Does Sen. Jim DeMint’s Rhetoric Against Government Workers Make them Targets for Extremists?
February 19th, 2010 | Ron Moore
Government workers witnessed a scene yesterday horrifically reminiscent of the Oklahoma City terrorist attack the last time a Democrat occupied the White House. A suicide attack was launched in Austin, Texas by a man who chose to assault government workers as an expression of his rage against government policies. While it is easy to see this as an act of a deranged individual, it is not unreasonable to consider the role rhetoric against government workers plays in fueling this rage.
When Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) sees a government worker in uniform such as a TSA Officer or U.S. Capitol Police Officer he sees a potential threat. These officers, sworn to protect and serve are potential ‘union bosses’ in his mind and may use the right to collectively bargain as a tool to control security.
TSA officers continue to organize as they serve the American people while they await the fulfillment of President Barack Obama’s promise to permit them collective bargaining rights. Sen. DeMint successfully obstructed the confirmation of Errol Souther as TSA Administrator saying the appointee “has not been forthcoming about whether he’ll give union bosses control of our airport security, which is one of the most important decisions he’ll make as head of the TSA.” While Sen. DeMint may not realize that ‘union bosses’ come out of the workforce and are elected unlike corporate bosses, the recent Supreme Court decision provides millions of reasons to continue to oppose the right to organize.
But what if this rhetoric suggesting that government workers are a threat if they organize puts these workers in danger from anti-government extremists? Terms such as ‘bureaucrats’ are used to dehumanize those who serve the America people each day. It is this dehumanizing rhetoric that makes it easier to morph the person into the policy. Thus an attack on the person becomes an attack on the policy and can be justified in the mind of a terrorist. Sen. DeMint is presumably opposing TSA collective bargaining rights as a fundraising tactic (although he is protected by officers with those rights).
Yesterday that tactic, that hate speech against government workers may have contributed to a tragedy in Austin.
This article originally appeared in the Washington DC Examiner on February 19, 2010. Reprinted with permission.
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Tags: collective bargaining, President Obama, Ron Moore, Sen. Jim DeMint, TSA, union
February 20th, 2010 at 3:26 pm
Ron:
You live in a differnet world than I do.
The poor bastard in Austin was deranged. Do you really think that DeMint had any impact on him. He has been fighting the IRS for years. I do it every day in my buisness. They are the perfect faceless bureacrats. They will lie and cheat to obtain their ends. I know I have watched them do it. I have caught them doing it. I have caught them breaking their own regulations to collect more money.
Not all IRS people are terrible but the collections people that are so often the tip of a very painful and large spear are no differnet than any other collection agency. They din’t care about whether you owe money or not, they don’t determine that. They are there to collect regardless of your needs, circumstances or the fact that you really don’t owe what they are collecting. Embarrass them in public and they will stab you in the back to get even.
After years of dealing with scum like that you think the pilot was really sane anymore?
Next point. Do you really think that union bosses are rank and file? Ever heaar of the Teamsters. Garbage collections in NYC. The UAW. These “union bosses” may have started as rank and file lets ask Jimmy Hoffa or his son Jimmy who now runs the Teamsters. Rank and file, not likely. No more than career politicians are average Americans either.
The investigations of corruption and mob involvement go back before either one of us were born. How come the unions ended up with a part of Chrysler and the legitimate owners of bonds that had first call on assets got zip. Because the unions use political power they buy with the rank and file dues to influence elections for the Democrats.
Yah, you live in a differt world. Blue Earth or somewhere.