Joe Scarborough Makes The Point
I can’t stop thinking about the Tucson shooting. I have even started talking to myself as I go about my day. In my one-on-one conversations I always come back to the same point about violence and rhetoric. Joe Scarborough, in a letter calling out Palin and Beck by name, puts my thoughts into words:
You weren’t personally responsible for the slaughter at the Safeway. Maybe you can put it on a poster at the next “Talkers” convention.
But before you and the pack of right-wing polemicists who make big bucks spewing rage on a daily basis congratulate yourselves for not being responsible for Jared Lee Loughner’s rampage, I recommend taking a deep breath. Just because the dots between violent rhetoric and violent actions don’t connect in this case doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore the possibility — or, as many fear, the inevitability — that someone else will soon draw the line between them.…
Now that the right has proved to the world that it was wronged, this would be a good time to prevent the next tragedy from destroying its political momentum. Despite what we eventually learned about the shooter in Tucson, should the right have really been so shocked that many feared a political connection between the heated rhetoric of 2010 and the shooting of Giffords?
Greg Sargent finishes is up. (Yes, shame on me for lazy blogging, but when someone does all the work so perfectly…)
Again, it’s wrong to blame anyone for the shooting. But ask yourself this. How many figures on the right have been willing to engage in any way on the broader question of whether it’s at least possible that our current climate could lead to future violence? How many conservatives have been willing to discuss the topic at all?
I’m going to stop talking to myself now.
Tags: Conservatives, Glenn Beck, Greg Sargent, Joe Scarborough, Republicans, Sarah Palin
Now that the right has proved to the world that it was wronged
Huh?
Again, it’s wrong to blame anyone for the shooting.
Double Huh?
Well, he is a Republican. And while he couches certain points… if you read the bold he’s pretty darn clear.
And rather than focusing on the blame word dance… I’m just happy that an R is speaking up – and in a way that has me nodding my head. Because if we’re serious about we’re saying then having an R carry 90% of the message to other Rs is effective.
I believe in rewarding positive behavior. 🙂
Yeah, I think it’s wrong to say he wasn’t influenced by rightwing propaganda. It looks like he was heavily influenced by Alex Jones. I guess somehow it’s conventional wisdom that the right had no influence, huh?
“An extremely quiet child” they called you in your school report
“He’s always taken interest in the subjects that he’s taught”
So what was it that brought the squad car screaming up your drive
To notify your parents of the manner in which you died
At St. Patricks every Sunday, Father Fletcher heard your sins
“Oh, he’s unconcerned with competition he never cares to win”
But blood stained a young hand that never held a gun
And his parents never thought of him as their troubled son
“Now you’ll never get to Heaven” Mama said
Remember Mama said
Ticking, ticking
“Grow up straight and true blue
Run along to bed”
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking
They had you holed up in a downtown bar screaming for a priest
Some gook said “His brain’s just snapped” then someone called the police
You’d knifed a Negro waiter who had tried to calm you down
Oh you’d pulled a gun and told them all to lay still on the ground
Promising to hurt no one, providing they were still
A young man tried to make a break, with tear-filled eyes you killed
That gun butt felt so smooth and warm cradled in your palm
Oh your childhood cried out in your head “they mean to do you harm”
“Don’t ever ride on the devil’s knee” Mama said
Remember mama said
Ticking, ticking
“Pay your penance well, my child
Fear where angels tread”
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking
Within an hour the news had reached the media machine
A male caucasian with a gun had gone berserk in Queens
The area had been sealed off, the kids sent home from school
Fourteen people lying dead in a bar they called the Kicking Mule
Oh they pleaded to your sanity for the sake of those inside
“Throw out your gun, walk out slow just keep your hands held high”
But they pumped you full of rifle shells as you stepped out the door
Oh you danced in death like a marionette on the vengeance of the law
“You’ve slept too long in silence” Mama said
Remember Mama said
Ticking, ticking
“Crazy boy, you’ll only wind up with strange notions in your head”
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking