On July 11, 1804, a former Vice-President of the United States Aaron Burr killed the country’s former Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton by gunshot as a result of a political duel. While our political rhetoric has certainly calmed down since then, many on the left are trying to use the tragic shooting of Congresswoman Gifford in Tucson, Arizona, as a springboard to quash political debate.
Our local Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz – who personally witnessed the miracle of modern medicine and life when visiting Ms. Gifford as she opened her eyes for the first time since the shooting – is among those who quickly ran to the cameras to plead for a calmer America. I was disappointed shortly thereafter when Debbie then tried to tie that tragic shooting to the immigration debate by saying her daughter was fearful for her mom’s life if Florida passes an Arizona-style immigration law.
Such highly emotional rhetoric has been frequently used by leading Democrats including President Obama who during his last campaign said “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun”. He also called those Americans who opposed him “enemies”. Former Orlando Congressman Alan Grayson actually said on the House floor that the Republican solution to the healthcare crisis was “Just don’t get sick and if you get sick, die quickly.”
And who can forget Ms. Wasserman-Shultz leading a protest march last November outside of the campaign offices of then Republican candidate Allen West who was battling former Congressman Ron Klein. She called West “crazy” and stated with certainty that he believes in “denigrating women” just because an article he had submitted to numerous publications was run in a biker magazine.
It was so predictable that the Democrats and their liberal media friends would try to take advantage of the tragic Arizona mass murders to rally the country back to their side after they were shellacked in the recent November 2010 mid-term elections in which the American voters put the U.S. House of Representatives back in control of the Republicans and when those voters threw out nearly 700 Democrats in state legislatures throughout the country.
Although the New York Times, CNN, and a number of liberal blogs tried to immediately tie the Tucson shooting to Sarah Palin as well as Republican and Tea Party campaign rhetoric, it currently appears that the shooter was actually a left-wing lunatic who hated former President Bush, included the Communist Manifesto and Animal Farm amongst his favorite reading materials, and had been targeting Congresswoman Gifford since 2007 when he did not like her answer to a question he asked her. Did you know Sarah in 2007? And the Tea Parties did not even exist then!
Thankfully the American public has already discounted this Democratic political opportunism which not only attacked Republican rhetoric but also Arizona’s gun laws which are a matter up to that state’s voters. I only hope that the Democratic sheriff in Tucson who blamed political rhetoric without one ounce of proof has not given Jared Lee Loughner’s attorney an angle for his defense when the Sheriff should have simply done his job and taken Loughner off the street when concerning evidence about his life was becoming known throughout the local law enforcement community.
The reality is that the internet, cable television, and instant messaging are giving ordinary Americans more of an opportunity to participate in discussions about their country and their government than ever before.
It is not time - as some Democrats are proposing - to use the Federal Communications Commission to set new public guidelines for supposed proper use of those communication vehicles. And there is no reason to bring back the unfair Fairness Doctrine which used to dictate to the then handful of media outlets how each was to showcase all sides of a political issue.
Instead, the solution starts with the politicians and their campaign operatives who set the bar for public debate by focusing on the facts and not emotional symbolism and heated rhetoric. Hopefully President Obama will remember his own words at the Arizona memorial service for those killed and critically wounded. And hopefully our Congresswoman Wasserman-Schultz will do the same.
