Giffords Shooting in Arizona May Cool U.S. Political Rhetoric, Hurt Palin

[NeoConsSuck]

Source: Bloomberg.com

The shooting rampage in Tucson, Arizona, that killed six people and left U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords in critical condition is contributing at least momentarily to a cooling of U.S. political rhetoric.

The incident on Jan. 8, coming after the Jan. 5 opening of a new Congress in which Republicans took control of the U.S. House, led the House to postpone legislative business for the coming week as both parties rushed to condemn the attack.

It is also likely to hurt the image of former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, said Ross Baker, a congressional scholar at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

The former Republican vice presidential candidate has posted on the Internet a map of the U.S. with the cross-hair symbols for a rifle scope dotting the home states of lawmakers, including Giffords, whom she was targeting for defeat in the 2010 congressional election.



Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-01-09/lawmakers-urge-end-to-political-rhetoric-after-tucson-shootings.html

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You take away hateful rhetoric, and what does a teabagger candidate/spokesperson have? Absolutely nothing. They have no solutions, only hateful, threatening statements. They are the asshole of American politics.

[NeoConsSuck]

1. And as I stated in another thread:

Sarah, that sucking sound you hear is your career swirling down the toilet. Good riddance!

[Pale Blue Dot]

2. I think we'll know a lot more after today.

Today, the talk radio idiots will have their say. We'll see in which direction they want to push their flocks.

I do think Palin's career is over regardless.

[fasttense]

3. I know a lot of DUers don't see the ads posted here on DU

because they can afford to donate.

So, I thought you would find it interesting that when I clicked on this post I got an ad for the Concealed Weapon Carry report.

It seems to be encouraging people to carry concealed weapons and to subscribe to their newsletter. Though they do post a message that pulling out your weapon in public will change your life forever, it is still a very encouraging message for folks considering carrying a concealed weapon.

Talk about inappropriate ads.

[Blandocyte]

4. IMO, it would take much more to cool the rhetoric

and this won't hurt Palin. The power of public opinion would have to bring about those outcomes. The conservative megaphone will probably be going full blast about "one bad apple," and how the Dems want to use this incident to quash freedom of speech, etc., and that message will become the overwhelming public opinion.

Sorry to be Debbie Downer, but I've seen this sort of process over and over again over the last 10 yrs.

[lunatica]

5. Unfortunately the only noise we hear out there is the ratcheted up propaganda

Because that's all that's out there. There hasn't been anything anywhere close to countering it and there still isn't. The propaganda will continue because there's nothing to stop it.

[Ian David]

6. It won't cool the rhetoric. They got what they wanted, and they want MORE of it. n/t

[Doctor_J]

7. No and no

Ain't going to happen. Radio Rwanda will cease when we the sane people do something about the root cause, and not before

[karynnj]

8. Good article

From the things said of the shooter, it is possible that the culture of violent speech had little part in his actions. But, it really may not matter.

The seriousness and the awfulness of what happened is causing many to stop and really look at what is happening in the political world - and the value system's of most people are saying that it is wrong. The media is - as many are saying here - trying to make it look like it is equally from both sides of the aisle. (The example used on CNN this morning after speaking of heated rhetoric was Grayson on the floor of the House with a poster saying the Republican health care plan is that people die. Now, while I never thought that added to the healthcare debate, I never took it as creating hate.)

I also think that - just as on the run up to Iraq, this is again the media ignoring their own culpability. The fact is that from the beginning the angry tea partiers bullying Congressmen were given favorable press. They were REAL Americans expressing their views to their Congressmen. In addition, the media covered mostly the events where the tea partier succeeded in controlling the mic - ignoring completely cases - like a Northern Indiana event where Democrats planned ahead and managed to keep things angry, but civil with both sides expressing their views. (or a Somerville MA event attended mostly by Democrats, where Senator Kerry quickly stopped Democrats from booing a tea partier asking a question - which he answered quite easily and convincingly. The media in the town halls they chose to give national coverage to fanned the flames.

I agree with you that if this really does turn people from overheated negative rhetoric, it will hurt those like Palin, who really does not operate on any other level. I do think that her people are accurate that they did not mean that people should shoot Democrats, but the fact that Giffords herself spoke against that poster means Palin is stuck with the fact that she put that out there and did not take it down until this weekend. This completely defines Palin as one of those with the over the top speech. If this were the only negative thing she did, then her staff's complaints essentially saying it was unfair might have a small amount of merit, but as you say her entire message was based on hating anything Democratic.

[Roy Rolling]

10. Really?

"the culture of violent speech had little part in his actions"? Sure that is possible, anything is possible. But in this case, a very small possiblity. Over-the-top violent rhetoric affects MOST the unbalanced, not the balanced. It sends them over the edge. This guy didn't make up his mind in a vacuum, he made up his mind from what he heard from the media, especially the hate-filled violent rhetoric of morons like Palin and Angle.

[Odin2005]

14. It seems increasingly that Loughner had no direct connections to the Baggers, but...

...regardless of Loughner's motivations and influences the Teabaggers first gut reaction was that it was one of them; and, as I said elsewhere, they started ass-covering. The fact that they assumed it was one of them is what troubles me the most, whether Loughner himself was influenced by them is far less relevant.

[karynnj]

16. That is interesting

It suggests that are aware of the potential for violence when they are pushing people to the edge with raw rage against parts of the government. It is troubling that the reaction was CYA, not stepping back their own rhetoric.

[Odin2005]

17. Exactly.

They acted as if they were guilty, even if they probably were not in this particular case. That is what is most troubling.

[karynnj]

15. You miss my point - I was not estimating the probability

I was saying that EVEN IF the hate speech was NOT a cause, the impact would be to step back and look at the hate speech in the light of a seriously injured Congressperson. The reason for that is that in the light of day, the hate speech specifically in that race will now be seen for as sickening and not what anyone can be proud of. This is true whether or not it "caused" the murders or not. This has nothing to do with the shooter, it has to do with many people looking and seeing that some talking heads and politicians (Palin) are really far outside their own values.

I agree that a culture of violence impacts those that are unstable. Only time will show though whether his actions were rooted directly or even indirectly in the hate speech. The other impact should have faster.

[6000eliot]

9. We can only hope!

[creon]

11. Perhaps

But, there are people who are mad, bad and dangerous to know.

[Odin2005]

12. I don't think so. The teabaggers are in complete denial.

They are refusing to take responsibility for their hate.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. For how long?

[MrsBrady]

18. a touring musician friend of mine pointed a billboard out in Tuscon yesterday

per his facebook post:
Rush Limbaugh billboard in Tucson reads "Straight Shooter" with mock bullet holes covering the sign.

[Raschel]

19. Keith Appell calls Gifford's dad dishonest, insidious, and divorced from reality:

Conservative public relations executive Keith Appell issued a statement saying “some in the media have implicated conservatives, the Tea Party, talk radio, Republicans, etc., by extension” in the shooting and that those efforts are “insidious, dishonest and divorced from reality.”

[JudyM]

20. Had to turn off the tv just now with MSNBC host saying that the left is just as guilty as the right

Like the Stewart rally. And when I talk to republicans I've always gotten the same BS... that the left's rhetoric is just as pointed. That's part of the right's arsenal... to paint this false equivalency. To talk about the 'liberal media' as if. In my experience, you go to dem politicians websites and they're talking about issues; you go to repubs' websites and they're spewing fear and hatred. Wish someone would do a study to point out the fallacy.