"Pundits"

Well the dust’s settled and the villain gone, so now what? No, I’m not talking about the Tunisian/Egyptian uprisings, recent elections, or my coming to terms with how much I drank this weekend. No, I’m talking about the Arizona incident (and no, not the neo-Fascist immigration laws either); the man entered the store and shot people including a congresswoman and a little girl. Yes, that isn’t exactly “fresh” news right now, but that’s exactly why we have a clearer picture of what really happened.

The national media had a narrative for us to follow immediately, thank God. Apparently the “national conversation” politik has become so venomous that our citizens are driven to wage war against politicians they don’t like. The Republicans led by Archmamabear Palin spewed LIES and VEILED THREATS, all intended to spur violent revolution against the Democrats. Suffice it to say, Republicans were not amused at being blamed for the shootings.

To be honest, I can’t blame them. *Sigh* Okay, let’s be fair to them… Really? A mentally disturbed man, locally known for his frighteningly psychotic outbursts tries to murder a congresswoman and other random victims in a grocery store. And this is Palin’s fault? Granted, her “RELOAD!” exclamation at one of her Tea Boppers’ rallies was not the best idea... plus it was just stupid. But you can’t just immediately link two events like that and blame a public figure for killing a nine-year-old girl. Sure, it’s possible that her remark or some other Tea Floppers’ grizzlyshit directly convinced him to do that. But evidence is…?

Funny thing, the usual panel of national experts debated back and forth about this for weeks. But no one (as far as has been reported) actually asked the shooter what his motive was.  In fact, we’ve heard little or nothing from the shooter, the police who arrested him, the congresswoman herself, or anyone else really affected by this situation.  Furthermore, there is no evidence that Mr. Loughner held any consistent mainstream political views; he is reported to be a nihilist and an atheist (not exactly Palinesque, eh?), believes that women should not hold positions of power, that September 11th and all NASA spaceflights are government conspiracies, and that a “New World Order” is about to introduce a common worldwide currency.


C’mon folks. This bullshit isn’t going to help things.  If we want to blame Tea Suckers and/or Republicans for something, there are plenty of real, legitimate things we can choose from--things which affect hundreds of millions of peoples’ lives quite directly.  The only way to link Republicans to this is that if Democrats had their way with universal healthcare/mental services provision, then it’s likely that this man would never have committed this crime.  So pundits, pick your battles (better)!