Treason?

I was reading a comment at FiveThirtyEight.com and it struck me as being worth a separate post. Unfortunately, I don't know the real name of filistro (and a search didn't help), but this is what he said:

Just saw a clip from Michael Steele at the SRLC, saying nobody should be focused on him... they should all concentrate on stopping the Democrats and their un-American agenda.

Un-American agenda.

Why do they keep saying stuff like that? It fills me with cold, bitter rage... and I'm a nice person.

Policy differences, scandals, arguments about taxation and war, unfunded mandates and hypocrisy... all completely valid in the national debate. Necessary, even. But why must Republicans constantly accuse their opponents of TREASON?

The more these people appear in the media and spout their hateful garbage, the more they seal their doom as a viable political party.

This sort of thing fills me with rage, too, and I'm not so convinced it won't work for them. After all, this has been standard policy in the GOP, at least since Barack Obama started campaigning for the presidency. It's not enough that you simply disagree with Democrats? They actually have to be traitors?  Like Joseph Welch, I want to ask, "Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense  of decency?"

Un-American, anti-American, Nazi, socialist, fascist, Communist, terrorist, appeaser, traitor,... and remember the old lady during the campaign who was terrified that Obama was an Arab? It's really not funny. According to Glenn Beck, President Obama - whose mother was white - "hates white people." According to Sarah Palin, he wants to kill grandma. This is only a small sample of the invective regularly tossed around by Republicans. And have you heard the tea-baggers?

Democrats don't do this, not to this extent - and certainly not Democratic leaders. Many of us thought that George W. Bush was as dumb as a post and the worst president in U.S. history, but we never claimed that he meant to destroy America. He was just wrong. A lot of people came to hate the Bush administration, but we all gave him a chance when he was first elected. (There was an Impeach Obama group on Facebook months before he even took office.) And Democratic leaders were respectful of the office, at least. You didn't hear "You lie!" and "baby-killer" shouted in Congress.

But the really crazy thing about all this is that Republicans completely ignore secessionist statements, and threats of armed conflict, on the right. The Palins were involved with a secessionist group in Alaska, but that hasn't mattered to Sarah Palin's fans at all. Texas Governor Rick Perry has spoken favorably of seceding from the Union, too, and I've seen it on signs at Tea Party rallies. How is seceding from America supposed to be patriotic?

This sort of thing angered me in the Bush years, when the president opined that atheists might not be citizens and certainly weren't patriotic. I'm both, at least as much as any Republican, and at least as much as any Christian. And although it's hard to believe sometimes, I understand that the far-right is also trying to do what they think is right. They're wrong - horribly, dangerously, embarrassingly wrong - but they're not traitors.

Unless, of course, they support secession. That really is un-American.