For eight long years, I watched how the left attacked George W. Bush with vitriol. The rhetoric they used often centered around the death of the president without giving any respect to the office. While I am no fan of George W. Bush, the disrespect for the office combined with the suggestions of violence towards the president were sickening. Where was the Democrats condemning their minions?
Now all of a sudden, after years of acceptance they are ready to tone down the political rhetoric. While none of the rhetoric lead to any successful assassination attempts or anything even remotely closely resembling it against President Bush, now suddenly the words and the symbols, which aren't even as close to being as nasty as they were during the Bush administration are to blame for the Gabrielle Giffords shooting.
Transferring the blame away from the sick, twisted mind of Jared Loughner, politicians continue to blame words for Saturday's violence. It's not just Democrats either. I know of a few Republicans that have decided to take this avenue. I am struck at the stupidity of Representative Brad Sherman, who appears would rather limit free speech than realize the problem is not in the rhetoric or George W. Bush would have been taken out years ago. In fact, there is really nothing to suggest from what I have read that Jared Loughner engaged in any of the lighter weight rhetoric like talk radio that is currently under attack. Talk radio definitely is the vitriol parallel to the man holding the sign in the picture.
On Fox News, Representative Brad Sherman basically said, if we continue to allow free speech, we will eventually see a incident in which free speech created the violence.
"Whether [political rhetoric] caused what happened in Tucson or not, it’ll cause the next tragedy," Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) predicts on FOX News.
It will cause the next tragedy? How do you know that Mr. Sherman? Do you have a magic crystal ball? How do you know it's political rhetoric? Why can't it just be a sick mind?
Listen, I am sorry that this tragedy happened, but this tragedy doesn't justify the elimination of American freedoms because there is one bad bug out of over 300 million bugs.
