Smelling Blood: Health Care Debates and The Picture of Terrorism

“If you look at the YouTube video, you can barely see in the edge of that a beautiful marble tombstone with my name on it,” Doggett said. “People that worked so hard to get their signs in full-color did not come to dialogue. They came to be destructive.” (via DDay/Hullabaloo)

I assume many of you saw at least a cropped version of this photo featuring the poster of Congressman Doggett with devil horns.

Searching around, I came across a right wing YouTube site with a larger, wider look at last weekend’s protest. With benefit of the angle, we get a sweeping view of how the wingnuts — exploiting the health care “debate”– are taking to not just demonizing, but terrorizing Congress-people. I’m not just talking about the SS sign to the left, however, and the reality the wackos are feeling no hesitation in framing Democrats as Nazis.

The more troubling expression is the lesser-noticed sign just to the left of the stick holding up the “Don’t Tread On Me” flag. It sports a photo of the Congressman with a red circle around his head and a red “X” canceling out his face. With reports of increasingly tense and confrontational townhall gatherings yesterday (1, 2), these incidents confirm those warning signs that what many of these people are looking for is to draw blood.

(screenshot from dropdoggett)