That Gabrielle Giffords, a Congresswoman and John M. Roll, a Federal Judge were shot today, in a district especially marked as a target by Ms. Palin and by a Republican Candidate in the same district, reminded me of this vintage bit of Republican rhetoric, spoken by Catherine Crabill, the Republican Party Nominee in the 99th House District of Virginia.
Sarah Palin is also guilty of disseminating violent imagery regarding this Congressional district: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/is-palins-crosshairs-map_b_806277.html. However, at the moment it doesn’t seem that the primary suspect, Jared Lee Loughner, is a Tea Partier or Republican: he’s just a run of the mill disturbed person.
Yeah but it’s hard not to think that the poisoned atmosphere didn’t have something to do with this, no?
Yes, there are plenty of nutty people out there, and all they need is a story line to proceed with some pointless violent action. I hope this event will result in a toning down of the political rhetoric by Palin and others. That may happen because there will be a lot of pressure on them to behave civilly in the immediate future.
This reminds me a bit of “Taxi Driver” (Robert DeNiro), where a lunatic who seemed to want to assassinate a politician ended up inadvertently becoming a hero when he redirected his anger to the pimp who was taking advantage of a young prostitute (Jodie Foster).
I want to agree with Krugman http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/10/opinion/10krugman.html?src=ISMR_AP_LO_MST_FB but I think this is the most sane reaction so far http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-january-10-2011/arizona-shootings-reaction (well, apart from the John Oliver bit)
I generally agree with Krugman, though in this case as in others, I don’t think he writes well on broad social issues (actually he’s just a not a good writer). Jon Stewart’s is a better response. What really irritates me is David Brook’s disingenuous response: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/11/opinion/11brooks.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB. As an apologist for conservatives, he automatically concocts a defense in situations like this. I ordinarily don’t read his columns because they infuriate me.