Recently, I came across a tweet from something called The GOP Alliance:
Every presidential assassin has been a liberal, communist, anarchist, someone on the Left.
That word “every” is one of those red-flag words that set off my bullshit detector. Given my interest in history as well as my interest in debunking ridiculous claims made by ideologues, I decided to do a little research.
There have been four U.S. presidents who have been assassinated. They are, in chronological order: Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley and John F. Kennedy. Let’s start with our Hometown Hero.
Abraham Lincoln, killed by John Wilkes Booth
Lincoln was a Republican and Booth an actor, so of course Booth must have been a filthy Hollywood liberal, right? Not so fast.
The Republican Party of Lincoln’s time was the progressive (read: liberal) party in terms of human rights, with Our Abe winning re-election in 1864 by a landslide on a platform of abolition. Booth was a known Confederate sympathizer and an alleged member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a secret society aimed not only at preserving slavery in the South (very much a conservative idea back then) but also exporting it to Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean by means of annexation (read: empire building).
Interesting fact: Booth is said to have shouted “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus always to tyrants,” a reference to Brutus and the murder of Julius Caesar) after clapping his gat, if you will. Beloved right-wing figure Timothy McVeigh was wearing a shirt that read “Sic semper tyrannis” with a picture of Lincoln on it the day he was arrested.
Verdict: BULLSHIT.
James Garfield, killed by Charles “I’m Going to the Lordy” Guiteau
Guiteau, from Freeport, Ill., was your basic screw-up, having failed at about everything he tried: College, law practice, theology, et al. These failures probably stem from the likely fact that he was insane.
During the 1880 election campaign. Guiteau gave a series of speeches he’d originally written about Ulysses S. Grant but instead substituted Garfield in Grant’s place. After Garfield’s victory, Guiteau was convinced that he was responsible for Garfield’s election and repeatedly clamored for an ambassadorship. After being repeatedly rebuffed, Guiteau then killed Garfield.
I’m guessing that The GOP Alliance’s “liberal” claim with Guiteau stems from his having joined earlier in his life a religious sect that rejected monogamy. “Free love,” and all that. But it was insanity, not politics, that drove Guiteau to murder Garfield.
Verdict: LIKELY BULLSHIT
William McKinley, killed by Leon Czolgosz
I’ll give The GOP Alliance this one. Czolgosz was indeed an anarchist. But to be intellectually honest, you must admit that anarchists strive to take down all forms of government, whether headed by the right or left.
Verdict: TRUE
John F. Kennedy, killed by somebody
Every group under the sun has been accused of Kennedy’s assassination: the KGB (commies), Cuban expatriates (conservatives), the Teamsters (commies), J. Edgar Hoover (conservative), ad nauseum. But why is a group called The GOP Alliance concerned with who killed a Harvard-educated elitist liberal from Taxachusetts?
Verdict: ?????
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Clearly, not “every presidential assassin” has been a horrifying, contemptible member of the “Left,” despite what The GOP Alliance wants you to believe. Anyone with an Internet connection and the intelligence to use a computer can discover this.
Why the hell are you coming across tweets from the GOP Alliance? This is what scares me about that friggin’ Twitter…
No worries… It was something that someone had favorited or retweeted or something…
Thanks for doing that for me. It was probably in my favorites list where you saw it. I had “favorited” it when I saw it as a re-tweet from someone I follow, based on the curiosity it struck in me- specifically, the accuracy (or lack thereof) in the claim- and I was wanting to either check it out on the interwebs or, more likely, ask you about it. I figured you’d know. I was reasonably sure J-Dubs Boof wasn’t anywhere NEAR being a “someone on the left”, but I had no knowledge of who Garfield’s or McKinley’s assassins even were, let alone their ideologies.
Anyway, thanks for doing the legwork for me, for I am far too “busy” (read: lazy) to do this kind of research.
And for the record, I follow both liberals AND conservatives. Most- at least of the ones I follow- are nutjobs (one of which I had no choice but to unfollow the other day based on a rather spiteful comment) but I do think it’s wise- or at least responsible- to listen to both.
For example, I do now follow the aforementioned GOP Alliance, as well as BHO “himself” (like it’s really him that sends the tweets). Both are way too close to the extreme far end of their respective “sides” for me to take either very seriously, but again, I think it’s responsible to get information- or at least opinings- from both sides, not just that with which you agree.
Gotta say, though… I TOTALLY lurve the cartoon at the top o’ the post. It is SO you.
Oh, I don’t like the lefties, either. They’ve once again shown how unradical and devastatingly noncommital they truly are by screwing over our health care reform and making a joke of it. They may as well be assassins. You can’t blame the right for that.
I agree with Steve.
Uh, I think you’re forgetting that the stroke that killed Franklin Roosevelt was an old friend of Leon Trotsky.