Melanie Hunter at CNS News reports Al Gore launched some hot rhetoric at the normally sedate Brookings Institution on Friday on the threat of a shutdown over Obamacare. " I think the only phrase that describes it is political terrorism." He spoke in an alleged Tea Party voice: "‘Nice global economy you got there. Be a shame if we’d have to destroy it. We have a list of demands. If you don’t meet ‘em all by our deadline, we’ll blow up the global economy." Then he said: "Really?:
No, not really. This isn't exactly burning through the liberal media. But my friend at Laurence Jarvik Online reports that Brookings was proud of this uncivil mess in an e-mail to supporters. This is a think tank the leftists think is way too moderate and part of the milquetoast establishment:
"Political Terrorism" was the term Gore used to refer to threats to shut down the government and default on the U.S. debt in his keynote address at this morning's event.
John Hudak highlighted Gore's words on the Center's new blog, FixGov, writing that they emphasized the importance of the Center's work to understand political dysfunction and create real reform.
So calling your opponents terrorists is the first step to "real reform"? It's not "political dysfunction"? Remember that Brookings is home to scholar Thomas Mann who alongside fake conservative Norman Ornstein has denounced the conservatives as the entire problem with American politics. This caused Jarvik to send Brookings an e-mail asking to be removed from its e-mail list:
Shame on Brookings for passing on Al Gore's uncivil remarks, without condemnation.
Does Brookings want to arrest "political terrorists" now? Call in drone strikes? This rhetoric is simply beyond the pale of civilized discourse, a slippery slope of political dehumanization of the opposition.
As you know, Vice President Al Gore and the Republic survived a shutdown in the Clinton administration very nicely. There were shutdowns in the Carter administration, as well. It is called the congressional power of the purse.
After reading this email, I no longer have confidence in Brookings' rationality, nor its commitment to civil political discourse.
Therefore, I do not wish to receive any further materials by email from Brookings.
There's more in Gore's remarks. Gore also put on his outraged voice and said: "Why does partisanship have anything to do with such a despicable and dishonorable threat to the integrity of the United States of America? It cannot be allowed. But it can only be stopped if people in both parties independents as well say, ‘look, I might not agree with everything that’s in the Affordable Care Act, but it did pass, it was upheld by the Supreme Court, it is the law of the land. You didn’t succeed in the constitutional process by which this was considered, and now you want to threaten to not only shut down our government, but blow up the world economy?....How dare you! How dare you!"
We'll try to refrain from thinking about the many die-hard Gore supporters who never accepted the 2000 election results this way -- hey, the Supreme Court affirmed it, you didn't succeed in the process, it's the law of the land. Question that, and you're despicable? Video below:
