TURNING POINT

Matt Bai tells us in his article in yesterday’s New York Times, A Turning Point in the Discourse, but in Which Direction? that the Arizona shooting is going to be a turning point for America.  We at CLN think so too, and agree that at this point it’s hard to tell which way Americans are going to choose to turn.

The media and Democrats seem to be struggling to say, “We all have to tone down the violent rhetoric,” and trying hard not to point fingers of blame.  That will be a tough tightrope to walk, because while there is culpability both Left and Right there could be no possible claim of equivalency between the two parties.  And conservatives know that.

We know they know because the first reaction from the Right upon hearing about the shooting was, “Oh my God, what if the shooter is from the political Right?”  Deborah Solomon, right-winger from the San Francisco Chronicle, admitted as much on CNN Saturday. 

Joe Scarbough said today on his TV show, Morning Joe, that he and his wife both thought for the first few hours following the tragic news that the shooting was likely committed by a deranged Tea Partier.  We all thought the same thing — Left and Right thought that. 

Sarah Palin thought that when she pulled her “cross-hairs map” from her website within an hour of the shooting.  Why would she do that if her first thought wasn’t, “OMG, I might be in trouble.”

And, why would everyone think the same thing if somehow we didn’t all understand that both Left and Right are not equally culpable?  We know and they know that their political rhetoric is over the top, but it’s working for them in elections so they’re reluctant to give it up. 

We all want to believe that both sides are equally responsible because that would make it sooo much easier to deal with — we could all just agree to change our wicked ways.  The reality is harder because the Right doesn’t want to admit their guilt, and the Democrats are going to give them a pass hoping that they will really change this time. 

Maybe they will.  We’re waiting to see.  And hoping they will — we’re Liberals, that’s what we do — we believe in what’s possible.  As Ted Kennedy said at his brother Bobby’s funeral, quoting his slain brother, “Some men see things as they are and say why.  I dream things that never were and say why not.”