Politics of Hate

Sadly, many people do not simply express opinions. They move beyond that to hateful attacks and comments. Conservative blogger Victoria Watson of www.DifferentWorld.us discovered this when she was accused of being a Nazi for her positions, resulting in a buzz of comments on her site. Although Watson doesn't engage in or approve of hate speech, in mind if she's hit a nerve in far-left extremists she's getting her conservative message out.

Hate speech is not limited to bloggers, though. Even party leaders engage in the practice. For instance, liberal commentator James Carville emailed the membership of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, featuring the subject line, "Reptiles". He also called tea party members, "Fire-breathing tea party nut jobs" and "nut jobs on the right-wing lunatic fringe." The issue occurs in both parties. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has long been criticized for harsh comments about liberals.

The left accused President George W. Bush of deliberately distorting the facts about Iraq for personal reasons without regard for the lives that would be lost. Today the far right accuses President Barak Obama as ineligible to hold the office, claiming he was born in Kenya. Oddly, extremists on both sides of the spectrum fall into the group known as "9-11 Truthers". These individuals believe that the United States government was responsible for the terrorist attacks on 9-11.

The name calling game provides many media outlets with a significant amount of material for their outlets. Rather than doing their jobs and reporting the facts of events, media "professionals" create stories based on this childish behavior. This publicizing of vile rhetoric only aggravates the issues.

The Founding Father's designed a nation where open disagreement was not only allowed, but encouraged. How unfortunate that so many people use the gift of freedom of speech as a means to spew venomous attacks.