Tea Party America and the Tragedy in Tucson

When asked if his 40-year-old daughter, Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, had any enemies Spencer Giffords, 75, wept and replied “Yeah, the whole tea party.”

As we’re now seeing with the talking heads and pundits, mostly on Fox News and from conservative radio and press, there is an attempt to deflect the reality of what has happened in Tucson by trying to promote the idea that there is equal blame to be shared across the political spectrum for the rhetoric that seems to have brought us to this point. But of course, we all know that is utter and complete nonsense. On the basic premise that having one side tone it down is not enough, I agree. There is ugly rhetoric on both sides, and nothing will change till both sides change the tone of the debate and disagreement. But to suggest equivalence between the so called left and right is just disingenuous and quite frankly, insulting. Take an extreme progressive activist and gadfly like
Michael Moore. He considers those on the right and opponents like the Bush Administration enemies, and uses extreme rhetoric and ugly innuendo against them. But in his deeds and words, he attacks them with cameras and microphones, not guns. And he tells those who would be supporters or followers to do the same, as he did in the 2004 election when he urged people to go to the polls with cameras and notebooks to defend the right to a fair election, and not to go to the polls with guns and weapons. It really is one thing to go after those with whom you disagree with an intent to embarrass them, and quite another to go after them with the intent to eliminate them.

And let’s face it, violent gun rhetoric from the left would not be very effective since the incidence of tree hugging, granola eating progressives owning guns is a fraction of the Red State, red meat, conservative, Tea Party demographic which at its core is heavily populated with gun toting, gun loving, NRA worshipping people. Fine, that’s their right, but when those in positions of real or percieved authority, be they elected officials like Bachmann or messianic TV and radio personalities like Beck and O’Reilly actually instruct an audience armed with more firepower than the armies of some countries to take up arms against their government or those they disagree with, or carry guns to intimidate or threaten their enemies, or to actually take violent action lik eliminating political opponents or using second amendment remedies to influence congressional legislation, then what can we expect to happen?

And here’s the bottom line…violent death and injury has really only occurred from the right side of the political spectrum, and is likely to increase according to an April 2009 Dept. of Homeland Security Report.

But now the people who, as Sheriff Clarence Dupnik puts it, generate and promote “the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people inthe radio business and some people in the TV business” are trying to feel better by making false equivalancies about what they are responsible for. I guess I would too if I were Palin, or Beck, or Murdoch, or O’Reilly, or Bachmann, or Coulter. Otherwise, it would be really hard rationalize their responsibility for what happened in Tucson, and I would imagine pretty hard to live with yourself.

See the TEA PARTY HATE HIT PARADE!