It’s so interesting to see the hand wringing these days about “extremism,” mostly from Democrats who have no better argument, and of course from their enablers in the media. Harry Reid writes a check for Obama to sign that total more than all the money spent in the first 212 years of our nation’s history, and (wrongly) tells our enemies he thinks we’ve lost a war while tens of thousands of troops are still fighting and dying, and Sharron Angle is the extremist? Sheesh.
Looking more locally, it’s clear there are some hard core extremists by any definition in the Democratic Party, and no one seems to be batting an eye.
Take Robert “Tuna” Townsend, running as a Democrat for Assembly District 25. (Please! yuk yuk…) He’s on a member of the local Democrat Central Committee, and endorsed by every major union in the state and beyond. (What does the UAW have to do with a local Nevada Assembly race?) He had no primary opponent. If you read his profile in the paper (print only over the weekend, or I’d link it), there’s nothing to indicate he’s anything outside of the mainstream of the American center left. The Reno Gazette Journal endorsed his opponent Pat Hickey, but called Townsend a “good candidate” who lost out mostly due to a lack of experience, as opposed to any specific stance on the issues.
But who is the real Tuna? Well, he himself tells us, and you don’t need to rely on out-of-context statements. Townsend has a Facebook page, generally accessible to the public (including RGJ reporters). A few months ago, he listed himself as “Liberal/Progressive Extremist,” although he’s changed that now to “Moderate Extremist,” whatever that means.
He does still have publicly accessible pictures of himself, and those pictures show that Mr. Townsend really, really doesn’t like capitalism. Now often that’s hyperbole, but not in this case. He’s an active, protesting member of the Reno Chapter of the Industrial Workers of the World, a quaint little organization which seeks to unionize everyone, “do away with capitalism,” and “abolish the wage system.” The IWW itself is long past its heyday when it was conducting violent protests in support of the Communist who were about to turn Russia into the Soviet Union, but they still march around celebrating the same day that North Korea and Cuba use to extol Communism, and for pretty much the same stated reasons. The IWW of Reno posted a little missive a few months ago, a copy of which “Tuna” maintains on his FB page, which proudly declares themselves to be against the “disasters that capitalism has inflicted upon humanity” and those dastardly online courses at the University of Phoenix.
His official issues page isn’t any better. His solution to unemployment is to open the borders and flood Nevada with cheap, foreign workers. He wants to simply wave the legislative wand and turn all of our power plants to solar, thinking this would save money. (Note to Townsend – if it’s easy and cheap, do it yourself and make some money while saving the planet. You wouldn’t need the government to do it if it was profitable. Don’t take my word for it, ask the Spaniards, who have already tried this and spectacularly failed.)
He thinks that ObamaCare doesn’t go far enough, and only represents “the beginning”. (Of what, who knows, but I’m not looking forward to seeing that price tag.) In this telling picture, he shows himself to be opposed to any private enterprise in medical care, which would guarantee a stagnation of research and development. And he thinks that the government should control political campaigns, as opposed to letting that First Amendment thing work how it was intended, with free people deciding for themselves which candidates they wish to fund.
And what’s missing is as telling as what’s there. He is silent as to the most pressing item on the coming Legislative session’s agenda – the 10 figure budget gap. How his policies will help small businesses, or any businesses, he does not say. (This, of course, makes sense once you realize he wants to “do away with capitalism.”) In his newspaper profile, he coyly says it might be time to start discussing “the ‘T’ word.”
Fortunately, Townsend has no real shot going to Carson City – this is a heavily GOP district, and this is a GOP year. And on top of that, Townsend makes the fatal mistake of being honest about what liberalism is really all about – State control over individuals and an end to free enterprise. But the fact that a guy can be on the ballot of a mainstream American party who so deeply either misunderstands or simply despises the foundational principles of the US says troublesome things about what that party is willing to tolerate under its banner. The fact that he can be called a “good candidate” by the area’s largest and most significant newspaper is even worse. And you have to wonder how many people will happily vote for him, while simultaneously shaking their heads at how “dangerous” and “extreme” they consider Sharron Angle to be.
There are “extremists” in every movement and every party. Who they are tends to depend on who you talk to, of course – extremism is a relative term. But if your baseline is American history and principles, you don’t get much more extreme than Robert “Tuna” Townsend.
Great post! Thank you for the background and information provided.
A reader send me an E-mail in response to this post remarking, “Sorry Orrin, bad timing to write a post about the “extremist” liberals on a day when video of a Rand Paul campaign coordinator STAMPING ON A WOMAN’S HEAD is all over the news.” The reader is a good friend and a good man, but he badly misses the mark here. It’s worth responding to, because it helps make the point of the original post even more starkly.
1. This is a post about philosophical extremism, not tactical extremism. The attacks on Sharron Angle (and other conservative candidates) is that their IDEAS are extreme and dangerous. My point here is not that ideological extremism is unique to Democrats, but that it is excused and ignored in a way that far LESS “extreme” ideas on the right are, which when you boil them down are usually pretty mainstream. (Live within our means?!? How EXTREME!!!) If Pat Hickey or any other Republican was actively extolling a political philosophy (or the very close cousin of one) which has been responsible for 100,000,000 or so murders in the last century, or in its less virulent forms economic collapse and rioting in the streets, he would be called on it, and rightfully so. When Tuna Townsend or other candidates on the left do it, he is a “good candidate” who “lacks experience.” I find this bizarre.
2. The response is a complete non-sequiter. I don’t deny that extremists exist “in every movement and every party” – I say it outright. Is there a denial that Townsend is extreme? Is there a denial of the double standard?
3. So far, the actual and/or threatened physical violence in the current political climate has been almost exclusively on the left, and therefore generally ignored. Kenneth Gladney was beaten up by union thugs at an early tea party rally last year, Bobby Jindal staffers had their bones broken, the Justice Department dismissed a pending conviction against racially motivated voter intimidation, and just yesterday the President himself openly and casually referred to his political opposition as his “enemies.” That’s just for starters.
But the point is not to excuse bad behavior with other bad behavior, but rather to point out the difference in the reaction to these things. I doubt my friend was wringing his hands over Gladney, if in fact he knew before today who he was. Sadly, everyone from the mainstream media to Democrat-sympathetic prosecutors have maintained a similar double standard in those cases.
4. Look at how Rand Paul reacted to this versus how the SEIU reacted to the Gladney beating. I don’t hold politicians or organizations accountable for what one or two rogue supporters do, but I WILL hold them accountable for how they REACT to their supporter’s bad acts.
Paul made no excuses and did not care about “explanations,” but rather immediately and correctly fired the stomper and banned him from all future events. The stomper has already been charged and summonsed, and I hope and expect him to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law and to join the above rogue’s gallery of anti-democratic activity in eternal shame and disgrace.
The SEIU beating of Gladney was far more violent and prolonged – Gladney ended up in a wheelchair. It also included several racial taunts. The SEIU itself did not disavow the behavior, but rather issued a statement denying the event took place, claiming to be the victims of the attack if there was an attack at all, and then tossing on a worn out anti-gay sexual slur just to show how classy and tolerant union thugs really can be. They paid the legal fees of the beaters while at first denying they were associated in any way with the SEIU. Then they trotted out the head of the NAACP to suggest that Gladney had it coming because he was a race traitor and an Uncle Tom – one of the vilest and most nakedly racist lines of attack imaginable. In spite of police being on scene almost immediately, the beaters were not charged for months, were only charged with misdemeanors instead of the Battery Causing Substantial Bodily Harm, and only after public outcry made it politically untenable not to do so. Even after this tacit endorsement of these types of tactics by the national SEIU, that organization continues to enjoy broad access to the White House and the Democratic party, and indeed is one of the Democrats’ primary beneficiaries. (The SEIU has even endorsed Tuna himself!) Certainly, no major Democrat is rebuffing them.
If one wants to compare actual extremism on the left and the right, philosophical, tactical, or criminal, I’ll match you incident for incident and will keep going when you run out of Huffington Post articles to cite. But when it comes to the reaction and attention paid to these events, no serious person can deny the gross, blatant, and ultimately dangerous double standard applied by the media and those on the left to these types of events.
we have to fear the far right more than the far left. When you hear about a person shooting a cop or “Muslim” you picture a right winger who’s had enough of authority and “terrorists”. The radical right are known to be angry at the country for “taking away their rights as Americans”. Also the number of hate groups has risen tremendously since Obama came into office (NPR).