In a December 2^nd speech just recently made public, Karen Lewis, president of the Chicago Teachers Union, placed mass murder on the table as a political tactic for union movement. Carefully steering clear of actually calling for violence, Ms. Lewis noted that in the past, union leaders had not shied away from advocating killing the rich. She also noted that conditions today, in her view, are reminiscent of that same era. But the time is not ready, yet. From the Chicagoist website:

"The labor leaders of that time, though, were ready to kill. They were. They were just - off with their heads. They were seriously talking about that."

The comment drew laughs and some scattered applause before Lewis added, "I don't think we're at that point. The key is that they think nothing of killing us. They think nothing about putting us in harm's way. They think nothing about lethal working conditions."

The Daily Caller describes what happened next:

Once the laughter subsided, Lewis clarified that she didn't think today's unions were "at that point." She did maintain, however, that rich people are guilty of endorsing violence against teachers.

"The thing is, [the rich] think nothing about killing us," she said. "They think nothing about putting our people in harm's way. They think nothing about lethal working conditions."

She cited the fact that not all Chicago schools have air conditioning as evidence that the union's opponents want teachers to work in dangerous conditions.

The is laughable on its face. Air conditioning is not a civil right, and Chicago very rarely experiences dangerous levels of heat.

Though as Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit noted,

Well, that is dangerous when you're morbidly obese, I guess. (See photo)

Lewis's remarks are part of a disturbing pattern of behavior by members of the far left. They are beginning the process of legitimizing calls for violence against their political opponents. The unthinkable is made thinkable when leaders and public figures speak of the legitimacy of political violence.  The stance of Lewis here is typical. The rich deserve it because they have been doing these things to us forever. And they are preparing to do the same to us again: "They're gonna put ya'all back in chains." So any violence from the left becomes a response to alleged violence from the right.

Rush Limbaugh gets it:

We'd play these sound bites, if we had them, 10/15 years ago, and we'd sit here and laugh, and we would joke about it, and I would make some comment about how, "You know, folks, people really say this, but nobody is actually gonna believe this. This is so outrageous, it's so over the top, talking about killing the rich." And I was wrong 10/15 years ago. They do respond positively.

She does mean it, and so do people in the audience.

They do have this degree of hatred and resentment, and it is being ginned up by people like Karen Lewis, and it is something that Obama is playing off of, and it is something Obama is using to advance his agenda. "Do not think for a minute the wealthy are ever gonna allow you to legislate their riches away from them." Well, what does that mean? It means that the civilized way to go about this would be to pass laws taking money away from the rich. But she's upset the rich aren't just gonna sit there and let that happen.

So we're maybe gonna have to take more drastic action.

Barely disguised, the Left is mobilizing an alienated proletariate, led by what they have for almost a century regarded as the revolutionary vanguard of America, blacks. The predicates have been put into place, and it is time to disarm the citizenry.