A rodeo clown at the Missouri State Fair over the weekend donned an Obama mask instead of typical clown fare. The clown, a participant in the fair and not officially representative of the fair, broke the new golden rule: thou shalt not mock the President. [Show Me Progress photo]

Senator Claire McCaskill called it “shameful.” 

“If what’s being reported is true, then it’s shameful and it’s unacceptable. The State Fair is funded by taxpayer dollars, and is supposed to be a place where we can all bring our families and celebrate the state that we love. But the young Missourians who witnessed this stunt learned exactly the wrong lesson about political discourse-that somehow it’s ever acceptable to, in a public event, disrespect, taunt, and joke about harming the President of our great nation. Missouri is better than this, and I expect someone to be held accountable.”

The acceptance of taxpayer dollars equals the forfeiture of free speech. Democrats should be careful with that rule, considering their policies.

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon called it “offensive.” He perhaps should have appointed a different Fair board and Director of Agriculture, who works with the Fair board. If Democrats are angry, they should look inward. Fun fact: seven of the eight board members were appointed after Nixon took office.

Missouri’s Republican Lt. Governor Peter Kinder demanded that someone be held accountable.

Democrat Jay LeFaver claimed it was a “call for violence”:

While the Secret Service will decide this, by witness accounts the announcer was clearly referring to the clown and was not actually advising people to bring bulls to the White House or to mow down the President with a bull. If legitimate reports emerge to the contrary, I’ll gladly, and with gusto, condemn such unacceptable behavior.

LeFaver also reTweeted a remark that it was like a “Klan rally”:

It isn’t the first time a president was represented at the rodeo:

T.J. Hawkins rolled out the big inner tube, and the bull lowered his head, shot forward and launched into the tube, sending it bounding down the center of the arena. The crowd cheered. Then the bull saw the George Bush dummy.

He tore into it, sending the rubber mask flying halfway across the sand as he turned toward the fence, sending cowboys scrambling up the fence rails, hooking one with his horn and tossing him off the fence.

Was this also racist and “like a Klan rally?” Was this considered a “call for violence?” Did the Secret Service investigate? I didn’t object and still don’t to this, as free speech is free speech and isn’t meant to protect only that with which I agree.

I could draw comparisons with BushHitler and the way television shows, networks, and print outlets treated the former commander-in-chief, but I’m not going to, because again: free speech is free speech. Not anymore, though, as Democrats would have you believe. After repeating for decades that we should be judged by character and not by the color of our skin Democrats would have you believe that any disagreement, any mocking, any ridicule is reflexively racist.

Is the outrage because the Missouri State Fair receives taxpayer dollars? I’m not sure if the others that have mocked presidents in the past accept subsidies, but since when are Democrats concerned about wasting taxpayer dollars? They just wasted mounds of it targeting political opponents through the IRS. They’re buying drones to monitor us in violation of the Fourth Amendment. They allocated funds to send arms overseas and they sent arms across the border to Mexico. Sure, if they’re seeing the light, yes, cut the fair’s funding. I’m not sure why they’re still receiving it in this economy (or any, really). But if they’re attempting to argue that free speech is restricted if one receives federal funding, progressives tie their own hands with policy.

Personally, I prefer to express dissent in a different manner. If there is evidence to justify the claim of violent threats that haven’t been reported, by all means, investigate. However, if this is an attempt to criminalize ridicule of political figures by way of identity politics, then no one can ridicule. Everyone is something and speech will cease to be free.

*UPDATE: Jim Hoft has video:

*UPDATE: Taxpayer-funded Air America promoted a Bush assassination film. Missouri Democrats were silent on how those public dollars were used.