That’s Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds, commenting this evening on Bill Clinton’s attacks on conservatives over the past week. Clinton has been attempting to demonize and marginalize those who attended Tea Parties and who have rejected Obama’s Progressive transformation of America. Clinton’s lectures are straight out of Saul Alinksky’s “Rules for Radicals.” They’re part of the most recent campaign by the Left to intimidate and alienate Americans who object to the hijacking of our freedoms.
Professor Reynolds linked to a scathing essay by Radley Balko, “Government, Violence, and Bill Clinton”:
In today’s New York Times, Bill Clinton once again tries to tie the Oklahoma City bombing to those of us who hold “the belief that the greatest threat to American freedom is our government, and that public servants do not protect our freedoms, but abuse them.”
Of course he sort of proves those of us who do believe such things right by continually using April 19 to tie us to a deranged murderer instead of acknowledging, taking some responsibility for, or expressing any remorse whatsoever for another anniversary we observe today: the Clinton administration’s slaughter of 76 people, including 20 children, at the Branch Davidian compound in Waco. Waco gets all of a sentence in Clinton’s op-ed…
…I don’t think Clinton is calling for censorship of people who, as he puts it, “demoniz[e] the government that guarantees our freedoms and the public servants who enforce our laws.” But I do think he’s trying to marginalize those of us who criticize the government—to shunt us to the fringe. And he’s laying groundwork so that the next time some idiot flies a plane into an IRS building, or some madman opens fire on a couple of cops, he can move the ball a bit more toward pinning the bodies on those of us who dare to criticize the now insurmountable federal deficit, the mass looting of the taxpayers that is the public pension system, or the panoply of drug war, criminal justice, and police militarization abuses you read about on this site—to rattle off just a few examples.
I’ve never really felt the need to distance myself from people like Tim McVeigh or Joseph Stack because I’ve never felt any affinity or kinship with them…
Our day began with Ann Althouse’s article, “Why is Bill Clinton suddenly making such a spectacle of himself over the Tea Party?”:
…There was nothing partisan about who lived and died in the Oklahoma City bombing. Children — individuals who never thought about politics — died that day. Yet here is Bill Clinton using his special prominence today to unleash a political attack to push back a populist movement that threatens his political party.
Michelle Malkin also wrote today of Clinton’s personal connection to historic events on this date, “Oklahoma City, Waco, and crisis exploitation”:
Today marks the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. The Oklahoma City National Memorial is here. 168 of our fellow Americans died in this evil act of terrorism. Take a moment to learn about their lives here.
Today is also the 17th anniversary of the deadly siege at Waco. After a 51-day standoff with the feds, 76 Americans (including 17 children) perished. It, too, was a shameful act of violence.
But one anniversary will get more attention the other today because the establishment Left isn’t interested in sober reflection. And Bill Clinton certainly isn’t interested in taking responsibility for horrors under his watch that do not fit the conservatives=violent extremists narrative…
Ms. Malkin quotes authors David B. Kopel and Paul H. Blackman (“No More Wacos: What’s Wrong with Federal Law Enforcement and How to Fix It”):
As Kopel and Blackman show, the investigation of the Branch Davidians by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, the BATF’s February 1993 raid on Mount Carmel, the 51-day FBI siege, the April 19 assault that led to the final fire, the trial of the survivors, and the subsequent explanations can all be understood in terms of prevalent prejudices and familiar failings. Hostility toward private gun ownership and unconventional religions played an important role in the government’s actions against the Davidians and in the public’s indifference to their fate…
At the same time, to blame the deaths of 86 men, women, and children (including four BATF agents) on a series of errors does not do justice to the government’s conduct at Waco, which rose at least to the level of negligent homicide, or to the cowardly cover-up that followed. And to blame the dead themselves is audacious, since all would be alive today but for the government’s gratuitous use of force…
Timothy McVeigh cited the Ruby Ridge and Waco incidents as motivation for the Oklahoma City bombing of April 19, 1995.
Smoke from second floor bedroom at Mount Carmel increases and spreads across back of building, 19 April 1993.
We close with this from Balko’s essay:
…The really mendacious thing about the crap Clinton spews at about this time every year is that unlike the tortured nexus he tries to build between government critics and Timothy McVeigh, his responsibility for the charred bodies at Waco is pretty damned easy to chart. He gets to gloss over all of that now…
Do not sit down. Do not shut up.
