I wrote earlier about how right-wing hate rhetoric has consequences. Since that time, teabaggers got together (some comparing Obama to Hitler) and the hate rhetoric was elevated.

Much like how the tea parties were nothing more than AstroTurf, much of this rhetoric is shaped and propagated by organized groups. In this case, the Republican party.

“Rhetorically, Republicans are having a very hard time finding something that raises the consciousness of the average voter,” said Saul Anuzis, a former chairman of the Michigan Republican Party who recently lost a bid to became national party chairman...

...So Mr. Anuzis has turned to provocation with a purpose. He calls the president’s domestic agenda “economic fascism.”

“We’ve so overused the word ‘socialism’ that it no longer has the negative connotation it had 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago,” Mr. Anuzis said. “Fascism — everybody still thinks that’s a bad thing.”

So Mr. Anuzis admits that they tried to smear Obama with the Socialist tag but unfortunately for him many don't fear or hate Socialism anymore, so instead they cooked up a new smear: fascism. The smear has as much verisimilitude as the Socialist one did (Obama is not a Socialist...at all) and is used simply for rhetoric to "raise the consciousness of the average voter".

What happens when you "raise the consciousness of the average voter" with fear rhetoric? Bad things, Mr. Anuzis. Bad things.

Look at how right-wing rhetoric affected Richard Poplawski:

It would be easy for us to cordon Poplawski off, pretend that his ugly and paranoid worldview had nothing to do with the Obama hatred spouted by the American right. But the truth is that Poplawski's hateful views cannot be separated from the increasingly extreme ideology and rhetoric that characterize the contemporary American conservative movement. As his friend, Edward Perkovic, told the Associated Press, Poplawski feared "the Obama gun ban that's on the way" and "didn't like our rights being infringed upon."

Glenn Back denied that right-wing commentators and the hate they sow had anything to do with Poplawski's violence....and then turned around and said of Obama:

...he will slowly but surely take away your gun or take away your ability to shoot a gun, carry a gun. He will make them more expensive; he'll tax them out of existence. He will because he has said he would. He will tax you gun or take your gun away one way or another.

Beck claims that he isn't responsible for people freaking out and getting violent based on right-wing hate and fear rhetoric...but then he continues espousing that same rhetoric.

False rhetoric.

As Griper Blade points out, even gun and ammo vendors know it is nonsense.

WinstonCartrige.com has a notice on their site which reads:

Due to hoarding of ammunition, you consumers have managed to raise the prices of ammunition and components 50 to 500 percent. You didn't even need the Government to impose taxes or bans. You did it all yourself.

But facts rarely get in the way or fomenting fear and hate.

Right-wing radio personality George Caylor spoke at a tea party. He literally stated that he would "pray to God" the audience was dangerous to the government.

George Caylor: The next American revolution begins here and begins tonight. […] Yesterday a friend of mine gave me a report from Homeland Security telling the FBI that people who are unhappy with government spending, the tax code, the general dismantling of our country, with supporting illegal immigrants with tens of millions of tax dollars, that you may be dangerous people.

Random Audience Member: We might be!

George Caylor: I pray to God you are.

Speaking of the tea parties, Mr. Anuzis even notes that his rhetoric was picked up and repeated at those festivals of uninformed angry white people.

Mr. Anuzis noted that the Fox News commentator Glenn Beck had picked up the theme, as did some participants at the antitax “tea party” rallies last week. Mr. Anuzis spreads the word on Facebook and Twitter.

He further defends the use of the term fascist.

“It’s politically very incorrect only because we’re not used to it,” concluded Mr. Anuzis, who recently joined American Solutions for Winning the Future, a group led by Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker. But he acknowledged, “You’ve got to be careful using the term ‘economic fascism’ in the right way, so it doesn’t come off as extreme.”

No, Mr. Anuzis, you need not worry about coming off as extreme. You clearly are being an extremist. When you have to manufacture a political smear just to motivate the masses, you are being an extremist.

When people listen to this fear mongering and hate and act out with violence, people like you are responsible. Not Obama. Not "the Liberals". Certainly not "the Socialists". You and others of your ilk from the right-wing.