Tuesday 11 January 2011

The Left Escalates Blame Game Over Arizona Shooting

This is really amazing.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik doubles down: "
Arizona Sheriff Blasts Rush Limbaugh for Spewing 'Irresponsible' Vitriol." (Via Memeorandum.)

And at Pat Dollard, "
Leftist Tucson Sheriff Tries to Gain Political Profit From Blood of Dead Victims."

Contrast that to the measured reason of Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu:

See also, Andrew Klavan, "The Hateful Left":
To be sure, there is a lot of heated rhetoric in American politics, as ever. For instance, last spring, three Democratic congressmen cruelly slandered Tea Party members by accusing them of spitting on them and calling them racial slurs—a charge that was reported as true by the Times even after it was thoroughly debunked by videotapes of the event. Film director Rob Reiner compared the Tea Party to the Nazis on Bill Maher’s HBO show last October. And in May, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg infamously blamed an Islamist attempt to bomb Times Square on “someone who didn’t like health care or something.” Indeed, the Left’s hysterical response to all who disagree with it—that they are racist or sexist or “phobic” or somehow reminiscent of Hitler—has become so predictable that satirists, from the libertarian Greg Gutfeld to the liberal Jon Stewart, have made fun of it in routines.

But never mind that, because the Left’s sudden talk about incendiary political rhetoric in the wake of the Arizona shooting isn’t really about political rhetoric at all. It’s about the real-world failure of leftist policies everywhere—the bankrupting of nations and states by greedy unions and unfundable social programs, the destruction of inner cities by identity politics, and the appeasement of Muslim extremists in the face of worldwide jihad, not to mention the frequently fatal effects of delirious environmentalism. Europe is in debt and on fire. American citizens are in political revolt. Even the most left-wing president ever is making desperate overtures to his right.

But all that might be tolerable to leftists if they weren’t starting to lose control of the one weapon in which they have the most faith: the narrative. The narrative is what leftists believe in instead of the truth. If they can blame George W. Bush for the economic crisis, if they can make Sarah Palin out to be an idiot, if they can call the Tea Party racist until you think it must be true, they might yet retain power in spite of the international disgrace of their ideas. And though they still mostly dominate the narrative on the three broadcast networks, most cable stations, most newspapers, and much of Hollywood, nonetheless Fox News, talk radio, the Internet, and the Wall Street Journal have begun to respond in ways they can’t ignore.

That’s the hateful rhetoric they’re talking about: conservatives interrupting the stream of leftist invective in order to dismantle their arguments with the facts. As for leftists’ reaction to the Arizona shooting, call it Narrative Hysteria: a frantic attempt to capitalize on calamity by casting their opponents, not merely as racist or sexist or Islamophobic this time, but as somehow responsible for an act of madness and evil. Shame on them.
RELATED: "The Left's Climate of Hate and Libel."

Cross-posted from American Power.

4 comments:

RRR said...

I'm hopeful that this is an example of what we will see in a very near future.

Cargosquid said...

The Pima Sheriff is trying to CYA because he knew of Loughner's threats.

Anonymous said...

The left is bankrupt for ideas that work in the real world. Vitriol and hate is the only card left to play. Facts do not matter.

Desperate people do desperate things.

The shooter was described as a leftist by his peers. Now it is the right that is to blame. Go figure.

LifeoftheMind said...

This is an active investigation of 6 murders and 14 other shootings that includes the murder of a US Judge and the attempted murder of a Member of the US Congress. Therefore it has both Federal and Local jurisdiction. It shocks me that The United States Attorney and the State Attorney General did not both have the Pima County Sheriff, who reportedly failed to follow up on reports that Loughner was dangerous because the assassins mother is a government employee, yanked off stage when he began shooting his mouth off. The loudmouth was issuing his opinions regarding the shooters motives with the Director of the FBI, who reportedly has never overseen a Crime Scene Investigation, sitting on stage behind him. It will be the duty of the Defense Counsel to move to get charges dismissed based on the misconduct of the presiding Sheriff over the investigation.

The Obama administration has already made a hash out of the terrorism trials. Now if they and their partisans lose control over an open and shut case we may see a truly lawless society begin to emerge.

The Old West was actually a generally peaceful and, being an armed society, polite place. Most weapons were used if at all for shooting snakes that threatened horses. That made sense given the high value placed on a trained horse and explains why one of the most serious crimes a person could be accused of was being a horse thief. The New West may stretch from one end of the country to another but it is looking to be divided lawless and dangerous place.

In two years the Democrats have engineered a government that fails to guard the border, announces its intent to disestablish the military in the face of aggression, refuses to prosecute voter fraud and intimidation, destroys hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth to no productive end, prevents States from responding to disasters and throws tens of thousands out of work, destroys businesses and work, foments hate and bigotry, is staffed by tax cheats, and fails to administer basic functions competently. When challenged or faced with failure their response repeatedly has been to double down and resort to character assassination against their opponents.

Here we have a simple if horrific case. A lunatic managed to kill a large number of people. All that needs to be done is to ensure a proper and competent processing of the evidence and dignified trial while assuring the nation that care will be taken to both protect individual rights and see how we can better detect and intervene to prevent such tragedies in the future.