Shoot the Messenger Politics Must End For America's Best Interest

Have you noticed the war against the average man standing up for their Republic, for their Constitution, for the America envisioned by the founders? All throughout the United States since the rise of the Tea Party over the past two years, there is a shoot the messenger mentality that both journalists and politicians are using to silence the messenger.

The first example of this that I noticed was Susan Rosegen at the Chicago Tea Party. Do you remember how she insulted Norm the Tea Party guy for speaking up against the federal government's big spending?



Of course the Tea Party is full of other stories just like Norm the Tea Party guy--average citizens who stood up only for journalists to attempt to shoot down. The media went out of their way in hopes of finding us "radical" Tea Party types that were simply standing up for the Constitution in hopes they could discredit us with a vicious brand of journalism best exhibited by Rosegen above.

It doesn't stop there. It's obvious most of the Democrats don't like the Tea Parties. This isn't any big surprise since it was Obama's stimulus and plans for more big spending that really lit the Tea Party fuse. It's obvious the Republicans don't like the Tea Party either, and they went out of their way last week before and after the State of the Union to attack one of their own, Michele Bachmann, who delivered a speech to the Tea Party after Obama's SOTU.

I have praised Utah Congressman Jason Chaffetz many times on this blog. I am not sure I can do so anymore. Chaffetz showed his establishment stripes last week attacking Bachmann for speaking to the Tea Parties in another act of shoot the messenger.

"But I thought it was bad form to try to upend Paul Ryan during a time we are trying to focus on one cohesive message.”

Was that the truth? Bachmann never billed the speech as an alternative to Paul Ryan's response to the SOTU. She was having a conversation with the Tea Party after the State of the Union. That's it, and yet Chaffetz and many other Republicans began shooting the messenger almost immediately misrepresenting Bachmann's attention.

Now we know bloggers around the country are being investigated after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting simply because they have criticized their Congressman. Make no mistake here. These efforts against bloggers are nothing than an attempt to shoot the messenger. Take for instance Republican Billy Long. Multiple bloggers have seen through his rhetoric, which includes Tea Party rhetoric. Yet Long quickly proved himself to be establishment even before getting to Washington. Just two days after the Giffords shooting, Long began having bloggers, who never threatened Long with anything but their keyboards that exposed him as a political hypocrite, investigated by the FBI.



Shoot the messenger politics is an attack against the First Amendment. Make no mistake. It's a form of intimidation to get someone engaged in political free speech to shut up. It's being used by the media. It's being used by politicians. It's being used by pundits, political consultants, and political supporters (supporters who claim they support the Constitution yet sacrifice their beliefs in support of their candidate). Shoot the messenger is not in the best interest of America and her political debate. It must be exposed and ended or people will become intimidated even before they begin to speak up.