Searchlight: In for the Kill

Photo: Jae C. Hong /AP. Mar 27 2010. Arizona.
Caption: Tea party supporters carry a sign as they walk along U.S. Highway 95 after the “Showdown in Searchlight” tea party rally.

This speaks to the fine line the Teabaggers are treading between protesting and advocating violence. Here, the hammer-and-sickle look enough like a symbol, rather than the letter “C,” to make the sign start out reading like a death threat. And because the media, at the start of this Congressional recess, is already fixated on these so-called “showdowns,” the public is likely to be inundated with this kind of conscious and unconscious Tea Party messaging for several weeks.