Jon Stewart's rally this summer promoted the concept that both sides were to blame for the hostile, vile and violent environment forming around politics. Video clips from both left and right leaning pundits to provide proof of this.
The problem with false equivalencies is that while there is overblown rhetoric on both sides, the amount and intensity is much worse on the right than the left. To indicate otherwise is not only disingenuous but it is dishonest and harmful.
I was sickened more than usual watching Meet the Press this morning. Usually I just get slightly nauseous watching Gregory's nonsensical program, this morning my blood was boiling. Having that Tea Party representative on there who didn't even know the Congresswoman and was on there denying that the Tea Party was no worse than any other group in terms of inciting violence sickened me to the core. To no surprise, Gregory did not challenge his dishonest assertions and false equivalencies.
It is somewhat understandable that the Democrats on the panel don't want to appear to be politicizing this violence for political points, however, it also is typical for the Democrats to leave the Republicans off the hook for not pointing out the Tea Party rhetoric and their "second amendment solutions" or "bullets if ballots don't work" nonsense for injecting violence into politics.
It is up to Gregory as the moderator to inform the audience that we have had Republican political candidates in this past election cycle opening calling for violence against the Democratic candidates and government if they were not elected.
There is no equivalency to the call to violence on the left. None. I heard the Republican congressman state that the Obama rhetoric is just as bad as the Bush rhetoric. This is yet another false equivalency. Bush's criticisms were mainly that he was a dolt. I never heard any Democratic representatives ever advocate violence in response to politics. NEVER.
Why wasn't Palin's target list mentioned other than in a clip from Gabby? Why didn't Gregory grill the Tea Party member about the "second amendment solutions" being discussed by fellow Tea Partiers. Why was Gregory's only comment on this was to point out Grayson's rhetoric about the Republicans being like the Taliban?
The problem with this whole mess is that unfortunately many on the left have seen this coming since this violent speech entered our political landscape. Now that it has come home to roost, the Republicans who refused to denounce their candidates calling for violence in their speech want to pretend that it never happened and that it was happening on both sides.
Neither the Democrats nor the press are doing their job in being honest about how this violent theme has crept into our politics to the point where it is coming from the candidate's own lips. We can only learn from the past if we are honest with ourselves and educate our society about the "real" history of the past and how we find ourselves in the current situation. A bigger stink about the Tea Party rhetoric should have been made by the press when it occurred. What is even sadder is that even now after something has happened, it is being presented as an equivalent problem with both political parties.
Thanks to Jon Stewart for promoting this false equivalency nonsense. I hope you are happy with the results from your rally.
Update: In no way do I mean to imply by my last sentence in this diary that the Stewart rally had anything to do with the despicable, violent shooting spree that occurred. The meaning I intended to convey is that the result of promoting the false equivalency between the two parties is that it makes it that much easier for Republicans (and especially the Tea Party contingent) to put aside any criticism of the violent language used by some of their candidates during this last election cycle.