Initially I was astounded at the finger-pointing of so many on the left immediately after the Tucson shooting on January 8, 2011. Many felt that the “hate mongering” of the right - and especially of Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck - were directly responsible for the shooting spree of the deranged person. Then a Democrat that I previously respected not only jumped on the blame train but was one of the first aboard. And after much discussion this person continued to defend the “wondering” about how Palin’s and Beck’s “hate mongering” could have inspired the violence. That ended my illusions that there was any reasoning with someone on the left. It is indeed sad that when faced with irrefutable evidence that they are wrong, so many can’t admit it and apologize.
After years of telling myself that this person just felt “strongly” about his beliefs but that at least he attempted to be fair, I realized that no, he doesn’t attempt to be fair. It’s just empty rhetoric. Being fair and learning the facts about a situation are not even on his radar screen. The only real information, to him, are the talking points of the left.
Many on the left are so blinded by their absolute allegiance to those talking points that they are willing, by default, to call friends and families racists and hate-mongers. How could anyone with a fair bone in their body look at Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and see “hate”? It’s just not there - except via leftist sites that deliberately misrepresent things.
I am conservative. I agree wholeheartedly with the Tea Party tenets. Many MANY of my friends and acquaintances believe similarly. There is no hate, no racism, no mean-spiritedness in any of them. I read many conservative websites. Some people on those websites are disrespectful of Obama, but I have never seen anyone wish for his death. I’ve never seen anyone wish harm on his children. I have read a few liberal websites, and I have seen many MANY wishes for Palin’s death, many MANY wishes for harm to her children. There is even a “death to Palin” page on Facebook. On conservative websites, there is anger about Obama’s politics. There is dismay. People poke fun at him. However, I have seen absolutely no violence - either spoken, implied or advocated.
People who say Sarah Palin is not very bright are being dishonest. They pick and choose which facts they will believe. They will believe and promote exaggerations and outright lies about conservatives - and particularly about Sarah Palin, and they will disbelieve or ignore proven facts about liberals - and particularly about Obama.
The past two days have been an epiphany for me. I realize that there is no reasoning with someone who not only is willing - but eager - to take a tragedy and use it in an attempt to score political points. And make no mistake - it is merely to score political points to proclaim that it is reasonable to “wonder” about how supposed right-wing hate speech could inspire a mentally ill person to violence - a mentally ill person who neither watched the news or identified with the right - a mentally ill person whose few political references indicated he leaned to the left. There is no reasoning with someone who talks about the danger of hate-filled rhetoric while using hate-filled rhetoric themselves. There is no reasoning with someone who will not see the absolute hypocrisy of their words and actions. And there is no reasoning with someone who chooses to marginalize their opposition so that they don’t have to listen to another point of view. Each person who jumped to lay blame - to openly “wonder” about how their political opponents might have inspired these murders - was wrong. Absolutely. And if they can’t see it and admit it, then I have no respect for them whatsoever because their “politics” is about nothing more than scoring points.
Folks on the left will continue to vilify Sarah Palin and Glenn Beck and all conservatives. And independents and conservatives will continue to see the ultimate dishonesty and hypocrisy in the left’s words and actions - because the facts that they live with each day do not fit the left’s dearly loved talking points. The left can scream about hatred and racism on the right till the cows come home, but we know it’s simply not true. Independents and the right understand that many of the things the left accuses the right of are actually the things the left does. And they will vote accordingly.
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