In the wake of the assassination attempt on Rep. Gabrielle Gibbons, some on the left have taken aim at Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement.
It is sad that anyone would try to exploit the acts of this lunatic.
With no evidence, Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik said Jared Loughner may have been motivated by “the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.”
Dupnik has since toned down his political rhetoric.
He noted that Loughner “targeted the congresswoman specifically; there's considerable evidence to substantiate that.” Three days later, no one knows what motivated him:
While you can't prove what the motive was in this case, I think we know that people who have troubled personalities are being subjected to the anger and emotion that is being created in this country, and I think we need to at least look into our hearts and souls and think about it.
The standard of acceptable political speech must not be measured by what might set off a mentally ill individual. Anything, including an actress, can incite political violence.
As Jon Stewart observed:
Many are reflecting and grieving and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. And watching this is as predictable as it is dispiriting.
Stewart continued:
We live in a complex ecosystem of influence and motivations and I wouldn't blame our political rhetoric any more than I would blame heavy metal music for Columbine.[...]
You cannot outsmart crazy. You don't know what a troubled mind will get caught on. Crazy always seems to find a way. It always has.
The looney left is not troubled by the absence of evidence of motivation or double standards. In their worldview, the absence of evidence is evidence that Loughner was politically motivated. In their desire to demonize Sarah Palin, the term “target” has become the new n-word.
Never mind that terms like targeting, cross hairs and bull's eye are part of the lexicon of every political campaign, pundit and blogger.
Many on the left applauded when a film director placed former President George W. Bush in an assassin's cross hairs.
While I abhor guns and violence, the attempts to make political hay out of a national tragedy are deeply troubling.
