The Shootings in Arizona

The attack in Arizona that left nine people, including a 9 year old child, dead and Representative Gabrielle Giffords critically wounded was a tragedy of the first order.

To be honest with you, the alleged gunman, Jared Loughner, sounds to me like a total nut case. I don’t think he had a political motive. I’m not even sure he was targeting Giffords. The choice may well have been totally random because it was a good target for someone who was looking for a target.

But here’s the big but, the very fact that a lot of people immediately looked to the increasingly heated rhetoric of our current political climate as the possible cause indicates that the American public is uncomfortable with that rhetoric.

And it damn well should be. If it didn’t cause this violence, it’s only a matter of time before some under 80 IQ trailer part moron with a gun decides it’s time to vote with a bullet rather than a ballot.

You will excuse me but the rhetoric is not evenly violent. If Right Wing assholes like Sarah Palin and Rush Limbaugh don’t have a monopoly on it, it’s pretty damn close.

I’d like to think that somehow this tragedy will change things but I’m not all that optimistic. Palin is already trying to paint herself as the victim by throwing around the term “blood-libel” and her conservative booby supporters are cheering her on.

Reasonable men can honestly disagree on things. It’s been my experience that compromise solutions tend to work out best. In most cases neither extreme is the right way to go. The problem with the current political climate is that too many issues seem to immediately get classified as non-negotiable and if you can’t compromise, what’s left but to fight? We’re not spending enough time identifying the common ground from which we can move forward and both the Left and the Right are guilty of that.