Six days after the tragedy in Tucson and I am still deeply disgusted and saddened by the tone from Sarah Palin and her various advocates. Sarah from Alaska finally responded to the nation yesterday, posting a self-referential video that essentially defended her use of disturbing political rhetoric and starkly illuminated her shallow knowledge of history. Naturally, she hasn't done any national press and has confined herself strictly to the web. It's also interesting to note that the posting of her response video via her Facebook page was done the morning of the Tucson Memorial. The facts so far do not indicate that the gunman Jared Lee Loughner has any affliation with either the Tea Party or Mrs. Palin. However the moment the news broke that Representative Gabrielle Giffords was shot point blank in the head, many in the blogosphere and in the Twitterverse immediately implicated those on the hard-right, especially Ms. Palin.
At issue was the SarahPac "Target List" that superimposed gunsights over certain democratic congressional districts, including that of Rep. Giffords. The congresswoman herself specifically cautioned against using such loaded imagery on MSNBC, by stating that those sorts of depictions have real consequences. Many other observers pointed to a tweet by Palin exclaiming "Don't retreat, Instead--RELOAD!" that was purportedly scrubbed from Twitter. The peddling of apocalyptic scenarios, allusions to presidential Nazism, and invocations of "Second Amendment remedies" on talk radio and Fox News by a fringe-right movement that has become deeply entwined with the GOP, has been employed as a fear tactic that seems to hold increasing sway over the disaffected American body politic. It is in this climate that Sarah Palin retreated into a bizarre victimhood while her conservative boosters such as Alan Dershowitz closed ranks and defended her statements. Mrs. Palin states in her video that:
"If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible."
I placed the previous sentence in bold to highlight the careless misuse of a horrifying, historical anti-semitic tradition. It's one thing to allege that certain members of the so-called "liberal media" are unfairly placing blame, but it's a completely different beast to cry Blood Libel. Firstly, employing that term in this context is suspect. A blood libel is a centuries-old false claim asserting that Jews murder Christian children so that they may use their blood to practice obscure religious rituals or even bake Passover matzah; a filthy accusation used to justify widespread anti-semitism in Europe. Whoever wrote this statement for her clearly has no foothold in history, which makes it an even more baffling choice of terminology. Why would Mrs. Palin utter such an incendiary term with no knowledge of its implications? Because she's grossly unintelligent and woefully unfit to lead our great nation.
At this critical juncture any hopes for Palin 2012 should be kaput.
I digress.
Naturally, many in the American Jewish leadership came out against Palin's non-judicious use of blood libel. A selection of their statements can be read at The Huffington Post here.
Furthermore, the decision to reveal her narcissistic video on a day of collective national mourning is a true testament to her troubling detachment from both reality and the gravity of the massacre that occurred in Arizona. Her glib tone and plastic smile beams across the screen as she pontificates on "dueling pistols" and "imagined insults". A child died. A staffer died. A federal judge died. People that were simply trying to participate in the democratic process died. And all Mrs. Palin can do is wrap herself in a blanket of victimhood. In a hyper-polarized political culture, one has to shed a bright light on the increasingly jingoistic, vitriolic, and xenophobic discourse emanating from Sarah Palin, Sharron Angle, Glenn Beck, the Tea Party, and other stalwarts of the hard-right.
The speech that the President gave at the Tucson Memorial yesterday was absolutely pitch-perfect. I attempted to live-tweet parts of it (which was a lesson in humility itself, lol), and while I was updating through TweetDeck I had a column open with trending tweets about the memorial. What struck me immediately was how hardcore conservatives were savagely criticizing the fact that the crowd was cheering and clapping during the speeches given by Giffords' intern Daniel Hernandez and President Obama. People were claiming that it was a campaign rally, a revival, false sadness, and basically an event staged by liberals to boost President Obama's image. What a crock of shit! Is there a "proper" way to mourn? Definitely not. You cannot box in the way people grieve. To impose partisan labels on an event meant to celebrate and acknowledge the lives of those who were lost or wounded is absolutely heartless. That moment was an opportunity for our President to draw us together as citizens and offer some measure of healing and solace.... which is precisely what he did. He smoothly remained above the fray of partisan politics and I believed earned back some confidence from the nation. Even Glenn Beck conceded that Obama did a fine job. (Hell hath frozen over!)
Nine-Year-Old Christina Taylor Green was laid to rest today. She was the youngest of six who paid with their lives to support democracy-in-action.
