Protesters hurled racial epithets, spit at, and heckled Democratic congressmen who walked with linked arms to the Capitol from their office buildings Sunday, according to the Washington Post.
Hannah Rappleye, a freelance photographer, who was just snapping pictures of the demonstrations, had to wrestle her camera away from a tea party protester. “I just got out of there,” she said.
Health reform passed but now “crossing the aisle” will get tougher. It passed but also has torn apart whatever social fabric or a sense of civility lay between Democrats and Republicans. This us-or-them mentality between parties seems to reach its apex each week.
Some members of Joseph Crowley’s district, which covers the Bronx and Queens, a region that votes heavily Democratic, are vowing to unseat the six-term Congressman on this issue.
Bob Diamond, speaking for the Committee to Save Medicare, said, “We’re going to meet with Congressman Crowley at his Throggs Neck office to let him know, in no uncertain terms, that we will work against his reelection if he votes for legislation that will destroy our freedoms and our way of life as American citizens,” told the Bronx News Net before Sunday’s vote.
This tension has given rise to “extremists” like Oath takers – a group even to the right of Tea partiers. These are members of the military who say are willing to fight against the government to protect the constitution from people trying to destroy it.
The last 14 months have created a more polarized America. Obama’s push to the center-left, might have created a new divide.