America is no longer a democracy. It is now a tyranny of the heavily armed. That is Barbara Ehrenreich’s claim in today’s Los Angeles Times. Along with her colleague Frances Fox Piven, Ehrenreich is an Honorary Chair of the Democratic Socialists of America. In today’s Op-Ed, Ehrenreich does her best to pretty up Piven’s call for rioting in America, while painting conservatives as gun-mad assassins.
I sense that the left is now running scared. The Nation erred in allowing Piven to call openly in its name for rioting in America. They’re likely even more worried now about damage to the Nation’s reputation than they are determined to silence conservatives. But at this point, they probably figure the best defense is an aggressive offense. Ehrenreich’s wild Op-Ed is the result. Here you will read what the Nation crowd really thinks of America.
now is the time to press them hard ... they are ready to collapse ... their ideas are failures, their policies are failures ... they have nothing in the tank ...
now is the time to destroy current progressive liberalism forever ... it cannot survive in the real world and should be relegated to the dustbin of history ...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAs the Instapundit reminds us every time he posts on this, 3 people were murdered in this rioting:
Witnesses said hooded protesters smashed the front window of Marfin Bank in central Athens and hurled a Molotov cocktail inside. The three victims died from asphyxiation from smoke inhalation, the Athens coroner’s office said.
I suspect I'm not the only one assuming there's a reason Piven chose to use this particular example.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's a good thing for the left that only a small number of Americans will read this self-defeating dreck.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt must be so frustrating when the proletariat won't answer the call to revolution. What the american proletariat needs is a "vanguard" to act in its best interest. I am sure "Ehren Reich" is willing to fill that role.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseAccording to Ehrenreich's LA Times article, Piven was only supporting the rights of unemployed "to organize a protest at the local unemployment office." No mention of riots there.
Thanks for getting to the bottom of Ehrenreich's somewhat biased perspective.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMan, I just wish for a year where we are as powerful and competent as the Left claims. Imagine how cool that would be. Dick Cheney sitting atop the Haliburton Hurricane Machine destroying unused government buildings while Paul Ryan roves around DC handing out pink slips to fired government hacks. The Supreme Court has an extended session to invalidate fifty years of liberal jurisprudence...
I better stop now. I'm getting giddy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDon't ever forget that the chameleon-like Obama is one of this crowd.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHad me worried for a moment.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBut it's only California, where hysteria (at this specific moment: literally) is the normal pitch.
Funny how Republicans are gun mad assassins, yet every single dangerous neighborhood in America is overwhelmingly composed of Democrats.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse_That op ed was a waste of a few minutes....
So non-violent=wuss??
But armed to the teeth and non-violent is extra bad??
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI have come to the conclusion that the individual posting as Reagan's Soldier is a lefty, posting ridiculous comments so the left-wing blogs can point to them and say "Hey look! Those right-wingnuts really are fascists!"
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe Nation can "call... for the overthrow of the Free Market" all it wants. We have, after all, some measure of free speech in this country. But actions have consequences, and the Nation, Ehrenreich, and Piven would do well to remember that.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy previous comment was a response to a post that seems to have been removed. Sorry for any confusion.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseDorsaiGuy:
From your name I would think you are perhaps conversant with "The Tactics of Mistake"?
2 years ago they were convinced they had won it all and could do what they liked. I think they have juuuuust about enough rope....
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLeft and right have their share of kooks at the fringes but the Internet alt-media makes it hard to relegate them to obscurity. Seems to me that Piven, Ehrenreich, and the American Sociological Association are demonstrating those kooks on the leftist fringe are aren’t really so far from the mainstream left, and also not few in number. That’s why they have to attack and divert; they can’t throw Piven under the proverbial bus.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis op ed deserves the widest distribution possible. Ehrenreich's open and unvarnished contempt for the poor is the real face of the left.
Note to Aaron Sorkin: That is the kind of elitism that is under fire in this nation today, not the elitism that comes from earned success.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMy gosh. I clicked through to the article thinking it couldn't be as moonbatty as everyone was saying. I was soooo wrong! This woman actually thinks that the only people who could possibly be hurt by violent rioting would be bankers and other assorted (in her view) demons. (The logical conclusion of which is that those three Greek people who died in the fire were asking for it by being in a bank.) Then she proceeds to cite all manner of nonviolent protests, and with a straight face complain that we don't have protests like that any more and ask how Americans "lost their grassroots political mojo". She evidently can't see the Tea Party rallies that she believes are the cause of all evil, evil being a vague and enormous concoction mostly comprised of Rush Limbaugh, guns, anti-depressants, and inappropriate generalizations. Barbara Ehrenreich, call me back when you've got a serious argument.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseBarbara Ehrenreich is correct. The US is a tyranny of the heavily armed, just like every functioning government or rulership everywhere at any point, for all time. The US is simply one of the only nations to formally acknowledge that reality and secure its force (and therefore power) with the people.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWell, the government is more heavily armed then the populace.
Maybe that's what she meant...
heh...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseTO: All
RE: Don't You Just LOVE IT....
....when a 'Plan' comes together?
These people, e.g., Democratic {nudge-nudge, wink-wink} 'Socialists'—talk about redundancy— elected this character to the Oval Office and NOW that their 'fair-haired boy' has put so more people on the streets than anything since the Great Depression, they're calling for riots to tear down what is left of US.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse[The Truth will out....if anyone cares to see it.]