Pondering Arizona Shooting January 2011

Jared Lee Loughner has gotten a name for himself. Rachel Alexander (January 10, 2011) has an article in which we learn some important things about this young man. A former high school classmate of Loughner has described him as “…left wing, quite liberal...a pot head and into rock, like Hendrix, The Doors, Anti-Flag.” Loughner’s list of favorite books on his MySpace page includes The Communist Manifesto, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. Two YouTube videos he posted include numerous rants about the government and mind control, and reveal he does not believe in God. In one video he states, “No! I won’t trust in God!” Another of his 'favorite' videos shows a masked man burning the American flag. He seems to believe in mind control and “conscience dreaming.” He was convinced he would become the treasurer of a new currency. Most likely the real story is that Loughner is a seriously disturbed individual who fits the profile of a psychopath and was motivated by a number of factors. Since her article, we have discovered that he has no political agenda.

Further, we do not know why Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was the focus. I have not seen much about this in the press yet, but she was a faithful, practicing Jew. Given that the shooter liked Hitler’s book, given a connection with “American Renaissance,” which appears to have some anti-Jewish sentiments, we cannot rule out this dimension of the attack.

Of course, this story will bring out acts of heroism. The people who eventually took down Jared were courageous, of course. Those who responded with emergency procedures on the ground were heroic in their way. The surgeons stepped up with Congresswoman. I am confident that over time, the community and families will be “overwhelmed” by an outpouring of love, care, and compassion. In any tragedy or disaster, it seems to inspire humanity at its best.

Understandably, much focus has been on the member of Congress involved, but six people have died, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, taken to this event to see how government works. Others have been injured. The lives of people have been dramatically changed. What was, and still is, needed is time to grieve and reflect upon what happened. President Obama got it right. He said the nation remains "grieving and in shock" over the shooting of 20 people in Arizona over the weekend, the courage shown by people who ran into the line of fire "speaks to the best of America." John Boehner got it right. He suspended House of Representatives work. Due to the death of the Congressowman’s aide, he had the flags flying at half-mast. He focused on grieving the loss of those taken from us. He then said, “An attack on one who serves is an attack on all who serves. Such acts of violence have no place in our society.” He referred to her faith by encouraging members of Congress on the Sabbath. He concluded: “Public service is a high honor. But these tragic events remind us that all of us, in our roles in service to our fellow citizens, comes with a risk. This inhuman act should not, and will not, deter us from our calling to represent our constituents and to fulfill our oaths of office. No act, no matter how heinous, must be allowed to stop us from our duty. " Sarah Palin also got it right. “My sincere condolences are offered to the family of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice.” One would think that we as a nation could stay close to this type of experience for at least a little while. 

Sadly, some people have sought political advantage, and they did so quickly. Already, many such original statements seem to be withdrawing, but the divisive nature of the attempts to place the shooter in a political context was not only pre-mature, but of a questionable moral character.

One quite obvious example the Democrat Sheriff of Pima County, Clarence Dupnik, who sought to advance his political views by using this tragedy to tarnish his political opposition. He admits that what he shares is just his opinion. Yet, as a sheriff, he has a responsibility to calm the public and stick to facts. Yet, in doing so, he copies Bill Clinton, who sought to tarnish his political opposition on conservative talk radio after the Oklahoma bombing. The sheriff is a partisan who has long fought with conservatives over enforcing illegal immigration laws, implied Saturday that the actions of Loughner were akin to Arizona’s stance on SB 1070 and illegal immigration. "We have become the capital, the mecca for prejudice and bigotry," Dupnik told reporters. He also said some of the anti-government sentiments in the media might have influenced Loughner. Other Left-wing groups like the Huffington Post blamed Sarah Palin, Tea Parties, and the Second Amendment supporters. Yet, everything we know about the shooter suggests an opposite set of ideas, to the extent he had them, to these political ideas. Further, military images abound in political discourse. It was not hard to find Sarah Palin using the image of “targeting” members of Congress for defeat in the past election. The fact that Arizona Democrat Congressman Harry Mitchell ran a campaign ad against JD Hayworth in a 2006 campaign featuring Hayworth in the crosshairs of a rifle does not matter to these persons. The fact that the Democrat Leadership Council featured a similar graphics did not matter. To my knowledge, Congresswoman Giffords complained about the “targeted” map, but did not have the same complaint about her own party’s “targeting.” Jim Winkler of the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church joined this chorus, calling for an end to “vicious language in political discourse, even metaphorically.” He also used the occasion to urge strict gun control legislation. The New York Times is also using this tragedy in order to promote its liberal agenda and to seek to silence opposing voices. Thus, Timothy Egan, as part of the Opinionator section, “Tombstone Politics,” (January 9, 2011), is quite willing to say that metaphors used in public political debate encourage the type of horrible behavior that Jared exhibited. He then lists examples, all from the conservative position, of course. What I find instructive here is that Egan has an objective, namely, that conservative voices be silent. Had he desired to truly wanted civil public discourse, he would have pointed to the many examples from the political Left as well, including just a few years ago a book and movie about how to assassinate President George W. Bush. Egan also, of course, adds his voice to gun control.

It says a great deal, I think, about the person making such charges. They desperately want the charges to be true. More than that, they want to paint their political opposition as evil, deserving of being shut up, rather than as a political opposition with whom you need to make rational arguments. My suspicion is that the sheriff, the Huffington Post, Jim Winkler, The New York Times, and others on the Left, are willing to do anything, even smearing the opposition with responsibility for such an act, in order to advance their own political agenda. I might go so far as to say that the willingness to go this far, using a tragedy like this for political gain, reveals an intense hatred of any opposition to their agenda. Thus, Sarah Palin is clearly “targeted” and “in the crosshairs” of the political Left of this country to the point that they are quite willing, quickly, to place the actions of this disturbed individual at the feet of Sarah. If anything, such charges reveal the rather intense hatred that the political Left has of Sarah, the tea party, and the tradition of gun ownership in this country.

I would invite any reader to explore the history of political discourse in this country. It has never been civil. I am not opposed to civility, of course, and I seek to practice it. I want this article to exhibit it. Yet, vigorous public debate is necessary for a democracy to work. Yes, political discourse is heated at times. I would prefer that people lose all analogies of their opposition to Hitler, for example, but do not want the power to stop it. I do not want someone else to have the power to stop it.

Here is the problem. All efforts to place political discourse into question because of what occurred in Arizona this week are premature. In particular, with what we know so far, the efforts of the political Left ignore facts on the ground concerning Jared’s political leaning. Jared was scoping out this Congresswoman since 2007, long before Sarah Palin was on the scene. He was clearly unstable. One can hope that Carol Platt Liebau (January 10, 2011) is right when she says that Americans have become skeptical of cynical efforts to stigmatize entire ideologies based only on the actions of lone, clearly deranged criminals.