In the aftermath of the Tuscon carnage; before I learned the name of any victim beyond Representative Giffords and along with hearing the name of the shooter, I also learned I was to blame.
Beyond the ignorant premise that any Tea Partier anywhere had anything to do in any way with such senseless violence lies the sad reality that the obvious has yet again escaped the political Left. While a woman struggles for her life and her husband and children suffer in unimaginable limbo, 5 other families would trade anything for even long shot odds at getting their loved one back. In response, as a friend of mine tweeted, “My Conservative friends offer prayers, my Liberal friends offer blame.”
Instead of coming together in a no-brainer, non-partisan way, the Left has engaged their spin machine sensing yet another crisis that must not be wasted. Progressive Media pundits, bloggers, organizations and commentators seized on what they described as violent language and imagery used by the Right, ignored the use of identical language and imagery from their own side of the political divide and use that premise to accuse my friends and me of driving a man over the edge of societal and spiritual restraint. We wound up and turned loose a murderer.
Deranged and evil people exist. They always have and always will. People used to understand evil and insanity sprang, not from political ideology, but from individual psyches. Unfortunately, the political Left does not. An unspeakable tragedy occurs and, without a shred of evidence, my friends and I are to blame. Not because there’s proof but because Progressives learned The Big Lie technique decades ago and their purpose is not to engage but to destroy.
Still, just because I don’t like the sound of it, doesn’t make it wrong. So let’s look into the existence of violence as a tool in today’s political environment. Where is it found?
As evidence emerges revealing Jared Loughner as a creature of the Left the pattern of recent political violence remains consistent; Progressives are the violent ones in both word and deed. See the Discovery Channel’s James Lee; SEIU thugs doing a beat down on Ken Gladney and Nathan Tabor being assaulted.. Should we really have to bring up the WTO and G8 riots? What about the attack on Prince Charles last month? What about ELF, the ’68 Democratic Convention, Black Panthers, the Weathermen, SDS, Bill Ayers, and on and on and on. But it’s the Tea Partiers who must be watched. Can those accusing me and my friends point to even a single instance of verifiable Tea Party violence?
Even USA Today is telling The Big Lie that it’s only Tea Parties and Conservatives who are to blame. “Gabrielle Giffords shooting fuels debate over rhetoric” references violent imagery and rhetoric but only cites examples from the Right. Were they unaware of Progressive uses of terms like “targeted” and images like crosshairs? Did they miss the BoyBlue post at DailyKos? Is it even remotely possible they are unaware the President himself used violent imagery and rhetoric when he said of Republicans, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”and that a GOP victory would mean “hand to hand combat?” Did they miss VP Biden threaten to strangle Republicans?
I don’t see a call for violence in any of this language. These are metaphors; figures of speech. Tea Partiers understand our political system, like our judicial system, is adversarial in nature. While we will never “all just get along”, we can behave civilly and respectfully when agreeing to disagree. Unless you are a Progressive.
Then it’s all there in “Rules for Radicals”. The point is never to engage in debate; never to search out the truth; never to work together to accomplish goals for the good of us all. It is only ever to win; to destroy your opponent, to ridicule, demonize, polarize and marginalize those with whom you disagree for the purpose of winning – even if you’re wrong. Especially if you’re wrong. Thoroughly violent images and rhetoric if there ever was.
So, sure, let’s tone down the rhetoric. But we’ll need to do so in the real world. There, only those actually engaged in inflammatory rhetoric can stop doing so. The ball is in your court, Progressives. Once you’ve committed to toning it down, to really seal the deal, you should probably apologize to my friends and me …
Well, that didn’t take long did it?
As predicted, the gun grabbers are getting ready to make a HUGE push and yet another lame and misguided attempt to take away the gun rights of MILLIONS of LEGAL, SANE American gun owners, all because of the actions of one crazed person.
Carolyn McCarthy readies gun control bill
“My Conservative friends offer prayers, my Liberal friends offer blame.”
Well, the liberals have also offered moments of silence.
Indeed, Fred …
I thought about mentioning it in the post but wanted to keep it pretty focused. The popping up of this legislation, yet again, when it had lain dormant for SO long, is little more than one woman's attempt to bring something "good" (in her opinion) out of her personal tragedy.
Look for a plethora of gun control measures covering weapons, ammo, mags and clips and everything else. Let's not actually try to preserve the Rights of the People. Let's use this convenient tragedy to trade the misfortune of our colleague to score a few cheap political points that had fallen out of favor anyway.
Next they'll be claiming that Gabby would want them to do this …
They have no shame …
@ Steve …
This is absolutely true. And they are flying flags at half staff, too.
The difference is that prayers will be offered continually because we believe in their power. There will be a one time moment of silence, which does convey sorrow and respect, but does absolutely nothing to help and will likely never be repeated.
Witness, however, the unending stream of Progressive words and pictures which, while they, too, fail to help Congressman Giffords, also poison the well from which our debate is drawn. Sort of exactly the thing they make baseless accusations against the Right of doing …
As soon as I heard that the victim was a Democrat I knew that somehow we would be blamed. Again the left's hatred of Sarah Palin jumps to the forefront singling her out in particular for a large share of the blame. If I remember correctly the current practice of name calling and viscous attacks started with the Robert Bork hearings way back in the 1980s. I just ordered more ammo and 2 more mags because I expect some legislation to pass no matter how stupid it may be.
Way to provide a little perspective, BCM!
To piggy-back on Fred's comment: Congressman Bob Brady is apparently introducing legislation to make things such as the cross hairs ads criminal.
@Sam -
Bills like Brady's are purely symbolic and serve absolutely no purpose except to further erode the Liberty and Rights of Americans.
We have laws on the books which, if your actions can be shown to have directly incited or encouraged violence against someone, provide a means by which you may be punished. The point there is that your actions have been looked at, thought to be criminal, investigated via due process and judged to meet the criteria of criminality and you have been arrested and tried because at heart, what you did in exercising your rights violated the rights of another.
Brady's bill simply makes people criminals who have done nothing wrong, have harmed no one and is a prohibitive form of legislation as opposed to a punitive form. The prohibitive is, quite possibly, the most heinous and abusive form of legislation possible which robs the maximum number of people of the largest amount of their Liberty and Rights.
Such legislation and those who introduce and vote for it should be pariahs in the American political system. This is true whether the law is on the number of grams of trans-fats permitted in a burger, whether or not I wear a seat belt or helmet, whether I choose to permit smoking in my place of business or if I choose to use the image of a cross-hair in a blog post …
Be sure to read this UK Mail Online article…
How America's elite hijacked a massacre to take revenge on Sarah Palin
The Insty One had a good piece on 'Blood Libel on WaPo as well.
It is the left, the progressives, the socialists, the democrats, the communists… whatever they're calling themselves this century… They are nearly exclusively the source of all the murderous political violence in the world.
I am left without a shred of bipartisanship, or compromise.
Deo Vendice
@ Serr8d -
Good find on the UK Mail article. I thought it was pretty fair and balanced …
@ Ron Jones -
I understand your frustration and share it. Not sure where that leaves us – but I've little patience for the hypocrisy and lack of clear values in our political opponents.
Loved it, loved it, my first time here but won't be the last. Keep the good work up.