Classless Teabaggers

About a week ago I did a post about a 16 year-old high school sophomore named Amy Myers who had challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) to a debate or a test. The young Cherry Hill (New Jersey) schoolgirl had gotten tired of Bachmann's seeming inability (or unwillingness) to get her facts straight about her opponents, American history, or the Constitution.

No one really thought Bachmann would take Myers up on her challenge. It was just a humorous way to point out the many gaffes and mistakes being continually made by the congresswoman. But Miss Myers underestimated to lack of class and common decency of some of Bachmann's teabagging followers. These people can't take a joke and react viciously to any suggestion that their heroine Bachmann might not be perfect.

After the story started getting some media attention commenters on some teabagger websites have threatened to make Myers' address public, and many have even threatened violence. And it doesn't stop with comments on websites. The young woman has received mail that calls her a whore, threatens to harm her physically, and even threats to rape her!

Maybe this kind of behavior should have been expected since a lot of these teabaggers seem to be devoid of brain activity. But it takes a special kind of demented and perverted cretin to threaten to harm or rape a 16 year old schoolgirl who has done nothing wrong. A decent person would be proud of this young girl getting involved in politics (regardless of whether she was on the left, the right, or just a moderate). This country would be better off if more young people would get involved.

But the people who wrote Myers with threats didn't just commit a classless and indecent act -- they committed a criminal act. Here in Texas it is called "Making a Terroristic Threat" and it can result in some jail time for the offender. And I'll bet that an adult making these kind of threats to an underage girl would enhance the seriousness of the crime. Personally I wish they would locate at least some of these idiots and make an example of them.

Democracy is a messy system and can result in some heated feelings and words. But when those words rise to the level of outright threats then a line has been crossed. It graduates from a political argument to a crime. Can't we disagree with each other without resorting to criminal behavior?