Ok, I have been reading quite a bit of news and opinion pieces about the uproar over “vitriolic and threatening” speech since the Tucson shootings last Saturday. What is killing me about this supposed debate is that it is not so much a debate as it is columnists on both sides throwing barbs at each other. It seems to me that the left is trying to play pin the blame on the conservative and conservatives are answering by saying it is not just us the liberals do it too. (both sides just end up appearing childish to me)
Wouldn’t it be much better for the conservatives to flat out deny what is a patently false and politically motivated accusation? The liberals don’t have a leg to stand on and the conservatives are actually just making it worse by responding because it makes them look like they take the charge seriously. Society would be much better served by actually trying to figure out what happened and why before other politicians start throwing stones at each other?
The whole thing actually highlights how poison the political atmosphere has become. The liberals seem to be trying to score points against conservatives on the back of a tragedy. Conservatives just seem somewhat shocked that the liberals would do such a thing and are full of righteous anger at the cynical way the tragedy is being used.
Personally, I think that if it had not been this then it would be something else. It is clear that the democrats and liberals in general don’t really accept the verdict of the people we saw in November and since they obviously cannot win in a battle of ideas they are going to pick fights like this where they can use emotion instead of logic. Liberals have been better at using emotion than conservatives for a long time anyway. I am reminded of Bill “he feels my pain” Clinton or Nancy Pelosi’s oft repeated justification for her issue positions and votes that it was for the children.