Tapsearch Com EditorKevin O'Brien about Arizona shooting
January 14th 2011 20:00
Ray Tapajna Chronicles
The new coverage of the horrific shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others including a nine year girl took many turns in many trying to answer why these things happen. I wanted to write something about it but did not want to add to the confusing rhetoric.
However, here is an excellent article by Kevin O'Brien, The Cleveland Plain Dealer's deputy editorial page editor. He sorts out all the confusing rhetoric behind the story.
A politics only of madness
O'Brien
Published: Thursday, January 13, 2011, 5:05 AM
I hope Gabrielle Giffords is around for a long, long time. I hope the miracles of medicine and the reservoir of her own impressive strength result in a recovery so complete that she can return to work in Congress.
Meanwhile, it's good for America to learn -- albeit belatedly -- that she was not a political target.
From what reporters dissecting Saturday's rampage at a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store have been able to learn, Giffords was merely the unfortunate public person whose name and face lodged as irritants in the brain of a man whose "politics" was based entirely on madness.
Giffords stuck in that deranged mind, we are told, way back in 2007 -- when Barack Obama was just a freshman senator from Illinois, no one outside of Alaska had heard of Sarah Palin, the national debt was a lot smaller and the terms "Obamacare" and "Tea Party movement" had yet to be coined.
The political climate that people refer to as "toxic" was every bit as much in evidence then as it is now, but the picket signs, the name-calling, the "vitriol" were directed at George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their dwindling band of supporters. It was a time when a movie graphically envisioning Bush's assassination had a two-week run in U.S. theaters and won a smattering of awards.
loughner.JPG Pima County Sheriffs Department/MCTJared Lee Loughner's booking mugshot
As it turns out, the "toxic" climate and the real political issues of today couldn't have been less of interest to Jared Loughner when he loaded his Glock on Saturday morning.
It has become painfully clear that the pundits and politicians on the left who jumped to declare Loughner a politically motivated, Tea Party-inspired, talk-radio-driven hit man, and who credited Palin with a "mission accomplished," couldn't have been more wrong.
We can only hope that the last few of them clinging to that cherished and oft-launched narrative will finally store it away in a few days. Unfortunately, we must also recognize that they will dust it off and trot it out again within minutes of the next time some nut tries to hurt a politician or attack some government installation.
That such a thing will happen again is a certainty; there is always another nut. And for at least one news cycle, the reaction will be the same. New York Times columnist David Brooks explains why:
"We have a news media that is psychologically ill informed but politically inflamed, so it naturally leans toward political explanations. We have a news media with a strong distaste for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement. . . . We have a segmented news media, so there is nobody in most newsrooms to stand apart from the prevailing assumptions."
We also have a political establishment that feels compelled to look as if it's busy solving problems. Hence the flurry on Capitol Hill to further limit political speech, outlaw images that certain members of Congress find distasteful, resurrect the "fairness" doctrine, rewrite gun laws and create weapons-free buffer zones around public officials. None of those "solutions" -- nor, for that matter, the combination of all of them -- would have made one bit of difference in Tucson. Nuts don't recognize or play by the rules of polite society.
So practically the entire "chattering class" has spent the better part of a week blundering down blind alleys. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's good for Americans to see it.
sarah.JPGAP Photo/Virginia PosticSarah Palin
That's why I hope Sarah Palin is around for a long, long time.
I hope she never runs for president, because that would be a wasted effort. She has been so caricatured that she can no longer be a serious mainstream candidate. And with her forays into reality TV, she has bought into the caricature.
But may she make millions on the lecture circuit, be a steady draw for Tea Party rallies and keep sending the message that individual freedom matters and that the United States is the greatest country on Earth precisely because Americans value their freedom. Those are good messages aimed at good people, and they resonate.
And may Palin flirt for years to come with the notion of running for president, because her primary value isn't in the sermons she preaches to the choir. It is, rather, in her uncanny ability to so unhinge the left that it reveals its true, intolerant nature.
No political figure in America today is more a target of hysterical, hateful rhetoric than Sarah Palin. And that's OK.
Say what you will about her, or anyone else, because we gear our political system and our society to people who are sane. We can't allow ourselves to be talked out of that by a political class constantly tempted to respond in the wrong ways to the wrong problems.
Source
Loughner's politics based entirely on madness: Kevin O'Brien. Published ...
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Cleveland.Com/ OBrien - Cleveland Ohio USA
The new coverage of the horrific shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and others including a nine year girl took many turns in many trying to answer why these things happen. I wanted to write something about it but did not want to add to the confusing rhetoric.
However, here is an excellent article by Kevin O'Brien, The Cleveland Plain Dealer's deputy editorial page editor. He sorts out all the confusing rhetoric behind the story.
Kevin O'Brien about A politics only of madness
A politics only of madness
O'Brien
Published: Thursday, January 13, 2011, 5:05 AM
I hope Gabrielle Giffords is around for a long, long time. I hope the miracles of medicine and the reservoir of her own impressive strength result in a recovery so complete that she can return to work in Congress.
Meanwhile, it's good for America to learn -- albeit belatedly -- that she was not a political target.
From what reporters dissecting Saturday's rampage at a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store have been able to learn, Giffords was merely the unfortunate public person whose name and face lodged as irritants in the brain of a man whose "politics" was based entirely on madness.
Giffords stuck in that deranged mind, we are told, way back in 2007 -- when Barack Obama was just a freshman senator from Illinois, no one outside of Alaska had heard of Sarah Palin, the national debt was a lot smaller and the terms "Obamacare" and "Tea Party movement" had yet to be coined.
The political climate that people refer to as "toxic" was every bit as much in evidence then as it is now, but the picket signs, the name-calling, the "vitriol" were directed at George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their dwindling band of supporters. It was a time when a movie graphically envisioning Bush's assassination had a two-week run in U.S. theaters and won a smattering of awards.
loughner.JPG Pima County Sheriffs Department/MCTJared Lee Loughner's booking mugshot
As it turns out, the "toxic" climate and the real political issues of today couldn't have been less of interest to Jared Loughner when he loaded his Glock on Saturday morning.
It has become painfully clear that the pundits and politicians on the left who jumped to declare Loughner a politically motivated, Tea Party-inspired, talk-radio-driven hit man, and who credited Palin with a "mission accomplished," couldn't have been more wrong.
We can only hope that the last few of them clinging to that cherished and oft-launched narrative will finally store it away in a few days. Unfortunately, we must also recognize that they will dust it off and trot it out again within minutes of the next time some nut tries to hurt a politician or attack some government installation.
That such a thing will happen again is a certainty; there is always another nut. And for at least one news cycle, the reaction will be the same. New York Times columnist David Brooks explains why:
"We have a news media that is psychologically ill informed but politically inflamed, so it naturally leans toward political explanations. We have a news media with a strong distaste for Sarah Palin and the Tea Party movement. . . . We have a segmented news media, so there is nobody in most newsrooms to stand apart from the prevailing assumptions."
We also have a political establishment that feels compelled to look as if it's busy solving problems. Hence the flurry on Capitol Hill to further limit political speech, outlaw images that certain members of Congress find distasteful, resurrect the "fairness" doctrine, rewrite gun laws and create weapons-free buffer zones around public officials. None of those "solutions" -- nor, for that matter, the combination of all of them -- would have made one bit of difference in Tucson. Nuts don't recognize or play by the rules of polite society.
So practically the entire "chattering class" has spent the better part of a week blundering down blind alleys. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it's good for Americans to see it.
sarah.JPGAP Photo/Virginia PosticSarah Palin
That's why I hope Sarah Palin is around for a long, long time.
I hope she never runs for president, because that would be a wasted effort. She has been so caricatured that she can no longer be a serious mainstream candidate. And with her forays into reality TV, she has bought into the caricature.
But may she make millions on the lecture circuit, be a steady draw for Tea Party rallies and keep sending the message that individual freedom matters and that the United States is the greatest country on Earth precisely because Americans value their freedom. Those are good messages aimed at good people, and they resonate.
And may Palin flirt for years to come with the notion of running for president, because her primary value isn't in the sermons she preaches to the choir. It is, rather, in her uncanny ability to so unhinge the left that it reveals its true, intolerant nature.
No political figure in America today is more a target of hysterical, hateful rhetoric than Sarah Palin. And that's OK.
Say what you will about her, or anyone else, because we gear our political system and our society to people who are sane. We can't allow ourselves to be talked out of that by a political class constantly tempted to respond in the wrong ways to the wrong problems.
Source
Loughner's politics based entirely on madness: Kevin O'Brien. Published ...
Cleveland Plain Dealer - Cleveland.Com/ OBrien - Cleveland Ohio USA
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Comment by Tapsearch Com Editor
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The Constitution Party is the only party I follow.
However, there are great people like Rep Marcy Kaptur who is close friend Rep Gabrielle Giffords.
Search under Obrien Plain Dealer etc or Mary Kature Gabrield Giffords.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur releases statement on shooting of ...
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur releases statement on shooting of Gabriella Giffords. Published: Saturday, January 08, 2011, 10:39 PM Updated: Saturday, ...
Rep Marcy Kaptur
Comment by Tapsearch Com Editor
Ethics Box
Stories behind News in Global Economic Arena
The Rationale Quest
The World's News
Tapsearch explores untold stories
Click on constitutionparty.org