Concerned about political violence in the USA? No problem – the UK Guardian has it sorted. The Fort Hood shootings, the Times Square bomber, the Pentagon shooter, Amy Bishop, the Beltway snipers were all the work of male, white, right wing Christian fundamentalists inflamed by the same sort of reckless rhetoric that swept America before the November midterms
The US already had a distinctive history of political violence in the modern era. The assassinations of the 1960s, the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 and a series of attacks on abortion clinics have all been evidence of the readiness of a small but significant group of mainly male, mainly white, mainly rightwing, mainly religious conservative Americans to use lawless, lethal violence against real or imagined examples of political movements or institutions by which they deem themselves threatened. Now Congresswoman Giffords and the score of people who were shot with her in Tucson are their latest victims, gunned down in the 21st-century wild west.
Fortunately, says the Guardian there still are some sensible, level headed non political fellows around to lead us back to common decency
It is hard to disagree with Sheriff Clarence Dupnik in Tucson, who lamented after the shooting that “the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous”.
Ignore wingnuts like William A. Jacobson, Associate Clinical Professor, Cornell Law School who try to suggest the Guardian is indulging in reckless rhetoric itself – it’s a left/liberal newspaper therefore, by definition, it is never wrong and never distorts the truth.
Eric Holder – your time has come….
