Posted on 01/10/2011 4:57:00 AM PST by Servant of the Cross
As the nation reeled from news that a gunman had shot a group of Arizona citizens including Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford, an all-too-predictable response emanated from some on the left. Despite news reports suggesting that the shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, was simply insane – a devotee of Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler, who believed in mind control and “conscience dreaming,” and who was convinced he would become the treasurer of a new currency – many left-wingers sought to attribute his despicable acts to a conservative political agenda.
New York Times columnist Paul Krugman wrote, “We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was.” Democrat Congressman Bill Pascrell of New Jersey denounced “an aura of hate” fed “by certain people on Fox News.” The National Democratic Jewish Council insisted that “building levels of vitriol in our discourse . . . have surely contributed to the atmosphere in which this event transpired.” The local sheriff in Arizona, a Democrat, weighed in with his own political diagnosis, insisting that the shooting rampage was how “[unbalanced people] respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous.”
Those playing the blame game against all facts and logic are following a well-worn precedent. Anyone who remembers the Clinton years will recall that the then-President used the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal courthouse in April of 1995 as a way to discredit conservative talk radio – the voices that had just played a central role in helping Republicans retake the House of Representatives for the first time in forty years.
In the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, President Clinton condemned “loud and angry voices” in talk radio for “spreading hate and leaving the impression by their very words that violence is acceptable.” Thereafter, the Detroit Free Press published an interview with the President urging talk radio how hosts to reject all rhetoric “fostering hate and division and encouraging violence.”
The gambit succeeded in large measure for Clinton, slowing the momentum of the ’94 Republican revolution, putting conservatives on the defensive and allowing the then-President – who had been forced to assert his own relevance -- to retake the initiative. Given the political difficulties now confronting President Obama, who faces a newly-minted Republican majority in the House of Representatives after an electoral wipeout worse than 1994, it’s no wonder that some of his partisans would seek a page from the Oklahoma City playbook.
This time, however, they’re destined to fail. Here’s why:
First, now there is Fox News and the conservative blogosphere, neither of which existed in April of 1995. They enable the widespread dissemination of information rebutting efforts to equate Loughner with garden-variety conservatives or Tea Partiers – or blame his acts on the statements of public figures. For example, when left-wing bloggers invoked a bulls-eye graphic that had appeared on a year-old campaign map from Sarah Palin as a reason for the violence, right-learning bloggers like VerumSerum were quick to point out that similar graphics have been used by the Democratic Leadership Council. Liberals no longer have the media playing field all to themselves.
Second, at least some respected media figures have wearied of the ongoing efforts to use national tragedies for partisan political gain. Howard Fineman and Howard Kurtz – neither of them conservatives – have called a halt to “opening rhetorical fire,” as Kurtz put it, in the wake of such attacks.
Third, almost 16 years after Oklahoma City – and after seeing similar gamesmanship in the wake of crimes like the Holocaust Museum shooting -- Americans have become skeptical of cynical efforts to stigmatize entire ideologies based only on the actions of lone, clearly deranged criminals. That’s especially true where, as here, there’s no real evidence that the suspect actually subscribed to any coherent political creed.
Finally, the political climate has changed, drastically, since 1995. Many (if not most) Americans have just endured two years in which a liberal majority has governed against their own expressed wishes. By doing so, liberal politicians – from the President on down -- have aroused widespread, deep-seated opposition among the electorate to an unprecedented degree. In such a climate, people will find it easier to distinguish between insane criminals and law-abiding dissenters from government policy, because they are likelier than ever to be dissenters themselves.
Given all of this, those on the left would be best advised to avoid cheap blame-seeking for political gain. If they persist in the dishonorable effort to discredit the beliefs of millions of Americans based on the criminal actions of just one, ironically, they may hurt their own cause most, further convincing Americans of what so many already know: That the left is simply out of touch.
Potatoes are living things that lie on the ground when it is warm in the year 9,199,374,283,485,202 B.C.E.
Jared Loughner is a living thing that lies on the ground in the year 9,199,374,283,485,202 B.C.E.
Therefore, Jared Loughner is a potato.
There are rational leftist web sites?
The media don’t need to give Gov. Palin an opportunity. All she has to do is post to her Facebook page and her views are instantly known: even the most doctrinaire leftist running a major daily or network newsroom doesn’t want to play catchup in reporting what would inevitably be all over the blogosphere in under half an hour.
The dipstick sheriff made it so much easier to discredit the big lie. Not that those scummy left wing pols won’t try to blame Sarah and the tea party.
This is true. But she’ll also want to make sure this post is well thought out and not in the ‘heat of the moment’. The focus should be on the victims and their families right now.
Too sanguine by half! Many of my nonpolitical, "social" interests seem to attract people towards the left end of the political spectrum (typically THEY think they're moderates) and apolitical people who are completely uninformed (ie they parrot whatever the media tells them is The Truth). On those boards, it's all Water is wet. The sun rises in the east and sets in the west. Jared Lee Loughner was inspired by Sarah Palin's rhetoric and is probably a teabagger. The desert is full of sand.
The UK media in the main is blaming SP and the TEA Party, too. :-(
But in the main, what truly matters is that WE let TPTB know we will NOT be made to sit down, shut up, vote for whom we're told, and pay our taxes, which is precisely how "political figures" are already trying to use this heinous crime.
“Rush coming on today and they’re fearful”. They should be, he’s had all weekend to “stew” on all the crap that was put out. Can’t listen to him on radio.....wabc.com streams his show.
The sheriff is exploiting this in a disgusting way, but this is not a fair criticism.
Many on FR fight tooth and nail against any attempt to let local law enforcement even be aware of those who are purchasing guns, much less to have them run background checks on purchasers or give them authority to prevent people from purchasing guns.
If you insist on minimal regulation of gun purchases, you can't then turn around and criticize law enforcement for not preventing wackos from getting guns.
As I understand it, his gun was purchased legally and he passed the FBI instant background check with no problem.
Criticizing law enforcement for not preventing this is like the idiots who criticized the screeners for not stopping the 9/11 hijackers. The hijackers were not stopped because they violated no regulations up to the point they started cutting throats. This nut was not stopped because he violated no laws up till when he started shooting. We don't have "pre-crime" yet in this country.
I’ve been told by other freepers that even though he passed that FBI background check, that he should have also been checked out by the local sheriff.
Okay.
Who should have called the sherrif? The gun store? Why?
I will get back to you later on.
I will need to go through PAGES of replies, to identify the freepers who explained that the LOCAL SHERIFF contacts people after the FBI check.... maybe???? the FBI paperwork has a carbon copy for local LEOs??? But I don't know, so I will try to find those who explained this to me yesterday.
I was online most of the day yesterday, there is NO way that I can go through MANY pages of replies.
NO way --- so why don't you please just forget that I ever posted to this thread, as there is NO way that I am going to argue about C/C when there are EXPERTS here who know all about the local sheriffs' roles in same.
Thank you.
Thanks. If this is true, it sounds remarkably like the “registration” all good 2A types are always preaching against. I thought the whole point was that the cops or government wouldn’t know who did and did not buy or own guns.
Fine with me. Y’all have a good one.
Although I believe there’s a really big difference between merely purchasing a gun and applying for a concealed carry permit.
As there should be.
Unfortunately, this is all I recall from the interchange.... that they were appalled with the local sheriff in AZ.
Thanks for the tip, who knows, MAYBE I will somehow come across the freeper in question, as it would be very interesting to learn why he was so adament about this issue —— like you, I thought there was a BIG difference between purchasing a gun and applying for a cc-permit.
Instead of " just sayin" ... maybe you should read more.
Sarah Palin
On the tragedy in Arizona
My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice. -
Saturday at 1:02pm · View Feedback (32,055)Hide Feedback (32,055) · Share
Notice, he also speculated without having any evidence that Loughner had an accomplice with the guy that was seen with him walking into the store and then the guy walking out by himself. I had a feeling right away that this was just a coincidence and as it turns out, the guy was a taxi driver and he walked into the store with Loughner, because he didn’t have change for the $20 bill the killer gave him
predictably - my liberal “friends” are using this occasion to arrogantly request that we “all” (meaning - conservatives) take this opportunity to re-examine our “rhetoric”
As if I’m going to let some nutcase stifle my freedom to my own opinion.
I’ve seen this happen before, but it seems to be even more bizarre with this case.
Thoroughly disgusting.
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