January 11, 2011 08:24 PM UTC

You're Not the Victim

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• by: Colorado Pols

From MSNBC’s First Read:

What was particularly striking to us is how activists, especially on the right, were playing the victim when there are so many actual victims — the deceased, the wounded, the grieving — in Arizona. And here’s our point from yesterday: Although it appears that Jared Lee Loughner had nothing to do with mainstream conservatism or liberalism, can’t we all agree to condemn violent, de-humanizing, or de-legitimizing rhetoric — “2nd Amendment remedies,” “Don’t retreat, instead reload,” “Gather your armies” “facism/socialism,” etc. — aimed at our politicians and government institutions?

In today’s political climate, as we pointed out, opponents just don’t disagree, they de-humanize each other; they just don’t question those in power, they de-legitimize them; and we in the media just play along, giving attention to the extremes and the shiny metal objects. It’s time for all of us to act more responsibly. [Pols emphasis] But what’s happening in the land of opinion is cringe-worthy. There are so many folks in search of a high horse to mount. Those poor horses.

Hear, hear! As we wrote yesterday, the Tucson shootings should be a wake-up-call to all politicos to stop using violent rhetoric. Period.

There’s been plenty of defensive posturing from the Right as they accuse the Left of “blaming them” for the shootings, but are some missing a bigger opportunity? Again, from First Read:

By the way, the silence from Sarah Palin — besides her offer of condolences on Saturday and her email to Glenn Beck — has been deafening. As Republican David Frum said in Andrea Mitchell’s “TODAY” piece this morning, “You can hunker down, and you say, ‘It’s not my fault.” And, of course, she’s right — it’s not her fault. Or you can be bigger than that. You can go out and…you can be the leader that Americans want to see.”