I felt sick reading about the events in Arizona. Not least because America has been robbed (even temporarily) of a highly regarded female Congresswoman (the Observer yesterday quoted Robert Reich, a labour secretary under Clinton: ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if she’s the first or second female president. She’s of that calibre’ ). Perhaps even more disturbing, is that I was not entirely surprised.
I have found myself feeling increasingly anxious about the rising polarity of politics across the pond. In the last few months there has been controversy over the ’Ground Zero’ mosque (that was not a mosque and not at Ground Zero), the continued phenomenon of Sarah Palin and her tribe of ‘Mama Grizzlies’ (at best unqualified and uniformed; at worst diplomatically dangerous) and the ‘shalacking’ Obama received in the mid-terms attributed largely, to his relentless pursuit of providing access to health care for all citizens (apparently allowing 18,000 people - the equivalent of six times the deaths caused by 9/11 - to die every single year, is preferable). All underscored by the rise of the Tea Party movement. What a heart-breaking change from all that post-Bush hope.
That the Tea Party has a PR arm in Murdoch’s Fox ‘News’ and a Chief Poster Boy in quasi-educated, hypocritical and faintly ridiculous Glenn Beck, should be enough (one would hope) for viewers to self-select. Christopher Hitchens described the Tea Party rally last summer as ‘large, vague, moist and undirected’. But he also noted the signs held aloft by the crowds: ‘We left our guns at home – this time’ and ‘We invoke the First Amendment today – the Second Amendment tomorrow’.
It is tempting to make the connection, but is there a cause and effect of the rise of the Tea Party and the Arizona killings?
We don’t know much about the chaotic and destructive kid who pulled the trigger. I have just spent my lunch hour briefly searching the internet and mostly, as is expected, people are trying to make sense of the deaths. That his chief target was a Democratic pro-gun Congresswoman has led to much speculation over his political motivations: Conservatives point to Loughner’s citation of The Communist Manifesto on his largely incoherent YouTube video, as proof that he was a leftist maniac; while liberals interpret his enthusiasm for Ayn Rand’s ‘We, the Living’ as evidence that he was a right-winger. Regardless, he was a lost young man with mental health problems. Arguably and somewhat ironically, he would have been more likely to have been helped by universal health care than not: but Obama-care was too late for Jared Lee Loughner.
Perhaps this event will mark a turning point, where the debate turns to finding better ways to intervene before the minority of mentally disturbed individuals with violent impulses are able to act on those impulses. The ripple effect of such an act is ever expanding and I do wonder if Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin paused, on learning that a nine year old girl was a victim in the shooting, to reflect if they possibly contributed in some way to this tragedy?
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If you feel that way on your side of the pond, imagine how it feels being over here with the crazies on every side. We moved to the most northwest county in the continental US, with neighboring Canada only 18 miles away, the wide Pacific a short distance away, just to believe that we could make a dash for it if we needed to.
It gets more scary and frightening every day. I hope that Beck and Palin think maybe they might have had something to do with this tragedy, but I really doubt it. To my mind, they are delusional.
Glenn Beck just faintly ridiculous? That’s way too kind, Sas. And regrettably, with the killer looking like he’s ‘just’ mad and not Tea Party mad, it means those on the right can continue their vitriol with a clear conscience. Unfortunately and for the first time, rather than anything good coming out of this, I’m sensing a real civil war brewing here.
Have a look at this blog, for example, Obama London. The blogger’s managed to screengrab Sarah Palin’s facebook page as negative comments were being deleted. Possibly the most despicable thing up there, a commentator stating that the little girl killed was “probably going to end up a left wing bleeding heart liberal anyway” – remained, presumably because the author was pro-Palin.
Whether it’s still there, I don’t know, but this is the mentality of the people that the decent, sane half of America have to put up with; dismissing the murder of an innocent 9-year-old girl as irrellevant, because she’d likely grow up to think different.
Sorry – you’ve touched a nerve. These people are going to fuck us all.
sas Replied:
oh yes beck is a complete parody of himself (have you seen his website?) and his politics are way the hell over there, at the furtherest other end of the spectrum from mine. and i think you are right: he is dangerous.
BUT i think it is more dangerous to shut him up. free speech is everything. we must allow him and all the other crazies that bring god into politics. that must be allowed to say their bit. even if its ridiculous. even if its presence in the world is offensive and fucked up.
I would hope that this would be a turning point, but I don’t know if it will be. Already the tea party is distancing themselves, basically saying unless he was a card carrying member — they had nothing to do with him.
one more reason i long to scoot back over the pond to an island near you — but canada’s an interim option, too…isn’t the usa also on some countries most dangerous places to visit list too? ha, and we worry about “third world” countries…