I lost track of how many times Hoffa said, "war" in just a one minute clip. Calling people traitors and suggesting things be "done" to them seems about the same to me (seriously or not, Perry was chiding an IA crowd for responding too MILDLY to Bernanke, despite their strong and obvious displeasure with the Fed Chair; since they were already yelling at him, what more did the governor expect/recommend...?) I'm not saying people can't or shouldn't be passionate, heated, or that they can or should completely avoid any language that MIGHT be connected with physical violence. I am saying they shouldn't consciously and concertedly integrate intensely and explicitly violent language as much as possible to make themselves sound "tough", whip supporters into a rabid frenzy or whatever. At BEST that kind of demagoguery is just substituting empty emotion for policy, but when lethal imagery is routinely applied with a perfunctory disclaimer identifying it as a metaphor, it's dangerous. As far as comparing this to the PC backlash I humbly submit that the difference between then and now is that people weren't getting shot over PC.