Collective Damnation Goes with Collective Salvation
When I heard that in Tucson a U.S. representative, and a Federal judge, as well as several other innocent bystanders had been shot and some killed, I hadn’t yet heard what the party affiliation of the representative (or judge) was, but felt immediately it was an attack against democracy, as any assassination attempt is. And it made me shocked and angry. That didn’t change when I learned it was a Democrat Representative.
What did change, was when we almost immediately began to hear a tirade from almost every media commentator, and the Pima County sheriff, about how this was a result of the inflamed political rhetoric of the Right, the Tea Party, and certain conservative spokespeople. A sheriff, of all people, should rely more on evidence, and be circumspect about personal opinion. There was then, and there is now, no evidence whatsoever that the shooter was aligned with or listened to or influenced by any of them – in fact, perhaps that was his problem – talk shows could have kept him better grounded in reality. On the contrary, the evidence is coming in that he was very apolitical, and more of a mentally unstable loner who fell into the Zeitgeist conspiracy circles. And liberals complain about the government’s inability to “connect the dots” leading to 9/11?
Nor was anything specified as said by any of these conservative offenders that could have been taken by any sane person as a justification or incitement for the gunman’s action. It does seem consistent with their concept of collective salvation – that there is symmetrically a collective damnation for those who collectively were responsible for the shooting. There is no emphasis on individual responsibility on the part of the shooter. Again, this is typical of their “devil made me do it” rationalization, that society is to blame. The victim mentality.
But that didn’t stop the liberal/Left from making political capital from a human and national tragedy that had no partisan origins, but merely a mentally ill individual.
They seemed to bend over backwards after Maj. Hasan Nidal’s rampage to say we mustn’t rush to judgment and thereby incite further reactionary violence. This despite crystal clear evidence that he shouted “Alahu akbar” when committing the act, and had a long history of pro-Islamist, anti-American statements that no one dared confront for fear of political incorrectness. And so, they were very slow to show outrage or problem-solving on behalf of a dozen of our nation’s finest defenders of liberty who fell that day. But now there was absolutely no such hesitation or restraint when a Democrat Congresswoman was the victim.
For all their profession of a need to tone down the rhetoric and not incite, they immediately launched into some of the most inflammatory, divisive rhetoric. The rules apply to others, not them. As noted in earlier posts, their hypocrisy & lack of self-awareness is incredible. They accuse Republicans of using inflammatory terms like “targeting” certain legislation or districts for defeat, but have used the same themselves. Pres. Obama himself said “they bring a knife, we’ll bring a gun.” (there are many other examples compiled by Michelle Malkin). They defend and applaud a mockumentary depicting the assassination of a sitting president (Bush), use vile expletives and hate speech & death wishes against him and others like Cheney, Palin & Limbaugh. And though on the Right there is nothing comparable, they expect the Right to be even more circumspect than they already are.
When the Right have finally found their voice in protesting the excesses of our federal government, it seems the Left doesn’t know how to deal with it. Just like the movie line, “you can’t handle the truth” – they can’t seem to effectively counter with reason or logic, and so must resort to immature, irrational, emotional outbursts, demonizing and name-calling. They seem to stop at nothing to try to silence the opposition, including trying to marginalize them by demonizing or even muzzling them by legislation. They and their ACLU goons are tireless in defending the most vile, anti-religious or leftist expressions of free speech – and muzzling decent, religious or conservative expressions. If they want to honor Rep. Giffords, they should recall her a week or so ago on the floor of the House, reading the First Amendment of the Constitution, guaranteeing free speech & right to redress of grievances – including conservatives.
Conservatives generally argue policies and issues, assuming their opponents are well-intentioned but misguided. But the liberal-Left seems anxious to ascribe the lowest motives and character to their opponents. Like the Democrat National Chairman (& former presidential candidate) Howard Dean saying that “unlike Republicans, Democrats don’t think children should go to bed hungry.” Or that, as Pres. Obama said, the Republican holy grail is tax relief for the rich (again with the class warfare).
Either they’re prone to gross distortions, or delusions, to support their self-righteousness (or achieve their goals) and justify whatever course they feel is best to right the wrongs or inequalities in the world. And in their zeal to heal all at whatever cost (compulsive “solutionists”), and their inflated sense of knowing what’s best for everyone else, they ignore the Hippocratic oath, to first “do no harm.” Instead of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” they seem to think everything’s broke, and in need of fixing, ignoring the paths of wisdom that have brought many good things to where they are, out of formerly worse conditions. Or the moral norms of the ages, like heterosexual marriage, which may be founded in very good reasons, wisdom and even revelation – none of which they seem familiar or comfortable with.
And their sense of priorities seems to often be that throwing money at a problem will solve it. It hasn’t, as we’ve seen in poverty/welfare, education, foreign aid, etc. Economics doesn’t explain all the ills in the world, as Marxism espoused. They seem publicly very charitable – with other peoples’ money (entitlements at other taxpayers’ expense). Statistics clearly show that conservatives are much more truly charitable – privately, voluntarily, with their own money.
The liberal/Left's intentions and moral superiority are paramount – the practical and actual results of their policies are irrelevant to them, as is the need to think through to them, or simply observe them (e.g., welfare & entitlements run amuk, bilingual education, overtaxing & regulating businesses (e.g., in California), etc....). The Left complains about the religious Right, and yet it can’t hold a candle to the dogmatism and stridence (and yes, violence) of secular Leftism. For all their accusations of bigotry and intolerance of the Right, their own intolerance of religion and the Right far exceeds that of their opponents.
What did change, was when we almost immediately began to hear a tirade from almost every media commentator, and the Pima County sheriff, about how this was a result of the inflamed political rhetoric of the Right, the Tea Party, and certain conservative spokespeople. A sheriff, of all people, should rely more on evidence, and be circumspect about personal opinion. There was then, and there is now, no evidence whatsoever that the shooter was aligned with or listened to or influenced by any of them – in fact, perhaps that was his problem – talk shows could have kept him better grounded in reality. On the contrary, the evidence is coming in that he was very apolitical, and more of a mentally unstable loner who fell into the Zeitgeist conspiracy circles. And liberals complain about the government’s inability to “connect the dots” leading to 9/11?
Nor was anything specified as said by any of these conservative offenders that could have been taken by any sane person as a justification or incitement for the gunman’s action. It does seem consistent with their concept of collective salvation – that there is symmetrically a collective damnation for those who collectively were responsible for the shooting. There is no emphasis on individual responsibility on the part of the shooter. Again, this is typical of their “devil made me do it” rationalization, that society is to blame. The victim mentality.
But that didn’t stop the liberal/Left from making political capital from a human and national tragedy that had no partisan origins, but merely a mentally ill individual.
They seemed to bend over backwards after Maj. Hasan Nidal’s rampage to say we mustn’t rush to judgment and thereby incite further reactionary violence. This despite crystal clear evidence that he shouted “Alahu akbar” when committing the act, and had a long history of pro-Islamist, anti-American statements that no one dared confront for fear of political incorrectness. And so, they were very slow to show outrage or problem-solving on behalf of a dozen of our nation’s finest defenders of liberty who fell that day. But now there was absolutely no such hesitation or restraint when a Democrat Congresswoman was the victim.
For all their profession of a need to tone down the rhetoric and not incite, they immediately launched into some of the most inflammatory, divisive rhetoric. The rules apply to others, not them. As noted in earlier posts, their hypocrisy & lack of self-awareness is incredible. They accuse Republicans of using inflammatory terms like “targeting” certain legislation or districts for defeat, but have used the same themselves. Pres. Obama himself said “they bring a knife, we’ll bring a gun.” (there are many other examples compiled by Michelle Malkin). They defend and applaud a mockumentary depicting the assassination of a sitting president (Bush), use vile expletives and hate speech & death wishes against him and others like Cheney, Palin & Limbaugh. And though on the Right there is nothing comparable, they expect the Right to be even more circumspect than they already are.
When the Right have finally found their voice in protesting the excesses of our federal government, it seems the Left doesn’t know how to deal with it. Just like the movie line, “you can’t handle the truth” – they can’t seem to effectively counter with reason or logic, and so must resort to immature, irrational, emotional outbursts, demonizing and name-calling. They seem to stop at nothing to try to silence the opposition, including trying to marginalize them by demonizing or even muzzling them by legislation. They and their ACLU goons are tireless in defending the most vile, anti-religious or leftist expressions of free speech – and muzzling decent, religious or conservative expressions. If they want to honor Rep. Giffords, they should recall her a week or so ago on the floor of the House, reading the First Amendment of the Constitution, guaranteeing free speech & right to redress of grievances – including conservatives.
Conservatives generally argue policies and issues, assuming their opponents are well-intentioned but misguided. But the liberal-Left seems anxious to ascribe the lowest motives and character to their opponents. Like the Democrat National Chairman (& former presidential candidate) Howard Dean saying that “unlike Republicans, Democrats don’t think children should go to bed hungry.” Or that, as Pres. Obama said, the Republican holy grail is tax relief for the rich (again with the class warfare).
Either they’re prone to gross distortions, or delusions, to support their self-righteousness (or achieve their goals) and justify whatever course they feel is best to right the wrongs or inequalities in the world. And in their zeal to heal all at whatever cost (compulsive “solutionists”), and their inflated sense of knowing what’s best for everyone else, they ignore the Hippocratic oath, to first “do no harm.” Instead of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” they seem to think everything’s broke, and in need of fixing, ignoring the paths of wisdom that have brought many good things to where they are, out of formerly worse conditions. Or the moral norms of the ages, like heterosexual marriage, which may be founded in very good reasons, wisdom and even revelation – none of which they seem familiar or comfortable with.
And their sense of priorities seems to often be that throwing money at a problem will solve it. It hasn’t, as we’ve seen in poverty/welfare, education, foreign aid, etc. Economics doesn’t explain all the ills in the world, as Marxism espoused. They seem publicly very charitable – with other peoples’ money (entitlements at other taxpayers’ expense). Statistics clearly show that conservatives are much more truly charitable – privately, voluntarily, with their own money.
The liberal/Left's intentions and moral superiority are paramount – the practical and actual results of their policies are irrelevant to them, as is the need to think through to them, or simply observe them (e.g., welfare & entitlements run amuk, bilingual education, overtaxing & regulating businesses (e.g., in California), etc....). The Left complains about the religious Right, and yet it can’t hold a candle to the dogmatism and stridence (and yes, violence) of secular Leftism. For all their accusations of bigotry and intolerance of the Right, their own intolerance of religion and the Right far exceeds that of their opponents.
Comments
Post a Comment