I'm not a fan of Sarah Palin. Trust me.
But it's terribly frustrating to watch the media unfairly drag her through the mud over the Arizona shootings. There is not, and has never been, any proof of a link between Loughner and Palin, or between Loughner and conservative ideology in general. But the media couldn't resist the opportunity, and soon began escalating the irresponsible, slanderous speculation that the shooter was inspired by the Tea Party in general, and Sarah Palin in particular. This absolute dishonesty was based purely on stereotypes and fueled by political pundits with axes to grind and agendas to push.
In the frenzy, the media and a depressingly large segment of the public started demanding something be done about the clear and present danger presented by ... the First Amendment. Politicians were happy to oblige. Not content with wrecking the First Amendment, our representatives promoted equally unworkable and unconstitutional legislation targeting the Second Amendment as well.
I haven't been this frustrated with a news story since the ridiculous "Ground Zero Mosque" controversy.
Wait a minute...
At that time, I joined some of my liberal/progressive friends in arguments with some of my conservative friends. Many conservatives were demanding the government violate the constitutional rights of Muslim property developers based on a scandalously unfair smear campaign pushed by a coalition of scumbags to advance their own purposes.
I've found myself using the same arguments in relation to the Giffords shooting - but my allies have switched sides.
To my conservative friends and family, the mere thought of a Muslim community center on Manhattan Island was enough to trigger a knee-jerk, emotional reaction to accept hateful, politically-driven lies as justification for violating the constitutional rights of American citizens. Apparently the mere thought of Sarah Palin was enough for my liberal/progressive friends to do the same.
With a little reflection, maybe we can try to be less partisan, less hypocritical and more reasonable. Now that she's on the receiving end of an unfair smear campaign, maybe even Palin will see the light and stop her own demagoguery. After all, two wrongs don't make a right.
I told you I don't like her.
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2 comments:
I keep seeing all over the internet how humorous it is that Sarah Palin is angry about being lumped in and blamed for the actions of an extremist acting in the name of her belief system, as if for her it is somehow different than it is when she (and her ilk) rail against the entire Muslim community for the actions of a few extremists. Hopefully something like this will serve to open the eyes of these willfully blind people. As far as the 1st and 2nd amendment legislation, I hope these people are laughed out of the capital. These laws are nothing but knee jerk reactionary politics and are yet another in a long line of examples of the people in power reacting to the last tragedy instead of looking ahead to try and prevent the next one.
Even worse is the political game this has become. There is a reason I don't watch the 24 hour news networks...ever. I just cannot take the ignorance any more, from any of them. It's probably indicative of my generation, but I trust Jon Stewart to report the news far more than I trust Rush, Glenn Beck, Hannity, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow or any of the rest of them, and Stewart runs a self-proclaimed comedy show. It's a sad state of affairs when the guy who reports the news followed by a dick joke is more trustworthy than the people who supposedly "report" the news.
BTW, it is hard to argue with the humor in your title. It's easy to be the person on TV calling out all of the extremists, but when the shoe is on the other foot, suddenly she doesn't like the tone of the conversation any more.
Nice to see I'm not the only conservative with a strong dislike for Palin.
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