The echoes of gunfire in Tucson last week were still reverberating when the pundits of the left leapt into the fray to castigate the Republicans, conservatives and the Tea Party for raising the temperature of political discourse in the United States and implying that this was a significant factor that resulted in the carnage wrought by Jared Loughner. That there was not a shred of evidence to substantiate the claims seemed not to bother them. Evidence based analysis has never bothered the political diatribe of the Left.
There is no doubt that the cut and thrust of political debate in the United States is robust and at times quite muscular. Both sides participate in rhetorical excesses and the imagery reflects a society whose experiences in war and hunting results in metaphors that might shock the sensibilities of a society used to the metaphors of the game of cricket. But there is no evidence to suggest that this caused, or in any way influenced, the slaughter in Tucson. Nor does it substantiate the inference that all opposition to Obama’s policies is violent or racist. Such statements are the result of politically motivated mental gymnastics that are disconnected from reality.
To infer that the opposition to Obama created a climate of hate that influenced Loughner is to ignore all that we have learned about the man. Loughner lived in his own private bubble according to those that knew him. He did not watch television; he was not interested in current events; he was disconnected from society. Thus to say that the current public discourse influenced him denies the facts as told to us by his teachers and acquaintances.
Loughner’s writings are confused, incoherent, punctuated with private numerology and inscrutable taxonomy. He warned of government brainwashing and thought control through “grammar”. He was obsessed with “conscious dreaming,” an apt description of hallucinations. These are the symptoms of a paranoid schizophrenic.
In addition, the evidence available to us dates Loughner’s fixation on Representative Gabrielle Giffords to 2007 when he attended one of her town hall meetings. This predates Palin’s arrival on the national scene and the Tea Party. The only climate of hate that was being generated at the time was against President Bush and the Iraq war.
Finally to suggest that opposition to Obama’s legislative agenda was fueled by racism is ludicrous. A complex, costly and massive Health Care Bill that was not read far less fully debated, spending that has gone out of control, regulatory policies that has kept unemployment at unacceptable heights is what it is all about. The race card is the ultimate calumny designed to whip up sympathy for an embattled President and a cloak for unpopular policies when all else fails.
Obama himself remains hugely popular with most Americans; people just like the man. The reason the Democrats were decimated in the mid-term elections was a result of the electorate’s disenchantment with the policies of the left and runaway spending. It’s the policies not the colour. And Loughner acted on his own as a result of his own private mental hell.
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