Politicizing a national tragedy

A Democrat representative from Pennsylvania plans to introduce legislation that would make it a federal crime to use language or symbols that could be perceived as threatening or inciting violence against a federal official or member of Congress.

The proposed law is in response to the shootings in Tucson of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), along with 19 other people. A 22-year-old suspect is in custody.

This is a wholly inappropriate response aimed to reinforce the idea that conservatives in America somehow caused the Tucson shooting by inflaming public discourse about the policy and actions of Democrats in Washington.

More discussion, not less, is the correct prescription.

And before we go any further with the totalitarian idea of silencing political discourse of our "enemies" (as President Obama described conservatives), let's remind ourselves of the deeds and language of the left following the shooting.

Within an hour of the shooting report in Tucson, the wingnuts on the left circulated an e-mail span that blamed Sarah Palin for inspiring the shooter.

That, of course, is before we found out that the suspect in the case has been described by one of his classmates as a "liberal" and a "pothead".

Shall we then say that marijuana lobby has blood on its hands? Or, perhaps we should ban all discourse on the idea of legalizing pot?

Of course not. That would be stupid. But no more stupid than what the lefty wingnuts are trying to pull off this week.

Or, shall we shut down the far-left website the Daily Kos because just before the shooting the website published a report from a Tucson writer who said that Rep. Giffords was "dead to me" after she "voted against Nancy Pelosi."

The Daily Kos has subsequently taken the report down.

Since the Tucson shooter is described as a liberal pothead, and two days before the shooting the Daily Kos said Giffords was "dead to me", maybe we should point the finger at President Obama who advised left-wing activists that "If They Bring a Knife to the Fight, We Bring a Gun".

Of course, I'm bringing all this up not to seriously point a finger or to demand that far left political thought be banned in America, but to point out the hypocrisy that swirls today in discussions in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting. It is an ugly display of politicizing a national tragedy. And the premise of most of it is pure, unadulterated horse apples.