Jared Lee Loughner killed six people and wounded more than a dozen outside a Tucson, Ariz. strip-mall on Saturday. In so doing one might conclude Loughner was exercizing a Second Amendment Remedy.
Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, and other Tea Party enthusiasts took a calculated risk with their over the top rhetoric and they lost. And America lost. And Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords lost. And a little nine year old girl lost.
With last year's debate over health care reform came a violent, over the top rhetoric from Tea Party members like Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle, a rhetoric creating a climate where political violence was all but to be expected.
At some point their metaphors became literal. Even if the shooter does not explicitly identify as a Tea Party member, the fact remains that Tea Party adherents are responsible for creating a climate where violence could flourish.
Sarah Palin's political action committee singled out 20 Democratic members of Congress by using rifle scopes to "target" them on a map. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was one such target. After the historical health care reform vote Palin told her followers On Twitter "Don't Retreat, instead - RELOAD!"
Sharron Angle, who was defeated by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November, said that if Congress - then dominated by Democratic majorities in both houses - kept going in the same direction, people may resort to "Second Amendment remedies."
Palin and Angle are not alone in their inflammatory and dangerous rhetoric. Think Progress put together a devastating video expose of Republican lawmakers giving speeches to angry tea party crowds throughout the year, using extremely violent rhetoric. The compilation video features Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), Rep. Todd Akin (R-MO), Rep. Wally Herger (R-CA), Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and Rep. Steve King (R-IA).
Hey, Sarah Palin, how's that "don't retreat, instead - RELOAD" thing working out for you now?
Hey, Sharron Angle, is that the kind of "Second Amendment Remedy" you had in mind?
Comments
This article is more concerned with promoting a biased agenda than it is with assigning fault where deserved. The one responsible for this tragedy is the perpetrator. To suggest others are responsible is false and self-serving. To use a tragedy such as this to promote the author's agenda is shameful and disrespectful of the victims.
bs. Every one knows going all the way back to grammar school that the clever can easily wind up the simpletons enough to do something stupid. Except now the simpletons have guns instead of spitwads or tacks.
The American people will not hear you say 2nd amendment remedies, "we came unarmed (THIS TIME)" or "Shall pursue second amendment remedies" and then allow the speakers to hide behind individual responsibility on this.
This was a politician, at a political event, promoting her political agenda. The opposite political agenda has couched their position in violent rhetoric. There is no way that this can be viewed in any light other than a political. Someone has acted. And it was a political act.
Right-wingers incite violence and demand for peoples assassinations and then say it is unfair to blame them for the murders people take out.
Guess what if you keep telling lunatics that there is a bulshavik plot out there and you have to do something about it, one day one of them will. and they have many times in the past thanks to the rhetoric of the Right.
For the Right Wingers the civil war is not over and the Third Reich never fell
hey mike stone if 1 person in the crows was legally carrying and trained there could a been a far different outcome. What if the 'tool' this whacko chose was a prius hybrid or a volt, would you be asking Obama how that EC strategy was working out?
Your rhetoric is as bad as the "Kill George Bush" mantra by the liberal whackos.
BTW, your picture immediately made me think of Harris and Clebold.
This is not the mantra of the Liberals and never has been, i know you were probably in your bunker reading the bible by a 40 watt bulb during the Bush administration but the Democrats (a.k.a Liberals) helped George Bush pass anything he wanted for the most part because we on the left know some progress is better than none.
It is the right wingers that cannot deal with a black man being the most powerful man in the world, this is why the put up road blocks in legislation and demand Liberal blood.
Shame on you for warping reality for your gain.
Jeru, are you that f*cking ignorant? If you still think anyone that speaks against Obama is a racist then you my friend are a racist.
Armed with that kind of stupidity it would be racist for any black people to disagree with anything president bush did.
If anyone warped reality, it was you.
"Even if the shooter does not explicitly identify as a Tea Party member.."
Actually, he explicitly identified himself with L=Karl Marx and Adolf Hitler.
Of course you can't say that, because that would make the rest of the point you are trying to make look ridiculous on it's face. Which it is.
If you ask me this is one more reason for NON lunatics to learn self defense and carry responsibly, so the next time some whacko like this pulls a gun at a public engagement someone can put him down BEFORE he shoots any innocents.
P.S. I am an independent and fought against Bush/Cheney tooth and nail. You can't tell me there weren't quite a few dems who wanted to see those 2 hurt. I was there, in the press, screaming with everyone else.
You are warping history for your own gain and it is disgusting. As a Jew i hope the world never forgets that HITLER WAS A RIGHT WINGER AND A CHRISTIAN. Shame on you propaganda artist Right Wingers.
Read a history book or encyclopedia before you speak about things of such weight and nature. I bet you think Hitler was Jewish too. You cowards are all alike.
Sure, Jared Loughner is a nut case, but so is Sherron Angle and Sarah Palin. They cannot tone down their rhetoric, however, because they don't possess the ability to think or foresee the consequences of their actions.
With all the trash and threats that were talked about Bush what makes you liberals think you have any ground to judge anyone else's comments? I can't even recall how many pictures I saw of Bush with devils horns. Have you seen any Obama pictures like that? I didn't think so..
There are two separate issues here. One is worrying about normal people possibly taking metaphors literally and the other is dealing with the criminally insane. The first is a storm in a teacup and the second is about law enforcement. I don't see where the politics comes in.
it dont seem to be to much for the rethug party and their cohorts to kill people
J'accuse.
What's the difference between Glenn Beck and a reptile?
One is hatched from eggs, eats insects and sleeps under a rock.
The other is a reptile.
"i hope the world never forgets that HITLER WAS A RIGHT WINGER AND A CHRISTIAN"
That's exactly correct.
And Jared Lee was a left winger and an athiest, whats your point?
Hitler was indeed a right-winger, but by no means was he a christian. Religion is something people choose, not a gene inherited from their parents/families. It is a well-known fact that hitler chose to be an atheist and it is quite apparent in his works.
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."
That was me, professing to be a Christian.
Seek sources for your claims.
Actually, Hitler was a Socialist, a national Socialist as opposed to an international Socialist like Stalin.
Their minds are already too far gone to take factual information over propaganda, If they tell themselves enough that hitler was a republican they will eventually believe that too.. With no real base in reality I might add.. somewhat like what they explain "religionists" as.. Seems to me that Liberalism is a religion of misinformation and ignorance.
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