Yesterday, I posted my response to the left’s exploitation of the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. I also showed a number of photos of anti-Bush protestors holding signs with messages of hate and death on them. This is something that happened over and over again during President Bush’s two terms – with little or no mention from the mainstream (liberally-biased) media.
I also got to thinking about a few other aspects to this blatant capitalization of tragedy (crisis).
1) Violent shootings or attacks on politicians have taken place long before Fox News, the Tea Party, Rush Limbaugh, or Glenn Beck were on the air, or in the news – so they can’t rationally blame them. Some examples:
- John Wilkes Booth – President Abraham Lincoln
- James Earl Ray – Martin Luther King Jr
- Sirhan Sirhan – Senator Robert F Kennedy
- Arthur Bremer – George Wallace
- John Hinckley – President Ronald Reagan
- Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme – President Gerald Ford
- Sara Jane Moore – President Gerald Ford
2) President Obama, himself, has been guilty of using violent rhetoric to make his point. Some examples:
- In Philadelphia, “They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”
- “Get in Their Faces!”
- To ACORN: “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”
- “Hit Back Twice As Hard”
- “We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“
- Republican victory would mean “hand to hand combat”
- “It’s time to Fight for it.”
- “Punish your enemies.”
- “I’m itching for a fight.
3) Some liberal commentators are improperly calling this a "time of extreme, implicitly violent political rhetoric and imagery". These writers are either very short-sighted and, as a result unprofessional, or they are invoking one of Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, which says that you should "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it". Well, I’m going to invoke another of Alinsky’s rules myself: "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules".
I will admit that this IS a time of increased anger and frustration in the American people; frustration with the Left’s (and the Right’s, to some extent) lack of respect for the US Constitution and of The People’s money. It cannot be said, with all the history I’ve mentioned, that Sarah Palin’s use of cross-hairs in a political diagram makes it something unique or critical.
So, if Liberals truly feel as though the political tone has gotten violent, they should at least acknowledge that it has been going on a lot longer than the life-span of the Tea Party, Fox News, or Conservative talk radio. They should also point out similar examples from the Left.
I have no problem with "toning down the rhetoric", because it comes mainly from the Left, not the Right, or the Tea Party. I will, however, not temper my ongoing, non-violent expression of my anger and frustration at the internal destruction of this country by irresponsible people in Congress.
Plenty of examples after the jump…
"MSNBC’s Chris Matthews fantasizing on air about seeing Rush Limbaugh shot in the head?
Sandra Bernhard: Sarah Palin should be GANG RAPED if she comes to New York.
The Craig Kilborn Show superimposing the words
Julianne Malveaux publicly wishes death on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (near the bottom).
