My good friend, who happens to be quite politically conservative, asked me last night if I thought Palin and her ilk caused last week's Arizona tragedy. I said no, because Loughner was clearly mentally ill. My friend then claimed last evening violent rhetoric is not mainly the province of the right, but comes equally from both sides. He cited, as his example, a remark that President Obama had made about "bringing a gun to a knife fight." In response, I told him that while the facts showed otherwise, and he quite reasonably offered to consider those facts if I presented them to him. This morning, I wrote him the following e-mail, which I thought might be valuable for others in this community faced with the same question from potentially reasonable conservative friends and family members. (I've left the URLs in the text, in case some of you would wish to copy and paste parts of it.)
Thank you for your offer to consider facts in the discussion over violent rhetoric. Here's my first entry: the full context of the remarks you mentioned from then-candidate Obama regarding bringing a gun to a knife fight. They were made as part of a private Democratic fundraiser in June 2008 in Philadelphia, not a public speech, and in any event were (in proper context) clearly not a call to violence but to tough politicking:
"He warned that the general election campaign could get ugly. "They’re going to try to scare people. They’re going to try to say that ‘that Obama is a scary guy,’" he said. A donor yelled out a deep accented "Don’t give in!"
"I won’t but that sounded pretty scary. You’re a tough guy," Obama said.
"If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun," Obama said. "Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.""
The blog article from the Chicago Sun-Times from the next day is at http://is.gd/....
Even McCain's own spokesman, at the time, clearly stated that the context was a "political knife fight," as per this piece in Politico: http://is.gd/...
and the WSJ blog from 2008 that was apparently rerun this week: http://is.gd/...
Further, while there are certainly examples of offensive and violent statements coming from those who affiliate themselves with left-wing politics, even Michelle Malkin's own laundry list (http://is.gd/...) doesn't highlight thought leaders or politicians, only individuals. Nor do even those statements suggest that there is any overall anti-American movement, or threat to the populace at large, or call for revolution.
By contrast, the rhetoric from well-paid, well-publicized right wing pundits with prime-time network shows clearly and repeatedly describes the President and the U.S. government as the enemy and a threat to Americans' lives and liberty. Here is Glenn Beck from June 2010 (asking me to share this episode with my friends) suggesting that people "that are everywhere within our government and our education system" are willing to kill 10 percent of the U.S. population:
http://mediamatters.org/...
Here, Jim Quinn (at end of clip, but clearly properly in context from what comes before) says that President Obama "is trying to destroy the country":
http://mediamatters.org/...
During the healthcare debate, the punditry was explicit in describing the President and the supporters of health care reform as intending to destroy the country and literally kill senior citizens and overweight people, and predicted a literal insurrection and bloodbath should health care reform pass:
http://mediamatters.org/...
Here (http://is.gd/...) is another timeline of very explicit anti-government violent rhetoric from major media and political (Rep. Michele Bachmann, Rep. Paul Broun, Rep. Joe Barton, the Republican candidate for Attorney General in Connecticut, Republican candidates for congress in South Carolina, Texas and Alabama, NV Senate candidate Sharron Angle, etc.) figures. I do not by any means claim these are typical Republican or conservative views, but rather that these repulsive and explicit violent metaphoric and actual calls to violence against the government and those holding opposing ideas, from major media figures and elected officials, are much more prevalent and tolerated from the right than from the left.
The repeated and multifaceted evocation of violence against the government are having a demonstrable effect. Last week, CBS News polled Americans in the wake of the Arizona shootings. In the poll (available as a PDF at http://is.gd/...), one question was, "Do you think it is ever justified for citizens to take violent action against the government, or is it never justified?" It's a poor question, one which could evoke legitimate struggle against genocidal governments like Nazi Germany as well as other situations, but the results are telling: 28% of self-identified Republicans answered that it is justified, versus only 11 percent each of Democrats and independents.
I would greatly appreciate your response, and thanks again. {Jonathan}