Republican Guilt

Let's forget about the Arizona shooting. It doesn't really matter whether it was motivated by Sarah Palin's crosshairs (which were over Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' face along with nineteen others) or Sharon Angle's reference to "Second Amendment remedies." It doesn't matter whether the shooter heard Joyce Kauffman say at a Tea Party rally: "if ballots don't work, bullets will." It isn't important whether the refusal of conservative on-air personalities and Republican politicians to put a definitive end to speculation about Obama's citizenship, religion, anti-white agenda, or fascist or communist commitment has any connection at all to the actions of this particular unbalanced person. It doesn't matter whether the death of a grandma and a nine year old have anything to do with talk of death panels and homosexuality in the debate over health care.

These words (and countless others) may not have been involved in this tragedy at all, but they have been used to make people angry and afraid. When people are angry and afraid, even if they are of sound mind, their actions can be unpredictable. When the people aren't of sound mind ... So if this tragedy wasn't set in motion by such rhetoric, others certainly could be.

These words surely do not advance problem solving. They are attempts to advance positions without using logic and reason. The positions may be unsupportable by logic and reason or the people putting forward these arguments may be lazy or craven. They certainly move us in the wrong direction.

These words have come disproportionately from teh Republican Party. Democrats are no angels. They are certainly not blameless for the absence of a collaborative and cooperative approach to problem solving in Washington D.C. They certainly do appeal to fear (any advertisement talking about job loss because of NAFTA does just this). They have not appealed to anger or invoked violence in the way that Republicans have. They also don't have a simmering resentment against the President, which has to be connected to his race, living within their party.

Republican leadership needs to take responsibility for failing to take a stronger stand against such rhetoric, and for failing to correct some of the more reckless and outrageous claims emanating from conservatives. Calling this a problem for both parties or a sickness of the system, removes the responsibility that must rest with the Republican Party. They have some work to do.