Crazy People, Bullets & Gabrielle Giffords
Yesterday in Tuscon, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot along with several others. Six people are dead, including a federal judge and a nine-year old girl. We don’t know the specific motives of deranged shooter Jared Loughner, but it was quite likely political. I just wonder if this type of shooting may have been inevitable. Why?
During the last decade, the political oratory has become increasingly toxic. Our two-party system has devolved into hyper-partisan warfare. Political opponents have become “evil” enemies. The “wingnuts”, as John Avlon calls them, have hurled the most caustic yet unsupported accusations.
Both Bush and Obama have been compared to Hitler. Even Nixon didn’t get that kind of treatment. Obama has been called a fascist, a communist, as well as the Antichrist. According to right-wing instigators, he is a Muslim, not born in America, and set on executing us all via death panels.
Partisan propagandists like Rush Limbaugh, Keith Olbermann, Glenn Beck, Rachel Maddow, and a host of others, have sought to appeal to our worst fears and emotions, never letting facts interfere with the ratcheting up of the partisan hatred (or ratings). Spin has turned so irrational, that it has made many equally irrational. With all the angst added to a difficult economy, violence was bound to erupt. A number of local congressional offices have already been attacked. With all the crazies out there, sooner or later, somebody was going to get shot.
Maybe it is time everyone dials down the rhetoric. It may not be as exciting or get the same ratings, but maybe rational discourse is the patriotic thing to do rather than the mutual demonization that is currently practiced. Free speech is not free of consequences. For everyone’s sake, let’s keep the crazy talk from reaching the crazy people.
