We don't know yet whether the shooting of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was politically motivated or not, but regardless, we need to take a moment and think about the poison in our political discourse because there's been plenty of incitement out there and it's not coming equally, not by a long shot, from both sides of the political spectrum. There's been a lot of over-heated rhetoric in this country for the past few years, and it greatly intensified when President Obama was a candidate. His opponents in that race, Arizona's John McCain and the woman CJG won't name, tried strenuously to tie Obama to a 60's radical named Bill Ayers who they called a terrorist. The implication wasn't at all subtle and was even stated explicitly: Obama "pals around" with terrorists. What's the message there when the nation is waging a so-called "War on Terrorism?" Since his election, GOP leaders such as Newt Gingrich have tried to plant the idea that Obama isn't one of us saying that one can only understand Obama's world view through the lens of a Lao Tribesman of Kenya, a reference to Obama's father's tribe. A majority of Republicans, according to polls, believe Obama is a foriegn-born Muslim; a quarter think he's the Antichrist. That should take your breath away. Senate candidates like Sharon Angle and many congressional candidates hinted darkly at "Second Amendment remedies" if the "right" candidates weren't elected in November. And 24/7 FOX News throws garbage into the public discourse, most of it targeted at the President. Yeah, there's some overheated rhetoric on both sides but there is no rough equivalency here, none. It's like comparing the Empire State Building to a two-story condo in Van Nuys.
Now, yesterday, the former half-term governor of Alaska issued a statement about the shootings, one filled with sympathy for the victims and so forth. But take a good look at the poster below that her Political Action Committee produced before the 2010 mid-term elections, and note that one of those in the crosshairs is none other than Congresswoman Giffords (fourth name down in the first column). Now, CJG wants to be clear here. The shooter may never have seen this poster. It may have played no role in yesterday's tragedy. But is this really appropriate, especially from someone aspiring to be president? CJG hopes that somewhere today the former governor is feeling just a little bit of regret about this poster given what happened yesterday, maybe even regretful enough to come out and say it. When this poster first came out it was defended with words like, "no sane person is going to take this as an invitation to go hunting." But that's the problem. There are too many insane people out there and far too many of them have easy access to guns. This poster and similar rhetoric isn't going to be the tipping point for a sane person, but for any one of a large number of unbalanced people consuming this poison it might well be. CJG's point is that whether yesterday's shootings were politically motivated or not, we are playing with fire and the grownups need to tell the children to stop.
P.S. By the way, Congresswoman Giffords is the first Jewish woman to represent Arizona in Congress.
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