Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Bruce peasants flap brings threats

A peak into the abyss of right-wing nativism. From the Grand Junction Sentinel,

A Western Slope state lawmaker has requested the Colorado State Patrol provide her with additional protection because of the number of threats sent to her this week by anti-illegal immigration advocates.

Rep. Kathleen Curry, D-Gunnison, said after she gaveled down Rep. Doug Bruce, R-Colorado Springs, for calling Mexican immigrants “illiterate peasants” during a Monday debate, she was bombarded with threatening messages via e-mail and telephone.

“The hate mail is off the charts, and there’s issues with people in terms of this response,” Curry said. “It has really bothered me.”

She said hundreds of threatening, acerbic messages have clogged her cell phone’s voicemail and her e-mail inbox.

“We attempted to restore decorum to the (House) chamber,” Curry said. “There are people out there that felt that was so inappropriate, they thought it was OK to threaten (a lawmaker).”

The behavior of these people is repugnant but it's been obvious for some time that the nativists modus operandi is to intimidate, threaten and harass anyone who opposes their bigoted agenda.

On a related note, I was watching Denver's ABC affiliate yesterday afternoon and they were reading viewer emails on the latest Bruce flap. Almost every email was in support of Doug Bruce and most of those conflated the issue of illegal immigration with that of legal migrants. The bill Bruce was speaking out against dealt with a program for legal migrants. The nativists like to claim that they are not bigots, that they only oppose illegal immigration. Well, it's obvious to anyone paying attention that this is not the case. Their vociferous reaction to programs designed to help anyone of Hispanic descent betrays them.

2 comments:

Phil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Phil said...

I couldn't believe the email support for Bruce either. These people have no basis in reality. It's mindnumbing.

Did you happen to see the footage of Bruce in his office reading out of the dictionary to support his actions? The guy is a nutjob.