There Are Consequences

by Dick Mac

Yes, there are consequences.

The faux noise about the Tucson slaughter is now focused on the fact that the Democrats published a map of targeted states in a previous election. They imply that this is bad as Sarah Palin's cross hairs map, by extension exonerating Palin's irresponsible and hateful campaign tactics. Somehow Sharron Angle keeps slipping off the radar, and she is as bad as Palin in the social irresponsibility department - the promotion of gun violence against fellow Americans.

I would never say that all Republicans are gun-toting crazies; but it does seem that all gun-toting crazies are Republicans.

Democrats, generally, aren't focused on preserving an amendment that is in no danger of repeal. The Second Amendment is going nowhere, there is nobody who is trying to repeal the Second Amendment, there has never been a campaign to repeal the Second Amendment. In fact, the Supreme Court has ruled that no collection of Americans (such as a municipality) can pass laws that limit or criminalize the possession of guns. This is a non-issue.

The entire Tea Party campaign focused on the Second Amendment is a publicity stunt by the Republicans to appeal to the basest, most frightened Americans: whites on the bottom of the economic food chain (a huge number of people), who have nothing, will have less as time goes by, and cling to what few things they can afford and hold near and dear to them: God, country, beer, and ammunition.

The obsessive discussions of the Second Amendment have whipped the least responsible Americans into a frenzy of gun hysteria. These people carry their guns to public events, use language about guns to threaten elected officials, and vote for the people least interested in their economic well-being because those politicians say they will protect their guns.

I have nothing against guns. They are inanimate objects, like cars, pitchforks, and other items made of metal. A gun is a tool, it is not a status symbol or an extension of your penis. When guns are used properly, they are amazing. Guns have been part of society for five hundred years; guns aren't going anywhere.

Sharron Angle and Sarah Palin have made careers on the adoration of guns and the fears of gun owners. When they talk about gun violence and use the imagery of guns and create catchy buzz-words about guns and produce clever graphics with guns, they are creating not some arena for important dialogue; they are encouraging people carrying guns to become hostile. And there are consequences:



The focus that Republicans put on the Second Amendment during their campaigning is a nifty tactic to prevent people from talking about the real issues of our society. And although the Second Amendment is a very important part of our nation, not everybody is a gun owner.

Even in 1775, not everyone was a gun owner. The Second Amendment may not be as important to non-gun owners as say, the First, Third and the Fourth Amendments. Certainly, in 1775, more Americans needed the protection of the Third and Fourth Amendments than the Second.

I do not say any of this to minimize the importance of the Second Amendment, I just want it put into perspective with all the other Amendments, and all the other facts that make America great.

Our almost pornographic obsession with guns isn't bad, but it is a bit embarrassing, and dangerous. Is this all we have to talk about? And are guns that important to gun owners that the imagery and language of gun violence is now an acceptable form of campaigning?

Yes, we have found a graphic created by the Democrats a few years ago using bulls-eyes on states with races that they were focused on. During that campaign, though, I do not recall any Democrats using the language of gun violence, the promotion of gun use, or the glorification of gun ownership to make their points. Never have I heard a Democrat suggest, never mind say outright, that an elected official should be "taken out" with "Second Amendment remedies."

Maybe some Democrat in the past ten years has used this language; but it would be news to me, and likely news to you.

We need to stop the gun violence rhetoric, and it's not the liberals and the Democrats that have their hands on the volume control. Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin, and their overlords at Fox News need to find a way to campaign without promoting gun violence. There are plenty of other issues for conservatives to focus on. Many vital issues of conservative beliefs need attention. Guns don't need attention. Guns are OK. Nobody's taking away your guns. Nobody was ever going to take away your guns.

Let's move on. Let's put the guns back in the gun case where they are safe, let's get back to debating the real issues ahead of us. Let's go to rallies and public gatherings without guns. Let's stop using the language of guns to frighten our opponents.

And let's indict Sharron Angle and Sarah Palin as soon as possible for their irresponsible promotion of murder, political assassination, and overthrow of our government.

Second Amendment Remedies

by Dick Mac

After the slaughter and rampage in Tucson, Arizona, this past weekend, the teabaggers have circled the wagons and their media warlords at News Corp. have started the spin.

Sunday's popular line among the teabaggers and their supporters was that all of the media on "both" sides are responsible for the violence in our national discourse. One person on a Facebook thread actually said that the statements Markos Moulitsas made about targeting certain Congressional districts, using palinesque language, was just as dangerous as the language used by Sarah Palin and Sharron Angle.

Now, I am not familiar with the post referred to here, but I am familiar with Markos Moulitsas and I suspect his use of the right-wing language may have been a poor choice; but, he has not inflamed Americans to use guns in the same manner as the teabaggers and the right-wing politicians. To say that any liberal or any Democrat has used language like Palin and her minions to the same effect is to have little or no grasp of reality.

No liberal or Democrat has made statements like this:



Even a sheriff in Arizona has said

When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice.

Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, Saturday, January 8, 2011

Why should we minimize the impact that the words and actions of Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, and the rest of the teabaggers have had on the national discourse?

There are plenty of people in prison for murder who were never anywhere near the scene of the crimes for which they are serving sentences. People are sent to prison for inciting others to murder, which is what Angle and Palin have done with this guy in Tucson.

Why is Sharron Angle, who has called for killing government officials, allowed to walk free?

Why is Sarah Palin, who published a map with cross hairs over Gabrielle Giffords' district allowed walk free after someone took her advice and guidance and actually shot Giffords?

These two, and scores more like them, have been guilty of treason for months, and now they are guilty of murder!

Angle and Palin are guilty of the murders of nine-year-old Christina Green, Dorothy Morris, John Roll (a Federal judge!), Phyllis Scheck, Dorwan Stoddard, and Gabe Zimmerman.

These people made the mistake of being interested in the ideas of a liberal in Arizona; and some guy who listened to a year of violent gun rhetoric from Palin and Angle, decided these were the people to take out.

Sure, he may have been unstable. Sure, he may not have been a teabagger or a conservative. Sure, he may never have met Angle or Palin. Some other things are sure, too: he has been in the United States for the past year listening to Angle and Palin call for using guns to solve our political differences, and he's been living in Arizona, the center of this hateful movement from the right. It is not a coincidence that this happened in Arizona to people at a liberal gathering.

It was not an accident, and although he may have arrived at that mall all by himself, he did not act alone. He acted with the chorus behind him, loud and clear, of rabid Americans who have been whipped into a violent frenzy by Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, and the right-wing media. He pulled the trigger knowing he was carrying out the wishes of some very famous, powerful people.

He may have been a "lone shooter," but he did not act alone. Those who insist he did act alone are wrong.

The blood of these deaths is on the hands of Angle, Palin, Fox News, and all the other right-wing extremists who have called for this exact thing to happen.

Congratulations, it's happened.

In the twisting of our nation and pretending to honor America's Founding Fathers, a 9-year-old, a federal judge, a handful of American citizens have been killed, and a member of Congress critically wounded.

Second Amendment remedies, indeed.