RELATED POINTS THAT AREN’T MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE…. | Steve Benen - Washington Monthly
I think Steve gets the over all picture just about right. I’ve edited his entire post for what I think are the salient points, but I’d suggest reading the whole thing. Steve give’s a thoughtful, honest take on why even if the shooter is shown to be clinically insane, everything is not right in our country. The discourse is in the gutter and the blame lies square with the more extreme voices on the right and the inexcusable lack of condemnation and confrontation of these voices by the GOP leadership.
We don’t know with any certainty what precipitated yesterday’s massacre in Tucson, and given the apparent mental instability of he suspected shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, it’s possible we may never fully understand why this shooting happened.
But as those of us following the developments pause to catch our breaths, it seems there are two main, big-picture observations that are being bandied about. The first is that this is an excellent time for political pugilists to appreciate the power of language, and come away from this tragedy exercising better judgment. There’s a level of toxicity in our discourse just isn’t healthy, and it tears at the societal fabric that holds the country together.
The second is that Loughner, by all accounts, is clinically ill, and what might set off an armed mad man is necessarily unpredictable. To this extent, the political/rhetorical environment isn’t to blame for yesterday’s events; the sickness of a disturbed young man is.
I’m inclined to think the two points aren’t mutually exclusive.
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While those details remain unclear, we can still say with some confidence that both of the broader observations can be true at the same time. The first point is that too much of the rhetoric from prominent political figures — including that of candidates for public office and elected officials — has pushed the envelope to the breaking point. The remarks have been common enough that the examples come to mind easily — “reload”; “armed and dangerous”; “Second Amendment remedies.” We shake our heads in disgust, but it doesn’t stop the language from metastasizing like a cancer.
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If I’m being intellectually honest, I’ll concede that early on yesterday, part of me assumed the worst. It seemed plausible to me that a Tea Party-type snapped after being fed a little too much hate, and targeted Gabrielle Giffords for assassination. From what we know about Loughner, those initial assumptions now appear to be groundless, and that comes as a relief. I wanted those emotional, gut-level reactions to be wrong, and the available evidence suggests that they were.
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No matter what the outcome of the Tucson investigation, everything isn’t fine.