Tucson and the Tea Party

by | Jan 12, 2011 | POLITICS

Throughout social media, the left is really blowing the dog whistle on the Tea Party movement, from blaming opportunist Sarah Palin, whose Tea Party credentials are dubious, to status updates, comments, and this San Francisco Chronicle editorial posted by the newspaper’s editorial page editor John Diaz (with whom I have worked) insinuating that anyone on […]

Throughout social media, the left is really blowing the dog whistle on the Tea Party movement, from blaming opportunist Sarah Palin, whose Tea Party credentials are dubious, to status updates, comments, and this San Francisco Chronicle editorial posted by the newspaper’s editorial page editor John Diaz (with whom I have worked) insinuating that anyone on America’s right and everyone in the Tea Party movement may somehow be responsible for the heinous crimes, which appear to have been the act of a lone nihilist who mixes literacy, We the Living, and the gold standard into his puny little mind and comes up with mass murder. I called the jumping to conclusions on Facebook immediately after the news broke and liberals started their arbitrary onslaught of smear and prejudice.

Here’s my response to Mr. Diaz at the Chronicle: “Oh, spare me the sanctimonious notion that this alleged shooter is moved by a “wave of vitriol” that “should” make everyone in the country introspect about “boundaries of responsible debate” when every shred of evidence points to the fact that a lone murderer who hated Bush and assassinated a Bush judicial appointee and refers to mind control, Mein Kampf, and The Communist Manifesto is beyond reason, debate and civil discourse. He has more in common with the left wing People’s Temple of San Francisco that assassinated Rep. Leo Ryan: both are moved by the cult of death and nihilism, a pattern you missed, entirely.”

I might have added that the apparent shooter’s lawyer, it has been reported, infamously represented the Unabomber and that San Francisco’s mayor, George Moscone, and Supervisor Harvey Milk, were also murdered by a lone gunman, an orthodox Catholic Democrat named Dan White. But watch the intellectuals attempt to hijack this crime to smear anyone who does not submit to total government control. Given that the spineless Republican Party, which had initiated the 112th Congress with an historic reading of the godless United States Constitution, asking Rep. John Lewis (D, Georgia) to read the amendment to abolish slavery (the first time the brilliant document was read on the floor of the House of Representatives), has announced that it has postponed a scheduled vote to repeal ObamaCare, expect more grandstanding about the mass murder in Tucson (with censorship as the “cure”) and derailment of the Tea Party agenda.

Tea Party types should ignore the smears, fight back with facts and do so on principle, and keep the GOP on track to repeal ObamaCare, which is an affront to America’s founding ideals. All Americans should note that the lone mass murderer’s targeted victim, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D, Arizona), an ObamaCare supporter who barely won re-election, agreed to read the Constitution with the Republicans last week. Her portion: freedom of speech in the First Amendment. That she was apparently shot in the head by someone who was educated in government-controlled schools is an indictment of the rotten, bankrupt ideas of the past, a government-run education that may have aided in the destruction of his mind, and the crime is a reminder that what America needs is individual rights, capitalism, and an urgent end to government control of our lives.

Scott Holleran's writing has been published in the Los Angeles Times, Classic Chicago, and The Advocate. The cultural fellow with Arts for LA interviewed the man who saved Salman Rushdie about his act of heroism and wrote the award-winning “Roberto Clemente in Retrospect” for Pittsburgh Quarterly. Scott Holleran lives in Southern California. Read his fiction at ShortStoriesByScottHolleran.substack.com and read his non-fiction at ScottHolleran.substack.com.

The views expressed above represent those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors and publishers of Capitalism Magazine. Capitalism Magazine sometimes publishes articles we disagree with because we think the article provides information, or a contrasting point of view, that may be of value to our readers.

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