Ted Nugent is a long time singer and musician, defined as a hard rocker and hevy metal musician, performing since age 10 in 1958.
Nugent has been a great influence on others in the hard rock and heavy metal music business, and has become well known for his conservative views on politics and public affairs over his long career.
Nugent is certainly entitled to have his views and to express them, but as with any public figure, and really any person, there is such a thing as going too far, if one threatens anyone, and particularly a public figure, and most significantly the President of the United States, whoever he happens to be.
In other words, there is the concept of “clear and present danger’, which allows government to prosecute anyone who threatens the breakdown of law and order, the promotion of bloodshed and violence and anarchy by one’s use of language.
Ted Nugent has reached that level of objectionable and dangerous language, and is being investigated, appropriately, by the Secret Service.
What did Nugent say?
At the National Rifle Association conference this past weekend in St. Louis, Missouri, Nugent said that if Barack Obama is reelected, he (Nugent) will either be dead or in prison. He spoke to a group of mostly young men, riling them up, by talking about decapitating Barack Obama and calling him a piece of excrement. He also bitterly criticized Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and Attorney General Eric Holder, and used threatening language against them.
One could sense that Nugent was provoking these gun enthusiasts with feverish language against the Commander in Chief, and could certainly have the effect of making some young man, similar to John Hinckley, Arthur Bremer, or Lee Harvey Oswald, be motivated by the comments of this famous rock star to attempt to bring harm against President Obama, or actually assassinate him, which would be a horrible tragedy beyond belief.
Mitt Romney has been endorsed by Ted Nugent, but he needs to make a clear statement of condemnation of Nugent, and repudiate his endorsement, as who would seriously wish to have the backing of an unstable public figure who, despite his right to criticize, shows a total lack of respect for the office of President, if not the individual in that office.
But don’t bet on Romney taking a principled stand, as he has failed to do that constantly during his political career.
Hello Professor,
All those years of LSD abuse in the late 1960’s did take its toll on little Teddy Nugent when he was with Amboy Dukes and they were promoting LSD usage with their hit song, “Journey to the Center of the Mind.â€
Soooo now he is promoting “Killing the President of the United States.†Why does anyone give this “Old Drugged Out Hippy†any credibility of now being a Conservative? I think that it would be more descriptive to refer to him as a “Crispy Conservative!†Aww…. now I have the munchies.
“But don’t bet on Romney taking a principled stand, as he has failed to do that constantly during his political career.” – funny, replace “Romney” with “Obama” and you have an equally true statement “Jon Stewartâ€
“as who would seriously wish to have the backing of an unstable public figure who, despite his right to criticize, shows a total lack of respect for the office of President, if not the individual in that office.” – I remember when people from all over the left (including many “public” figures) talked about killing GWB, they even made a movie about assassinating him, but I don’t remember one person on the left referring to those people as “unstable” or denouncing them in any way. As a matter of fact I recall all the lefties saying things like “it is only humor”, “we are only exercising our right to express dissatisfaction”, and “it is our duty as Americans to express our dissatisfaction” blah blah blah… Obviously like most Professors you spend way too much time behind your ivy covered walls and not enough time in the real world.
That being said, I do agree with the sentiment of your blog in that Terrible Ted should have never said those things. It is not respectful and it is not right. See how that works, no matter who makes the blunder most conservatives will condemn it because we have values and principals while most libs will only condemn the statements of the right while defending the identical statements from their own side. Thanks for making that so very clear.
I commend you, Global Warmer, for condemning Ted Nugent for his statements, and the danger they represent.
However, I must say that you are labeling all those on the left as endorsing the movie that called for the assassination of George W. Bush. I did not yet start this blog, but I made it clear to my associates and students at the time that this was absolutely wrong, and I do not recall any responsible public figure as endorsing such a movie or such a sentiment.
Certainly, there may have been some extremist nuts who advocated violence, but no responsible figure in public office ever did so, unless you can prove it by your own evidence and provide factual evidence.
Therefore, please do not use broad terms, unless you are willing to be specific and prove such allegations. This only poisons the political atmosphere further than it already is, and that in itself is a tragedy.
And to say that most conservatives denounce attacks on Obama is, sadly, far from the truth, despite what you claim. To say that conservative talk show hosts on cable and radio, and Republican leaders, have acted responsibly in the past three years is totally NOT the case!
Thank you for writing, and I encourage you to continue to do so!