It's been awhile since I posted (more than a year), and my diary may be little more than a directionless rant, but I felt I had to post after this latest in a string of events that have activated the vast right-wing machine to spin the news in their favor. Most issues - health care, immigration, abortion - are ambiguous at best. A shooting like this ought to be less so. But a quick look at Free Republic aims to cast the shooter as some left-wing radical who probably came from Daily Kos.
My favorite line from the Maddow-Stewart interview was Jon saying, "You cannot control crazy." I'm starting to become of the opinion that if we can't, or at least don't try, America will suffer for it.
This is not new. Since the early shootings that marked the first half of 2009, there is a concerted effort among the right, not overtly the GOP leadership but the vast range of pundits, commenters and writers that do vote GOP, have made it a point to not only raise the possibility of, but loudly promote the idea that the left is a loose cabal that violently takes out its own in Cosa Nostra fashion, as if we were the ones touting the Second Amendment above all others. The assassins in these capers are not right-wing ideologues (perish the thought that they exist), but left-wing extremists who are looking to terrorize your children with socialistic and Muslim ideas. Them Nazis were left-wing socialists, too, right? And when it cannot possibly be those Democrat bottom feeders who are responsible for some violent act (the Tiller assassination), it is best swept under the rug, dismissed because the parties who suffered brought it on themselves.
It is not just Free Republic, or any of the other right-wing blogospheres that represent the conservative extremists. In the past year, I have watched supposedly neutral Internet forums like CNN.com and Political Wire become places for right-wingers to post hit-and-run comments that place the blame for everything tragedy great and small at the feet of the liberal movement. In places like these, an honest debate is increasingly unlikely. One need only look at the PW post on the shooting to see neutral forums for both liberals and conservatives to meet reduce to instant demagoguery from the right.
Every now and then I try to extrapolate the trajectory of the political discourse on the Internet. Particularly since the 2008 election, the tone on the right has devolved from a passionate discourse to one of excusing murder to one of merely brandishing weapons to prove a point to one of breaking a few windows to coax persuasion. Where does it go from here? I had half expected a loud cry from the right that moderate Democratic Congresswoman Giffords had it coming, and deserved to take one in the head. How long from now will it be before the right-wing blogosphere begins to openly champion assassins who proudly confess to hurting and killing those who espouse progressive or liberal ideals?
The excusing of such behavior is not far off. Stories were and are abundant since 2008 about reprisals against Democrats. They started out small enough, with a woman praying for her husband when he professed to be an Obama supporter. Another woman refusing to give Halloween candy to children of people she suspected to be Obama voters. In the aftermath of the health care reform debate, one Internet poster professed with joy that he fired those at his clinic for supporting the President. When Don't Ask, Don't Tell repeal was put in motion, right-wing militants began to talk about the "New Confederate Army" (women and gays need not apply). From these people, we may be likely to see more in greater number and intensity. And if the suspect is caught and found to be a right-wing ideologue, what are the chances that those on the right will say what's really on their minds and openly validate such a crime, calling on the authorities to drop the charges and instead pin a medal on the murderer's coat?
"You cannot stop crazy." I say we don't have much choice in the matter. No one's talking about suppression of free speech, but I am talking about using our speech to combat theirs. What is our message to decent and ordinary Americans in bringing more attention to the increasingly violent right wing, and what is our strategy to ensure that such a tone from the right must not be tolerated in a just society?