politicians should be a calming force, not a source of incitement. I just added them for a little balance, lest anyone think that it’s only the right saying stupid shit. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/33 "2021-11-23T03:34:16Z")
That isn’t “balance”- that is just throwing a shitload of out of context quotes into the mix. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 4:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/34 "2021-11-23T04:40:20Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Are we using different dictionaries? A wedge issue is an issue. In some ways, yes we are. Above, you said: > [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The left also thinks of masking and vaccines as rational precautions to take in a pandemic. The right thinks of them as issues, and wants to elect governors and mayors and health commissioners who will defy mandates. > … > It’s issues all the way down. The left doesn’t see them that way so they can’t fight them politically. I’m not sure and maybe I’m misunderstanding you, but the distinction you are making seems built around the idea that (for example) advocating for rational precautions in a pandemic is _not_ seeing it as an “issue”. You seem to be using the term “issue” to mean “a reflexive political football” - if you advocate for something rationally, you aren’t seeing it as an “issue” (in the sense you are using the term). If I’m correct in my understanding then I see your position as internally consistent and I can see the point you are making about how Republicans operate. I suppose I was seeing an “issue” as being as something about which a political party cares substantively, as opposed to something they just say to get votes. And hence I wouldn’t see a (specifically) wedge issue like abortion as being about religion as much as about saying certain things to get power to push certain “real” issues about which a political party actually cares. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/35 "2021-11-23T06:30:49Z")
Wadda ya mean? Quotes from Republicans openly advocating for violence and quotes from Democrats not openly advocating for violence are exactly the same. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2021, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739/36 "2021-11-23T12:12:07Z")
I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a quote about violins in that mix. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/howd-we-get-to-the-point-where-members-of-congress-are-openly-advocating-violence/954739.md?page=1)