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matt_doyleCongresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and several others have been shot in Tucson. There are at least five fatalities, including an aide, a federal judge, and a nine-year-old girl. Law enforcement does not believe he was working alone, and while his YouTube channel shows a record of disturbed thought patterns, it includes a definite possibility of political motivation. This possibility is strengthened and made more horrible by the fact that Giffords has long been on Sarah Palin's hit list of Democratic Congresspeople who need to be removed from power -- the map, now missing from Palin's website, marked Congressional districts with gun-sight graphics, and Palin's quote "Don't retreat, reload," takes on a sickening connotation in this context. I am not implying that Sarah Palin took out a literal hit, or even that the incitement to violence was intended to produce violence -- but the rhetoric was calculated and deliberate, as well as despicable -- more despicable now that it appears Palin is trying to pretend it never happened. Also memorable is the rhetoric of Sharron Angle, who advocated Second Amendment Solutions, and refused to elaborate on what she meant.
While hatemongering rhetoric and language of violence cannot be said to truly be responsible for an action such as this, I will be waiting to see if there is any recognition by the conservative politicians employing and endorsing such rhetoric that it can be damaging and that they utterly disown such rhetoric in light of these events. At present, I doubt it.
I have qualms about assuming that the actions of an individual can be directly traced to partisan politics, and I am not comfortable with dwelling solely on the political ramifications of this attack rather than on the lives lost or endangered and the continuing manhunt for other suspects, if in fact others were involved. Nonetheless the fact that this attack has a political component cannot be denied. My thoughts and prayers are with the injured and the bereaved.
More updates on the subject can be found here and here, and will hopefully continue to post new news as it comes in.
ETA: With more information now readily available about the shooter, it seems highly unlikely he was directly motivated by conservative rhetoric, but my unequivocal condemnation of that rhetoric, inflaming the partisan divide and inciting violence in any way, remains. Conservatives are certainly not alone in having employed violence-laden dehumanizing speech directed at their opponents, and while I am less familiar with examples of liberals using such rhetoric, I would be equally quick to condemn them.
While hatemongering rhetoric and language of violence cannot be said to truly be responsible for an action such as this, I will be waiting to see if there is any recognition by the conservative politicians employing and endorsing such rhetoric that it can be damaging and that they utterly disown such rhetoric in light of these events. At present, I doubt it.
I have qualms about assuming that the actions of an individual can be directly traced to partisan politics, and I am not comfortable with dwelling solely on the political ramifications of this attack rather than on the lives lost or endangered and the continuing manhunt for other suspects, if in fact others were involved. Nonetheless the fact that this attack has a political component cannot be denied. My thoughts and prayers are with the injured and the bereaved.
More updates on the subject can be found here and here, and will hopefully continue to post new news as it comes in.
ETA: With more information now readily available about the shooter, it seems highly unlikely he was directly motivated by conservative rhetoric, but my unequivocal condemnation of that rhetoric, inflaming the partisan divide and inciting violence in any way, remains. Conservatives are certainly not alone in having employed violence-laden dehumanizing speech directed at their opponents, and while I am less familiar with examples of liberals using such rhetoric, I would be equally quick to condemn them.
