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Politicians fear for safety as threats against Congress UP
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 1:16 pm
by bignflnut
This is the new normal for members of Congress. One year after the horrific congressional baseball shooting that almost took the life of Rep. Steve Scalise and former Hill staffer Matt Mika, members are keenly aware that serving in public office has put a target on their backs.
“The true reality is if somebody wanted to do me harm, they could probably do that with relative ease and that is sad,” said Rep. Chuck Fleishmann (R-Tenn.), a New York City native.
The threats against them have skyrocketed.
In 2016, there were 902 threatening incidents and communications against members of Congress. By 2017, the reports had more than doubled to about 2,000, according to the House Sergeant at Arms office.
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Jefferson's comment in an 1825 letter to William Short: "Some are whigs, liberals, democrats, call them what you please. Others are tories, serviles, aristocrats, &c. The latter fear the people, and wish to transfer all power to the higher classes of society; the former consider the people as the safest depository of power in the last resort; they cherish them therefore, and wish to leave in them all the powers to the exercise of which they are competent."5 To date, however, the most likely source of this quotation appears to be a series of debates on socialism published in 1914, in which John Basil Barnhill said, "Where the people fear the government you have tyranny. Where the government fears the people you have liberty."
We shall see.
Re: Politicians fear for safety as threats against Congress
Posted: Tue Jun 12, 2018 2:38 pm
by WY_Not
Zero sympathy. Honor your oath, follow and obey the Constitution, and quit doing things that {inappropriate language} off the People. Not that complicated.
Re: Politicians fear for safety as threats against Congress
Posted: Wed Jun 13, 2018 7:38 pm
by WestonDon
WY_Not wrote:Zero sympathy. Honor your oath, follow and obey the Constitution, and quit doing things that {inappropriate language} off the People. Not that complicated.
I agree with the principle behind this sentiment. Trouble is a substantial portion of we the people are {inappropriate language} heads who are {inappropriate language} off at the wrong things for all the wrong reasons.
Re: Politicians fear for safety as threats against Congress
Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 6:59 am
by Mustang380gal
WY_Not wrote:Zero sympathy. Honor your oath, follow and obey the Constitution, and quit doing things that {inappropriate language} off the People. Not that complicated.
No quarrel with this at all. However, the proper remedy is not physical harm to the blackguards. It is to VOTE THEM OUT. There ought to be a way for state legislatures to remove representatives that act against the states and the people, too.
We should never have let senators be directly elected.
Sadly, the voters seem to want reps that act like an ATM rather than reps that protect our liberty.
Re: Politicians fear for safety as threats against Congress
Posted: Thu Jun 14, 2018 7:03 am
by WY_Not
Oh I agree absolutely. Didn't think I implied physical harm in any way. Vote them out. Quit voting for the lesser of two evils.
Mustang380gal wrote:No quarrel with this at all. However, the proper remedy is not physical harm to the blackguards. It is to VOTE THEM OUT. There ought to be a way for state legislatures to remove representatives that act against the states and the people, too.
Yep. It was set up the way it was originally for a reason. When both houses are elected directly then there is no reason to have two houses. One house to represent the People, one to represent the States.
Mustang380gal wrote:We should never have let senators be directly elected.
Yep. Hopefully the producers will shrug sooner rather than later.
Mustang380gal wrote:Sadly, the voters seem to want reps that act like an ATM rather than reps that protect our liberty.