Stop it in Oklahoma before it spreads!
November 28th, 2007 by KathleenAll along we have been arguing that we must stop the kind of tactics being used against political activists in Oklahoma before they take root and spread elsewhere. Well, it looks like we had reason to worry.
A recent article by Seattle political journalist David Brewster suggests that maybe these kind of tactics could be used against Tim Eyman, a leading advocate of initiatives intended to keep Washington state politicians in check.
Is this what politics is coming to in the United States, that those in power can simply put their opponents in jail? The recent comparisons to Pakistan, North Korea, and Russia are getting more accurate all the time.
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November 28th, 2007 at 4:49 pm
Amen. There’s a lot at stake here, and plenty of people who would be happy to jail those with whom they disagree about politics.
You’re doing a good job educating the good-hearted people about what is at stake.
Thank you.
November 28th, 2007 at 6:38 pm
Brewster’s article is astonishingly cynical. He says nothing to contradict the perception that what’s happening in Oklahoma is a glaring travesty of justice. Yet Brewster simultaneously avers that Oklahoma Attorney General Edmondson’s antics constitute “one political ploy that may be worth borrowing…”
Paul Jacob, Susan Johnson, and Rick Carpenter are facing ten years in prison for…aiding and abetting democracy? And this kind of vicious assault on three innocent persons is worthy of emulation, per Brewster? Such is the sober conclusion produced by whatever passes for his political principles? I.e., squash one’s political opponents by any means necessary, no matter what damage it does to innocent persons or to the political rights of all of us?
How can such an approach to politics be defended? Of course it can’t be. And, notably, Brewster doesn’t bother to try. Nor to any of the readers who echo his sentiments.