By ballot or bullet

(Newscom/Zuma Press via TPM)

From Texas - why am I not surprised? - comes this report of another lunatic Republican:

Republican congressional candidate Stephen Broden stunned his party Thursday, saying he would not rule out violent overthrow of the government if elections did not produce a change in leadership.

In a rambling exchange during a TV interview, Broden, a South Dallas pastor, said a violent uprising "is not the first option," but it is "on the table." That drew a quick denunciation from the head of the Dallas County GOP, who called the remarks "inappropriate."

Of course the Republican Party distanced itself from its own Congressional candidate. But why did they call the comments "inappropriate"? After all, we've seen this kind of thing again and again, from signs held at Tea Party rallies, like the photo above, to Sarah Palin targeting opponents with crosshairs and calling on her supporters to "reload." And what do you think taking assault rifles to political rallies was all about?

The threat has been clear. If they can't win by majority vote, they'll use violence. Of course, this is only from the lunatic fringe, but the lunatic fringe is the GOP these days. I'm not saying the majority of Republicans would support violent insurrection, not at all. But they do wink at these kinds of threats. And their rhetoric about Barack Obama in particular seems deliberately designed to provoke violence while still preserving plausible deniability.

The only reason the Dallas GOP objected to that statement is because it wasn't subtle enough.