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...for Loughner - at least insofar as the "tone of our rhetoric" goes. This kids appears to have been a loon and very likely killed for his own psycho reasons completely unrelated to right or left wing politics, Palin, the tea party, etc, etc.
Is the right vastly more extreme and obnoxious than the left? Yes. There is no comparison. Is it relevant to this situation? Not at all.
This whole blame game has been ridiculous and pathetic from moment one. There is NO evidence whatsoever that the "tone of the debate" had anything at all to do with setting off this kid. There is no more evidence that justifies we should "watch what we say" or "dial back our rhetoric" than there is that we should censor violent video games or ask Hollywood to reduce violence in movies, etc, etc. All of it is stupid, and I will not be watching what I say. We have laws on the books, if the tea party or anyone else actually encouraged this guy to violence we will find out about it. As of now, there is literally no evidence Loughner even has a coherent political agenda and it certainly doesn't appear he is getting his marching orders from anyone on the left or right. This is NO reason we should be self censoring ourselves - nor seriously asking anyone else to. The very idea is ridiculous.
On the other hand, a very real debate should be had about taking care of those whom are mentally ill, finding those who need help and getting it to them, adequately funding mental health programs, etc. THIS is the kind of debate we need more of, and this is the kind of debate that can produce some genuine good from this horrible assassination attempt. Trying to attach Loughner to the right is likely to prove a completely wasted effort. Calling on people to "tone down the rhetoric" when there is no reason to believe political speech had anything to do with this in the first place is not only silly, but likely to backfire. Pushing to get those with mental diseases some can only have a positive effect.
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