Appropriate and Inappropriate Violence

I find it very interesting that most commenters at Erick's post, If King George Will Not Listen, at RedSTate, are decrying the INAPPROPRIATE use of violence, but, not the idea of violence itself.

Defense may be violent. That is not an inappropriate type of violence.

Violence is only a tool.

Not all of the violence has been committed by leftists. Google "Window War" and you will come to the 3 Percenters. Some of them have, allegedly, broken windows of Democratic offices. However, they do not support the GOP either, seeing them as just as bad, but in a different way. This is an example of inappropriate violence, as are threats and any types of physical assault. Violence or advocating violence to overthrow our lawful government is also inappropriate. Nor is any of this, speaking strategically or tactically, useful. At all.

The big question is "when is violence appropriate or useful?". THAT is the dangerous elephant in the room. I do not know the answer except that those conditions have not been met.

The Left knows how to set up false crises. The Left knows EXACTLY what is going through the minds of those that are thinking about force. THEY have been there. They know what the Tea Parties are thinking. THEY have been there. The Left is going to use any crisis, real or false, to discredit the Tea Parties and like minded. They even have a play book in Saul Alinsky. They have the lemming like press. They are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to falsely accuse. Ends justify the means.

If the Tea Party protests must escalate, we must be NON-Violent. It is not a good idea to only WOUND a tiger. And the progressive movement is a tiger, but one still constrained by the chains of public opinion, law, and yes, the threat of pushing certain elements so far that the left would regret it. We must use their weapons against them. Ghandi and MLK did it the right way. We must turn public opinion against them. This is still a nation of decent people. The anger needs to be banked, not stoked. Stoked fires burn brilliantly and hotly, but are quick and are a threat. Banked fires last a long time. Anger should be used as a tool, not a weapon. Use it to motivate, not harm. Every fighter knows that the first fighter to get angry tends to lose.

We must not allow the Left and their useful idiots to use our anger as a weapon against us.

cross posted at RedState