Which came first, the violent rhetoric or the violent behavior? The shootings in Arizona at a Congress on Your Corner event for Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D) that left six dead and many more injured has raised many questions, including this one. Although I think it is clear to us all that these senseless acts were comitted by someone who had serious mental health problems, recently there has been an uproar from both sides about who is to blame for the attacks. I must emphasize that no party or group or politician can possibly be to blame for this horrific event, as this man clearly was not of sound mind; there is nothing any national figures or political groups could have done about it.
But what I find reprehensible, especially coming from Sarah Palin, is the defenses that tea partiers are putting forward for their violent language in the 2010 election. Maybe it had nothing to do with causing these shootings, but Palin and other Tea Party leaders should take some responsibility for the influence they do have. Putting crosshairs over Representatives’ districts, as Palin did, (which included Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ district) may not have caused the violent act, but it is certainly irresponsible and reckless of her to do so. Despite the conflict that arose over these crosshairs earlier in the fall, and according to Politico, Palin did not even remove the map from her page until after the shooting. Sharron Angle too has some explaining to do for the “second amendment remedies” she proposed. Because to me, that seems to incite people to take a gun to a politician that they think should be removed from office. Maybe Angle meant something else, but she has yet to explain this statement away, and even in her defense statement of the Tea Party she fails to take the statement back or point out that it was not meant that way. Instead, she and Palin both focus on what the media is doing and how they are being targeted. And again, they fail to see that maybe something is bigger than them. Instead of talking about who is libeling who, maybe they should take heed and retract the incredibly dangerous things they have said. Their influence goes far, and whether or not they have caused these shootings it is time they stopped acting like gun-happy, irresponsible children and started taking seriously the weight that things they say may have.
Only the most naive of political observers could ever fail to see the obvious consequences of American conservatives proclaiming that any group of Americans was a “threat” to their existence or the existence of the nation and not realize that different people would deal with that “threat” in different ways.
Sp the map the democrats put up with the same crosshairs on it is different how?