In the
past 48 hours, opinions have formed on each side of the aisle
about the causes for the unthinkable massacre at a town
hall event hosted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday.
Some more reasoned thinkers have looked at the shooter’s
mental history and YouTube ramblings for clues. Others
are rightfully questioning how a mentally ill man was able to
legally purchase the murder weapon in the first place. But
some illogical and cruel attention-seakers are still looking to pin
the events on a vague reference to Tea Party rhetoric and Sarah
Palin directly. What saddened me the most were some of the
opinions I saw in the immediate wake of the chilling events
that occurred in the Tucson supermarket. I was shocked
by a lot of the blog posts and tweets that were being sent to me in
the first few hours of the tragedy. Logic and reason mostly win out
as time passes, however to see the liberal scapegoating before my
eyes was a sad display of the continued evil and divisive
immaturity that remains a force for the Far Left of this
country.
Let me start with three thoughts before I show my
examples of liberal stupidity in the aftermath of Saturday’s
shootings. First, my thoughts and prayers go out to all of
the families of the deceased and injured as they have all
weekend. I don’t want this post to go on without saying, they
are the true victims and in the grand scheme of things, life trumps
political disagreements. Second, I do believe there is a
difference between politicizing this tragedy and defending
yourself from being politicized against. I have seen
many point out that conservative pundits such as Rush Limbaugh and
Andrew Breitbart have used the rallying against the
conservative side as their own battle cry to gain support against
liberals. However, when you see your name and reputation
sullied, you deserve to defend yourself against the
criticism. If you don’t, it only strengthens those arguing
against you. Finally, it has not gone unnoticed the glaring
media hypocrisy between Saturday’s massacre and the Ft. Hood
massacre. Byron
York wrote an excellent piece in the Washington Examiner
citing examples of journalists urging caution of jumping to
conclusions when Hasan opened fire in Texas, and over the weekend
trying to tie the shootings to a map by Sarah Palin targeting
certain districts. I saw several other pundits doing the same
thing that York does not mention. The first two tweets that
caught my eye were by Markos Moulitsas founder of the
DailyKos. He was one of the first to tie the shooting to
the right-wing with no facts about the shooter released. His
first tweet read, “Fucking American Taliban”, a reference to
his right-wing smear book American Taliban: How Sex,
Sin, and Power Bind Jihadists to the Radical Right.
Later he wrote, “Mission Accomplished, Sarah Palin”. After a
few days, you’d think he would become more level-headed, but
instead he has continued his engine-less train trying to blame the
Right for Saturday’s events. Attached in the link below is a
word document of screen grabs I took showing some of the
absurd posts in the first few hours of the shooting:
January
8th, 2011
If you would like to
learn more facts about the gunman, the Far Left site Mother
Jones had a very fair and worthwhile to read
interview with a friend of Jared Lee
Loughner that should have immediately quieted the
critics. Rather most of the same old progressives are
doubling down on their rhetoric hate. Nate Silver wrote
earlier today something I agreed with, and its that we need to
distinguish between “violent” political metaphors and actually
calls for violence. I also read elsewhere that
Loughner was a big time gamer. What do you think more
greatly affects a mentally unstable man, a map that I’m willing to bet Loughner never saw targeting
certain districts the Tea Party would like to unseat the incumbent
representative or playing hours of a violent video game such as Call of Duty where there are no repercussions for going on a killing spree?
3conservativebros
MacGregor
Johnny M
Timmy K
Johnny,
The tweets were not just sad, they show a profound lack of empathy amidst a tragedy of such proportions. They also show a weird and scary blind partisan attitude that thinks first of hatred of their political opponent instead of caring about facts or even about life…
I think the mug shot shows just how batshit crazy this guy was, and I don’t understand why people wouldnt first want to come to logical conclusions and learn something from the incident instead of playing political games that fuel the fire of polarization.
York does a great job documenting the hypocrisy that permeates the media too. Sadly though, many don’t understand that this double standard and bias even exist, maybe this will be yet another example to inform people as to why FNC, the Tea Party and other conservative organizations are so appealing to so many.. Unfortunately it may be at the expense of innocent people’s lives..
So two questions, what do you think will come of this tragedy, and what do you think should come of it?
First off, since I wrote this I think most have put things into a rational perspective. But I’ve still seen a lot of the same players; Markos, Olby, Maher, Assange, Krugman, etc… continue to double down on their smearing. Also, Im afraid some on the right have gone too far defending the movement as well. Rush talking about Loughner having the full support of the Democratic Party and Breitbart saying there is a blood libel against Palin from progressive journalists. I think most Americans realize the craziness of the Far Left, but comments like Rush’s and Andrew’s don’t help bring people to the right either.
What do I see coming from this tragedy? Depends. I see a softened political rhetoric for a few more weeks. Most of the same hate merchants on each side will likely continue to battle for ultimate righteousness.
I’d like to see a thoughtful review how we handle the mentally ill in this country. I’ve read several articles that make me think we are failing in this country to address mentall illness and unstable people are more of a threat than political enemies. A common sense gun policy should be reviewed after the emotions of the events subside. I’m not calling for strict gun laws or removing the 2nd ammendment. But for this guy to be able to purchase better ammo than our police have LEGALLY seems a bit out of order.
I don’t think you can compare the “hate merchants” on both sides to be equals. Yes, those like Savage and Levin rant and rave to the nth degree, and rarely allow sane opinions from the other side to invade their show, but their values, specifically those of Levin’s coincide fully with our founding and our constitution. When rights and liberties get trampled and the “un-American” notion of bigger imposing govt proliferates, its sometimes tough for level-heads to prevail. But i do agree that many on the right need to shut their yapper, or would do us all a service by inviting more debate or calming down. And you know my stance on Beck and Rush and Hannity.
And although I do think the term fits, blood libel is used when people are accused of having blood on their hands in regards to murder, I disagree with its usage here. Even though Palin wasnt the first to use the term, she was unjustly vilified for it, and in typical I Hate Palin hysteria, the media aim shifted to that particular phrase which was accurate to you instead of the media being blatantly dishonest and created the very thing they voice displeasure in. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703667904576071913818696964.html
ALSO, liberals in the media are unbelievably doubling down still on the “climate of hate” argument and this is conservatives fault, even while admitting there was NO CONNECTION in the Arizona case.. Im thinking of Chris Matthews and Randi Rhodes off the top of my head.
A reasonable look at individual state’s gun laws, and a discussion on mental illness in America is warranted, but alas, Conservatives like us have to already go back to defending ourselves from the liberal attacks. Even worse I heard on both Matthews and Rhodes show earlier this week that the GOP arent the ones who want to talk about issues and ideas, they simply want to vilify and call their opponents evil… Is this country really that upside down?