Last weekend, Tea Parties throughout the country held Tax Day rallies to protest bloated government budgets, ever increasing debt, and the ballooning entitlement state. Some among the Left were not content to let the Tea Party own Tax Day.
In Arkansas, an anti-Tea Party rally dubbed “Make Them Pay” took place on the steps of the state capitol. Jim Lendall, a former state representative and 2010 Green Party Gubernatorial nominee, was applauded when he took the podium to call for the beheading of businessmen and conservatives.
The French, inspired by our American Revolution, knew how to deal with the wealthy arrogant aristocrats. The French people built guillotines. Maybe we can park a guillotine in front of every chamber of commerce, corporate headquarters, bank, investment house, and Republican Party headquarters to remind them that democracy is about people, not profits. We need to tell them in one clear voice, ‘No more greed.’
The video was picked up by Breitbart. Check it out. Note the amused approving smirks, the aloof comfort, and the eagerly offered applause.
The easy point to make, which Americans for Prosperity Arkansas does, is that Lendall’s call to violence higlights a double-standard. What if a similar comment were made at a Tea Party rally? There’s no doubt it would be a top story for days.
However, there’s a more instructive point to take away. Unlike Sarah Palin’s depiction of gun sights on a campaign map, this is not a political metaphor. Lendall references the French Revolution as a template for how the Left should proceed. At the very least, he suggests that the threat of violence is a legitimate political tactic.
"Off with their heads!"
Even more instructive is the “sin” which incurs Lendall’s wrath. Making a profit is, to his mind, a capital offense. Being productive, creating wealth, providing jobs and opportunities for others, all are heinous undertakings deserving of death.
You have to wonder what Lendall would prescribe as a next step, after beheading all the wealth creators. How do you run the world after you’ve “made them pay?”
Whatever Lendall’s answer, we can be assured of its nonsense. That’s because, unless he’s prepared to lie down and starve to death, Lendall and the leftist remnant of their New Reign of Terror would need to create and manage wealth, or conquer others to do it for them.
In any case, this moment highlights the tyrannical impulse which underlies leftist thought. They want to park a guillotine on your yard. We want to be left alone. By all means, bring on that argument.
