Sunday, January 16, 2011

The Tide has Turned Against the Left


Has the tide turned against the American left? Before last Saturday's horrendous crimes, things were already heading in that direction. The election last November and President Obama's move toward the center both signaled the decline in the progressive agenda. But now there is emotion involved. Simply put, the public gets it and now the country is taking a turn to the right. That puts pressure on conservatives to solve problems and to be far less vicious than their liberal opposition. We'll see how this all pans out over the next couple years. As the left put away their smiling faces and peace talk for hate and personal attacks without proof of their attacks we will see even more of who and what the left truly are. It has also become more obvious that the left may be ramping up for more violent intimidation's and attacks on the right. We will see what the left do next. A note to all conservatives and independents: Keep a smile on your face, even when the left keep attacking. Watch how little sense they make and how incoherently angry they get as they realize that all is lost in their imaginary mental world they created in their minds falls apart.  they will blame us and anything else as that is their nature to place blame on others not themselves for the outcomes of their actions. Let them flail in desperation while knowing that it is their inability to place blame on themselves for anything that causes them to fail. They don't have a tangible cornerstone on with to build. Instead of starting out with a strong foundation they would rather try and erode our cornerstones and foundation. From The Telegraph:
So here are the top 10 list, which Telegraph readers will no doubt wish to add to in their comments.
1. Paul Krugman, The New York Times, January 8, 2011
We don’t have proof yet that this was political, but the odds are that it was. She’s been the target of violence before. And for those wondering why a Blue Dog Democrat, the kind Republicans might be able to work with, might be a target, the answer is that she’s a Democrat who survived what was otherwise a GOP sweep in Arizona, precisely because the Republicans nominated a Tea Party activist.
You know that Republicans will yell about the evils of partisanship whenever anyone tries to make a connection between the rhetoric of Beck, Limbaugh, etc. and the violence I fear we’re going to see in the months and years ahead. But violent acts are what happen when you create a climate of hate.
2. Keith Olbermann, MSNBC, January 8, 2011
This morning in Arizona, this time of the ever-escalating, borderline-ecstatic invocation of violence in fact or in fantasy in our political discourse, closed. It is essential tonight not to demand revenge, but to demand justice; to insist not upon payback against those politicians and commentators who have so irresponsibly brought us to this time of domestic terrorism, but to work to change the minds of them and their supporters – or if those minds tonight are too closed, or if those minds tonight are too unmoved, or if those minds tonight are too triumphant, to make sure by peaceful means that those politicians and commentators and supporters have no further place in our system of government.
If Sarah Palin, whose website put and today scrubbed bullseye targets on 20 Representatives including Gabby Giffords, does not repudiate her own part in amplifying violence and violent imagery in politics, she must be dismissed from politics – she must be repudiated by the members of her own party, and if they fail to do so, each one of them must be judged to have silently defended this tactic that today proved so awfully foretelling, and they must in turn be dismissed by the responsible members of their own party.
3. Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, Press Conference, Tucson, January 8, 2011
When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become sort of the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry.
4. Michael Tomasky, The Guardian, January 9, 2011
Republicans and even Tea Partiers will have the sense – again, for a while – to steer clear of directly gun-related rhetoric. We won’t be hearing much in the near term about “second amendment remedies” and insurrection and so forth. But this will be temporary. Guns are simply too central to the mythology of the American right, as is the idea of liberty being wrested from tyrants only at gunpoint. For the American right to stop talking about armed insurrection would be like American liberals dropping the subjects of race and gender. It’s too encoded in conservative DNA.
… Direct responsibility for what happened Saturday? No. Mentally ill people are mentally ill. The Beatles weren’t responsible for the messages that Charles Manson heard in their music. But there’s a difference. Paul McCartney had no earthly reason to think that an innocent song about a fairground ride (Helter Skelter) would lead a man to commit barbarous acts of murder. Today’s Republicans and conservative commentators, however, surely understand the fire they’re playing with. But they do it, and a tragedy like Saturday’s won’t stop them, as long as they can maintain a phoney plausible deniability and as long as hate continues to pay dividends at the ballot box.
5. Paul Krugman, The New York Times, January 9, 2011
it’s the saturation of our political discourse — and especially our airwaves — with eliminationist rhetoric that lies behind the rising tide of violence.
Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
And there’s a huge contrast in the media. Listen to Rachel Maddow or Keith Olbermann, and you’ll hear a lot of caustic remarks and mockery aimed at Republicans. But you won’t hear jokes about shooting government officials or beheading a journalist at The Washington Post. Listen to Glenn Beck or Bill O’Reilly, and you will.
… So will the Arizona massacre make our discourse less toxic? It’s really up to G.O.P. leaders. Will they accept the reality of what’s happening to America, and take a stand against eliminationist rhetoric? Or will they try to dismiss the massacre as the mere act of a deranged individual, and go on as before? If Arizona promotes some real soul-searching, it could prove a turning point. If it doesn’t, Saturday’s atrocity will be just the beginning.
6. Michael Daly, The New York Daily News, January 9, 2011
But anyone with any sense at all knows that violent language can incite actual violence, that metaphor can incite murder. At the very least, Palin added to a climate of violence.
And, now that Palin may have the blood of more than some poor caribou on her hands, I wonder if she will continue putting people in cross hairs and calling on folks to RELOAD!
7. George Packer, The New Yorker, January 10, 2011
But it won’t do to dig up stray comments by Obama, Allen Grayson, or any other Democrat who used metaphors of combat over the past few years, and then try to claim some balance of responsibility in the implied violence of current American politics. (Most of the Obama quotes that appear in the comments were lame attempts to reassure his base that he can get mad and fight back, i.e., signs that he’s practically incapable of personal aggression in politics.)
In fact, there is no balance—none whatsoever. Only one side has made the rhetoric of armed revolt against an oppressive tyranny the guiding spirit of its grassroots movement and its midterm campaign. Only one side routinely invokes the Second Amendment as a form of swagger and intimidation, not-so-coyly conflating rights with threats.
Only one side’s activists bring guns to democratic political gatherings. Only one side has a popular national TV host who uses his platform to indoctrinate viewers in the conviction that the President is an alien, totalitarian menace to the country. Only one side fills the AM waves with rage and incendiary falsehoods. Only one side has an iconic leader, with a devoted grassroots following, who can’t stop using violent imagery and dividing her countrymen into us and them, real and fake. Any sentient American knows which side that is; to argue otherwise is disingenuous.
8. Arizona Congressman Raul Grijalva, in an interview with The Huffington Post, January 8, 2011
“The climate has gotten so toxic in our political discourse, setting up for this kind of reaction for too long. It’s unfortunate to say that. I hate to say that,” Grijalva said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “If you’re an opponent, you’re a deadly enemy,” Grijalva said of the mindset among Arizona extremists. “Anybody who contributed to feeding this monster had better step back and realize they’re threatening our form of government.”
Grijalva said that Tea Party leader Sarah Palin should reflect on the rhetoric that she has employed. “She — as I mentioned, people contributing to this toxic climate — Ms. Palin needs to look at her own behavior, and if she wants to help the public discourse, the best thing she could do is to keep quiet.”
9. Harold Meyerson, The Washington Post, January 12, 2011
The primary problem with the political discourse of the right in today’s America isn’t that it incites violence per se. It’s that it implants and reinforces paranoid fears about the government and conservatism’s domestic adversaries.
Much of the culture and thinking of the American right – the mainstream as well as the fringe – has descended into paranoid suppositions about the government, the Democrats and the president. This is not to say that the left wing doesn’t have a paranoid fringe, too. But by every available measure, it’s the right where conspiracy theories have exploded. A fabricated specter of impending governmental totalitarianism haunts the right’s dreams.
… That doesn’t make Beck, Erickson, Rupert Murdoch and their ilk responsible for Tucson. It does make them responsible for promoting a paranoid culture that makes America a more divided and dangerous land.
10. Jane Fonda, Twitter, January 8, 2011
And finally, Oscar-winning actress and liberal darling Jane Fonda emerged from hibernation and delivered some of the most tasteless tweets in the brief history of Twitter, brazenly exploiting the shooting of a Congresswoman to make a monumentally shallow political attack. (hat tip: NewsBusters)
@SarahPalinUSA holds responsibility. As does the violence-provoking rhetoric of the Tea Party 2:51 PM Jan 8th via Echofon
@glenbeck guilty too. Shame. It must stop! 2:20 PM Jan 8th via Seesmic Web
Progressive Arizona Rep Gabrielle Giffords is shot. In her ads, Sarah Palin had her targeted in a gun site. Inciting to violence. 2:11 PM Jan 8th via Echofon

21 comments:

  1. Chris, Your title to this post suggests something that is not realized as of yet. It is as though you are counting your chickens before they have been hatched?

    Like Neville Chamberlain; "Peace in our time"?

    Although I like the premise, we must work even harder, right now, to rid this nation of such socialist notion's.

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  2. More Left-Wing Violent Rhetoric16 January, 2011 14:53

    TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — In an unexpected twist to the Arizona shootings, a man wounded in the attack was arrested and taken for a psychiatric exam after an outburst at a town hall meeting, during which he took a picture of a tea party leader and yelled "you're dead," authorities say.

    James Eric Fuller, 63, was detained on misdemeanor disorderly conduct and threat charges Saturday during the event taped for a special edition of ABC's "This Week," Pima County sheriff's spokesman Jason Ogan said.

    He apparently became upset when Trent Humphries suggested that conversations about gun control be delayed until all the dead were buried, KGUN-TV in Tucson reported.

    Authorities said he took a picture of the leader and yelled "you're dead."

    Ogan said deputies decided he needed a mental health evaluation and he was taken to a hospital, which will determine when he will be released.

    Fuller, who said he was hit in the knee and back, was one of 19 people shot at a Safeway store Jan. 8. Six people died and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords remains in critical condition with a bullet wound to the head.

    Giffords was continuing to progress Saturday, with doctors replacing the breathing tube that connected her to a ventilator with a tracheotomy tube in her windpipe. They could soon know if she can speak, but they didn't offer a timeframe. Doctors also installed a feeding tube.

    In its story on the arrest, The New York Times said Fuller reported last week that he had trouble sleeping after he was wounded.

    The paper said that in an interview last week, Fuller repeatedly denounced the "Tea Party crime syndicate," and said he placed some of the blame for the shooting on Sarah Palin and other Republican leaders, saying he believed they had contributed to a toxic atmosphere.

    Meanwhile, as Tucson attempted to heal, the Safeway supermarket reopened and a memorial of flowers quickly grew outside.

    Randy Larson, 57, came by to shop but instead found himself sitting quietly on the curb choking back tears.

    "I wanted to come here now and see it now and not two weeks later when it's just a grocery store. I honestly kind of thought, 'Well, I'll come and patronize them and shop' but it's really hard to, because by doing that it's going about your day as usual," said Larson, who runs a sandwich shop in the same shopping center.

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  3. C-P are you blind? You can't see that the tide is turning against the left?

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  4. Christopher - Conservative Perspective is right. The tide isn't changing at all. In fact, the tide is rolling over the teabaggers and faux news as I write this. Everyone thinks this is their fault. This is only the beginning of the violence faux news has caused.

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  5. Just my opinion BUT the liberals have NEVER been the problem. The tide turning is a Informed VOTER who have seen the damage of uncontrolled Politicans.

    This regime once again claim to FAME is they woke up VOTERS who were asleep TOO long. Left has never been the problem VOTERS have. If Citizens are shown FACTS and allowed to CHOOSE the Left is Doomed by its own Weight! Their ideaology of SPENDING what WE dont have CAUGHT up to them and I myself beleive it was Tea Party and Citizens, Democratic,Republican, Independant and Conservatives who can see The Nations PERIL and Beleive Citizens are the answer and Government Is the Problem!

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  6. To Anon @ 2011 14:55 :

    Being you stay "anon" I do not believe I should even respond, but given the fact you did I will entertain the thought;

    No, I am not blind. Actually I see, hear and feel just fine thank you. As a matter of fact I pay quite close attention to political news from across the world. By your statement I gather you do not.

    You must understand that I have been doing so for well over half my life of 46 years and am also a student of history that began long before I was conceived.

    It is with knowledge and history that I know the title is wrong. We have won a battle or two but hardly the war, and yes it is a war.

    You want to sit back with your hands under your ass, well go ahead as we do not need you at that point.

    To the rest with balls, get up and be counted!.

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  7. Christopher a tide and a war are two different things. A tide comes in and goes out slowly. I do think the tide is changing. All you have to look at is what has happened since the Democrats lost power after in Congress. I'm sorry Christopher but the tide is changing. But you are also right with your war analogy. We have been winning the battles but the war is not over yet as you have pointed out.

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  8. Anon I have heard about that story from AP. You should go to Mark Adams blog on that subject. He has a great post and you can find it on my scroll.

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  9. Mel I think you misunderstood what Christopher was trying to say. But I think you are coming across clear as a bell. And scary.

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  10. Chris, You take an analogy as fact?

    Why not stick with actual fact, let alone proven history?

    I remain ignorant to your motivation considering this post and your comments on my site?

    Please take a stand!

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  11. WTF does this mean? "You must understand that I have been doing so for well over half my life of 46 years and am also a student of history that began long before I was conceived." What in gods name are you on? "before I was conceived"? WTF does this mean? "Chris, You take an analogy as fact? Why not stick with actual fact, let alone proven history?" Is everyone named Chris retarded?

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  12. @ Anon, Can you not read? You copy and paste well but do not read the words?

    I will make this simple for you in the form of an example (pay attention if you can); I was not even a thought nor were my parents for that matter when General George Washington was leading the Continental Army which is a part of history yet me being alive now allows me to study and know of it.

    In other words, I am a student of history that began long before I was conceived.

    Are you capable of understanding now?

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  13. Christopher I'm trying to undersatand you as well. So are you saying that the tide isn't turning? And I am taking a stand,but what do you mean by "taking a stand". I think it is obvious I am taking a stand, just not the same stand as you. Is that right? If so then what is your stand again on the issue of the post The Tide has Turned Against the Left. Do you not or do you agree with my opinion that the tide is turning against the left? You also asked,"I remain ignorant to your motivation considering this post and your comments on my site?" I have no motive other then to point out that the tide is changing or the liberals have "jumped the shark" if you may.

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  14. After thinking about my motive for this post, I guess I do have one. I'm pointing out that the left have oversold their possition or over played their hands for so long that the American people aren't buying it any more. Thus the tide change.

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  15. Mel- LOL! Please provide the proof the right of center caused this whole thing in AZ.

    Read this and please try and connect the dots.
    http://ap-dp.blogspot.com/2011/01/triangulation-of-dots-just-not-there.html

    BTW: Latest poll shows 57% of American don't buy in to your notion that "teabaggers and faux news as I write this. Everyone thinks this is their fault. This is only the beginning of the violence faux news has caused."

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  16. Mel Fox News and Tea Party aint going no where. To you the TRUTH is HATE and Citizens are now Focused on the TRUTH!

    MSM and many from the LEFT stepped in SHIT reporting on this Terrible Event and it appears you are DELIGHTED to wipe off their SHOES!

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  17. I remember in the early days of the Tea Party movement how people used to react to us when I'd tell them about it. Now people are thinking a lot more possitively about conservative since the truth is so different from the MSM and left-wing talking points about us.

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  18. People have become quite aware of what the TPP stands for and what their principles are and discovered how wrong some on the left have been about this movement.
    The left are losing the debate.
    Thats a good thing! :)

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  19. Chris, Just like here and my site, if you cannot comprehend what I respond to I simply cannot help.

    I will offer advise though; read your stuff FIRST and then my comment as that is how it works.

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  20. I feel the same way Chris. I was just wondering why you don't think the tide is turning on the left that's all. You disagree with that and you haven't answered why yet. It must be only my fault though. Sorry.

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Please keep it clean and nice. Thank you for taking the time to post you thought. It means a lot to me that you do this.