The Zapruderization Of Conservative Memes

Much in the way that an SEIU member allegedly "beat down" a member of the tea-bagger movement, this non-story is being touted as proof positive that Democrats are resorting to violence in the face of opposition.



While the video doesn't really show an attack, what you can see - through restarting the clip from around the 5 second mark is a hand up in the air, another hand, a flash and then you hear the clang of the guard-rail. Immediately following that you see a man - the person that shoved the arm out of his face? - picking up the man with the camera and asking, "are you ok"?

If one were to look at this honestly, it's likely that the person running toward Martha Coakley, once having his arms removed from another man's face, was off balance and wasn't shoved into the rail due to some "thuggish" act as it is being portrayed.

Secondly, after the man is picked up, he gets in the other gentleman's face again. What's important here is that we can't hear what they are saying to one another - in as much as what words we can hear have any context to the situation. After all, the people that are using this as some Zapruder-esque footage that validates multiple specious claims that the Democrats party has turned into a bunch of gangsters.

If you see a man claiming to be a "reporter" go lunging after a political candidate, and in light of threats made against members of the Democratic party, what would you do? Would you attempt to block this person - who is obviously not wanting to be stopped and is intent on running up to the candidate - until it was clear they meant no harm? Most sane people would. Let's try running up to Scott Brown mumbling some incoherent statement flailing our arms around and see if we aren't tackled by someone by FreedomWorks.

Conservatives are likely to dismiss all this by claiming that Martha Coakley heard the question asked by the reporter and that serves as his identification, that he posses no threat. That, in and of itself, is a rather disingenuous statement. After all, the man that successfully threw two shoes at George W. Bush in Iraq was a journalist that was apparently cleared by security.

In the end, conservatives are more than willing to inflate a story to it's most illogical end just so that they can say they are being bullied, that votes are being stolen, that the government is doing all it can to take away every freedom you have.