re: #60 Olsonist

You could blame them for this specific attempt if there was something besides correlation (which alone is not causation). Remember Adkisson, who was pretty explicit that he was targeting liberals, and who wanted to kill 100 people from Bernie Goldberg’s book? That was a causal link, regardless of Adkisson’s sanity.

Here, the far-right anti-govt worldview nurtured Loughner’s insanity (or vice versa), but there are no specific ties to mainstream GOP or their rhetoric. The vague far-right ideas + insanity caused Loughner’s hate towards Giffords (and George W. Bush, who would also likely be a target, if opportunity presented itself) back in 2007 (or earlier). So Palin’s map can hardly be blamed for this particular instance.

It doesn’t mean such vile rhetoric cannot move other shooters. Which is why Palin was rightly called out, and which is why R’s should be continually called out on it. But every single “ideological” shooting cannot be blamed on R’s.