The New Civility ...

[Jolly]

Lock 'em up!

[George K]

President Biden says harassing people in the bathroom is "Part of the process."

[Jolly]

[George K]

https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/10/chasing-kyrsten-sinema-into-a-bathroom-is-not-normal/

The condemnation was . . . well, non-existent. Reporting on the incident, Newsweek led with the fact that, as of last night, the video had “been viewed 4 million times on social media.” At the Washington Post, the key takeaway was that “frustration over Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s refusal to fall in line with other Senate Democrats and pass legislation central to President Biden’s agenda” had “boiled over.” On Twitter, meanwhile, the Daily Beast contended merely that Sinema had “locked herself in [the] bathroom to avoid young activists.”

Which isn’t really the story here, is it? The unusual feature of Sinema’s visit to the toilet was not that she “locked” the door while she used the facilities, but that she was pursued by a rabble of agitators wielding camera-phones and speaking in declarative slogans. Where I come from, “avoiding” others while using the lavatory is standard procedure. Being followed into the lavatory by angry crowds is not.

One imagines that this might be more obvious if the politics were slightly different. If, instead of a left-winger berating a moderate Democrat in the loo, a right-winger had berated a moderate Republican, it would have been the biggest news of the year. Within minutes, the occurrence would have had a name — the “Arizona Attack,” perhaps. Within a day, it would have been deemed to be representative of everything that was wrong with the American Right — and with the United States itself. Within a week, we would have been drowning in breathless TV segments, tendentious op-eds, and mawkish lectures about the sanctity of democracy in America.

I can hear the rhetoric now. Change a handful of inconvenient details, and this incident would be cast as an attack on “women,” on “the LGBT community,” and on “our democracy itself.” Put the motivating criticisms in the mouth of Tucker Carlson, instead of Chris Hayes, and the episode would be widely held as “the logical endpoint of the climate of hatred that has been whipped up.” Attribute the passion to a MAGA type instead of a progressive, and it would be said to “evoke the painful memories of January 6.” Noting the event, the Washington Post concluded that it was “representative of the dissatisfaction that many Arizona Democrats — and Democrats across the country — have voiced over Sinema’s resistance toward the reconciliation bill.” Is there anyone alive who believes that the Post would have been this sanguine if the roles had been reversed?

Throughout the Trump years, journalists who claimed that they were concerned with the maintenance of political decorum took to intoning “This. Is. Not Normal” whenever news of a fresh departure crossed the transom. Today, with Trump out office and the Democratic Party fully in charge of D.C., we are watching as progressive activists corner senators in their commodes, surround legislators’ boats with kayaks, and organize the harassment of sitting Supreme Court justices. Did they mean it? Or did they just want the space cleared for themselves?

[Mik]

[George K]

[George K]

LOL

[LuFins Dad]

This is anti-bullying month. Seriously.

[LuFins Dad]

It’s almost like somebody told them to “get in their faces”

[George K]

@lufins-dad said in The New Civility ...:

It’s almost like somebody told them to “get in their faces”

Steve Doocey asked Psaki, "Has anyone ever chased the president into a bathroom?"

She deflected, of course.

[taiwan_girl]

It is very sad that no matte what one side says, the other side has to say the opposite.

[George K]

‘We’re going to make her life unpleasant’:

Our Revolution, the Bernie Sanders-inspired grassroots group, is joining Arizona union leaders, educators and other grassroots activists for a series of demonstrations outside of her Phoenix and Tucson offices over the next several days, according to a strategy outline first shared with POLITICO.

The planned demonstrations mark the next phase of an aggressive approach activists have taken to turn up the heat on Sinema, who has been a hold-out on the massive domestic spending plan that’s at the heart of Biden’s economic agenda.

Last week, the in-your-face tactic came to head when protesters followed Sinema into a bathroom and filmed her. On Monday, they followed her to Boston where she was to compete in the marathon before a foot injury kept her from participating.

Hopefully it will not be so unpleasant that a Bernie-Bro shoots her, requiring her to get a colostomy.

[Jolly]

If I was a pol, seems like these tactics would piss me off, not persuade me.

[Jolly]

Secondly...Time to issue a Secret Service detail to Senators or Congressmen upon request?

[George K]

The Washington Post is apoplectic that people don't like some politicians.

During the 2020 presidential campaign, one of Biden’s political superpowers was his sheer inoffensiveness, the way he often managed to embody — even to those who didn’t like him — the innocuous grandfather, the bumbling uncle, the leader who could make America calm, steady, even boring again after four years of Donald Trump.

But it’s clear that after nine months in office, Biden — or at least what he represents — is increasingly becoming an object of hatred to many Trump supporters.

Yet the anger also demonstrates how a political party or cause often needs an enemy, a target of vilification that can unite its adherents — and, in this case, one refracted through the harshness, norm-breaking and vulgarity of the Trump era.

Sigh...longing for the good old days of non-vulgarity.

[Horace]

@george-k said in The New Civility ...:

harshness, norm-breaking and vulgarity of the Trump era.

In order to make political progress, norms must sometimes be broken. A sad fact of politics that progressives would understand, if any of them had grown up in a culture in which their preferences weren't already mainstream.

[George K]

@horace said in The New Civility ...:

norms must sometimes be broken

Fucking Teabaggers.

Wait, who said that?

Yeah, President Obama.

Conservatives are pouncing on President Obama for using what they say is a pejorative expression for the Tea Party movement.

In a new book by Jonathan Alter, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Mr. Obama is quoted as saying that House Republicans' unanimous vote against the stimulus package "helped to create the tea-baggers and empowered that whole wing of the Republican Party to where it now controls the agenda for the Republicans."

Yeah, conservatives "pounced." What could be worse, "seizing?"

[LuFins Dad]

The new normal. https://nypost.com/2021/10/28/terry-mcauliffes-daughter-flips-off-rival-glenn-youngkins-signs/

Really it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s sad that it’s no big deal.

Edit to add the F Joe a Biden stuff is sad as well.

[Doctor Phibes]

@lufins-dad said in The New Civility ...:

The new normal. https://nypost.com/2021/10/28/terry-mcauliffes-daughter-flips-off-rival-glenn-youngkins-signs/

Really it’s not that big of a deal, but it’s sad that it’s no big deal.

Edit to add the F Joe a Biden stuff is sad as well.

Ted Cruz said one of the Brandon chant-alongs was the funniest thing he'd ever seen. And bear in mind that guy looks at himself naked in the mirror at least once a week.

[George K]

Arizona bride, mom plead with progressive anti-Sinema protesters to stop 'ruining' wedding

An Arizona bride and her mother pleaded with protesters outside of a wedding that Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., officiated last weekend to stop disrupting the event, according to video of the demonstrators.

Sinema was officiating the wedding for her personal friend, according to Tucson.com, when protesters arrived outside the venue, chanting and carrying signs that read phrases including, "Sinema Betrays Democrats" and, "We voted for you — shouldn't you vote for us?" as seen in a video of the event posted to YouTube on Oct. 24

t one point, a woman who appears to be the bride confronts the demonstrators.

"Thanks for ruining my wedding. I really appreciate it," she can be heard saying sarcastically in the video. "It's just my wedding. I really wish I could enjoy my wedding without you ruining it."

A protester responds, "I know you do."

"It's my daughter's wedding. Just for an hour — just let her get married, please. This person is not my daughter," she can be heard telling demonstrators, referring to Sinema. The woman appears to plead with protesters to leave for an hour during the ceremony; some demonstrators agree to protest in silence, though one man continues to yell toward the venue.

Link to video