It's not blaming, it's asking for civility in light of recent events...

After the tragedy comes the in-house fighting of who did what that could have caused this "senseless" tragedy that ended the lives of 6 people, some with their whole life ahead of them and some who have lived a long one. I personally don't see any of this as blaming, per se. I think it is more like we've been forced to take a long, hard look at how political conversation has been taken to the extreme in the media, including radio talk shows. The cold, hard facts are that many politicians and various media personalities do, consistently, say some pretty vile things about those who they don't agree with politically or religiously. The other cold, hard fact is that this violent/dehumanizing tone is now the status quo and people watch/listen to this stuff day-in and day-out.

They are told that there are fellow Americans who want to destroy America and their way of life. That members of government that are not part of THEIR party want nothing more than to see them suffer. They are told that they have to fight back and not lie down and take it because that is not what a TRUE American does. This is beaten into the minds of people 24/7--someone who doesn't belong to the same political party as you, that lives next door to you, in your city, works with you has an agenda to destroy America and you along with it.

We are then told that enemies of America have no rights and certainly don't deserve any. Then we are told that its okay to kill and torture them because the future of our country and our children depends on getting rid of these people. Its called conditioning and its aim is to dehumanize the enemy, i.e. anyone who doesn't agree with your political views.

This is why this kind of rhetoric and overall tone of politics in this country needs to stop and those who perpetrate it SHOULD be held accountable when repeated calls for it to stop are mocked and ridiculed and then this happens. Its not so much that they said something controversial and months later someone killed someone POSSIBLY because of what was said. It is the fact that when these things were said, people came out in full force asking them to stop saying such disturbing things and they were, again, made out to be enemies of freedom. They were told that if they kept speaking in such ways something terrible was going to happen. They refused to cut it out and now 6 people are dead. Is it their fault? No. But it could very well have been prevented if they had toned it down and conversated more like calm, rational, logical ADULTS instead of violent, egotistical degenerates.

Please note that I purposefully am not using labels in this because anyone who every had anything violent to say about a political "enemy" is at least partly responsible for the death of anyone killed by someone motivated by political views, WHATEVER those political views might be. In my opinion this cannot be likened to blaming heavy-metal music and violent video games to an every-increasing violent youth. It is different in that we are dealing with a severely negative tone in national political conversation in which people are being led to believe their entire country and freedom is at stake. People become most violent when they feel they have no other choice than to protect themselves and that is exactly what is going on.

Your right.

As a matter of fact (and perhaps surprisingly), Glenn Beck has offered to take the lead role on this issue.

I challenge anyone with an open mind to listen to/read this transcript.

From his show yesterday.

source - transcript

First of all, let's start here: my family's thoughts and prayers are with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her family. But also her staff, and the others who are wounded on Saturday, the families of the six dead.
With special note to Christina Taylor Green, she was 9 years old born. She was born nine years ago, 2001, on 9/11. This family was welcoming in their arms -- while we were all panicked in terror -- they were welcoming a new baby girl into the world on a day of unspeakable terror. She lost her life in unspeakable terror at the hands of a madman. What can we learn from that?
I monitored the news all weekend, and I waited and I waited and I waited. I waited for anyone to step up and lead, someone to say something of common sense, something that wasn't political, something that would call us together, something that would call us to be our better self, someone in the end just to stand up and say, "Stop it, knock it off." I'm still waiting.
People are suffering. I don't know if the people in the media or in Washington understand this is real. It's real life. This is our country. But I guess our country, our republic, people's lives, everything, can just be used and turn into a game of political opportunity.
It's a disgrace. You deserve better. And the republic deserves better.
So I decided to go back to a statement that I started the show last week with. I am sick and tired of waiting for a leader. So, at least this hour, I'll do it. I'll do it. And you need to do the same. Lead.
Much to the chagrin of most of the people in the media, I'm not playing defense tonight. Oh, no, no. This is offense. I'm going to issue a challenge.
Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Sarah Palin, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Speaker Boehner -- it's time to make a choice. I know how many of them will stand, but I'm going to issue a challenge. It is time to stand up for the republic, stand for peace, stand for principles, or you can just keep adding to the problem by playing the game. Let's see who steps up.

The game? Stop it. Knock it off.

Note that Beck was quite bi-partisan when calling out our leaders to lead, to take a stand against all this. Read the names he mentions.

Who could say it would be a bad thing if Obama and Palin and Pelosi and Boehner, etc., would stand up and say something like, "I don't agree with all you say Glenn Beck, but I'm with you on this!". For the good of our nation.

reply to post by centurion1211


Well, I couldn't imagine myself saying this a few days ago.... But bravo Mr. Beck.

reply to post by centurion1211


I really hope we can hold him to it. I think in these after-math days, people like Boehner, Pelosi, Palin, and Limbaugh will and should be more closely scrutinized when it comes to how they counter-argue those who disagree with their political views. Out of most tragedies comes some kind of epiphany. Ours should be that we have spent too long, mostly since 9/11 (the very same day that poor little girl was born), hating eachother for nothing more than disagreements. It really makes me sick to think that 6 people could still be alive today and some would not be fighting for their lives if some of these people would have used more constructive words that have much more meaning than the vile ones they chose to use instead.

Apparently, some people will never learn. As I was saying, what people currently have a problem with is not necessarily whose to blame for this tragedy (other than OBVIOUSLY the vicious murderer himself), but the act of dehumanizing political opponents so that some people, who are made to believe they must somehow defend themselves from said opponents, feel more comfortable lashing out against them. Case in point, Limbaugh is now saying Democrats fully support and want to see Jared Loughner get a lenient punishment:

Source

What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He's sitting there in jail. He knows what's going on, he knows that...the Democrat party is attempting to find anybody but him to blame. He knows if he plays his cards right, he's just a victim. He's the latest in a never-ending parade of victims brought about by the unfairness of America...this guy clearly understands he's getting all the attention and he understands he's got a political party doing everything it can, plus a local sheriff doing everything that they can to make sure he's not convicted of murder - but something lesser."

I am not pointing out Rush Limbaugh because he is conservative, I am pointing out Limbaugh because he is doing exactly what I pointed out in my OP, even after all of this. In his mind, or at least what he is trying to convey to his listeners is that, anyone who is not part of the republican party or has had harsh words to say about anyone who may have made controversial statements about whether someone should go on living (or at least implying such) is no better than Jared Loughner. This effectively dehumanizes democrats and certain critics in that most people see murderers or anyone who agrees with the actions of a murderer as having some kind of mental problem, at least, or is less "human", at most. Therefore, taking action against a person such as this has more justification than doing it to someone who shares your ideology.