Tucson rampage casts light on toxic political tone
I wonder? Do you think all the Obama Bashers and the Palin, Beck, Limbaugh ilk are happy yet? They've succeeded so will they revel in their victory?
They say the hatred has spewed from both sides of the aisle but I haven't seen it that way. So much malevolence and bigotry has been spawned by too many leaders of the Tea Party that any sane mind has most assuredly felt as though it might (and has) erupt in some sort of violence.
Is only the Republican Tea Party at fault? The Republican leaders outside the Tea Party should also share in some of the blame. Blame because they remained silent during all the hateful rhetoric from the likes of the Palins, Becks and Limbaughs.
Do you think that with all this mayhem and extreme grief there will come a day of reckoning and those who allowed (and encouraged) such hate to spill forth will feel shame?
I think not!
Oh, maybe for a short period while it circulates the Internet and is touched upon by mainstream media but when the dust settles, their chicanery will again return and perhaps it will be even more aberrant because the bottom line is winning.
WINNING AT ALL COST!
The saddest part of this equation is the fact that they have so large an audience; quite an adoring "crowd" that is so full of hate that they hunger to find a victim they can thrust all their sick revulsion upon; And right-wing talk radio, Fox news and the leaders of the Tea Party movement eagerly try to conjure up a victim to placate their flock (remember Bill O’Reilly’s excessive chant "Tiller the Baby Killer").
No one wins though, not the suspected shooter, Jared Loughner, for sure not the instigators, not any of us who wish to live in a civilized place have won, we as a nation are all losers! America has turned on itself and divided we fall. thinkingblue
Tucson rampage casts light on toxic political tone
By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Charles Babington, Associated Press – Sun Jan 9, 1:24 am ET
WASHINGTON – Politicians of all stripes are bound to be haunted by Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' warning, 10 months before she was shot, to cool the rhetoric.
It's been a year or more of raw politics, with anger spilling over on both sides and gun-related metaphors coming loosely from the lips of some candidates and activists. Giffords, a figurative target of the right, on Saturday became the actual target of a gunman who shot her through the head and killed at least five others. She was critically wounded.
The gunman's motive is not known.
But in Pima County, Ariz., Sheriff Clarence Dupnik suggested "all this vitriol" in recent political discourse might be connected to Saturday's shootings. "This may be free speech," he told reporters, "but it's not without consequences."
Whatever the motive, the toxic tone of the national debate is certain to draw greater scrutiny.
"We do know that politics has become too personal, too nasty and perhaps too dangerous," said Jonathan Cowan, president of the centrist Democratic group Third Way. "Perhaps out of this senseless act some sense can return to our public discourse." MORE HERE