Democratic Representative Gabrielle Gifford of Arizona, continued

At some point, I have to stop following links; ending up staring in horror at therightfangirl earnestly strategizing about how to defend themselves from the liberals that will totally blame them for this or blankly watching unironic use of this tragedy to earnestly shout about gun control and political capital being amassed because yeah, this tragedy shouldn't be about the people who were actually victims for any longer than absolutely necessary. By that I mean, not at all.

I do get the fact this is probably a politically-motivated crime by someone who may or may not be mentally ill (the youtubes are--IDEK, something). Surprisingly, I'm politically and socially aware enough to realize that yeah, Palin's truly inspired use of gun rhetoric is pretty questionable and the entire rhetoric of violence currently permeating political thought is something that should have been curtailed or hell, at least acknowledged as more than extreme right wing rhetoric when the extreme right has controlled conservative thought for so long I'm not sure they even remember they used to be so much more. It's human nature to want to make sense of what goes pear-shaped and human nature to want it to be prevented. It's human nature to blame and to defend and to be really douchey in the name of politics because politics is the decider of a lot of how we live our lives. It's kind of how we even get to live our lives.

OTOH, there's a very thick and easily-visible line between political consciousness and outright douchery; it's not hard. If within five hours of the attempted assassination of a sitting United States Representative to Congress, your biggest worry is making sure those liberals don't blame you, you're a douche. If within five hours of the death of a nine year old child you're already exploding self-righteously about the evils of guns, do I need to repeat this? It's not like the spectrum of political behavior is moderate or assassin; there's a wide and surprisingly unpopulated in between that can be navigated that balances preventing future tragedies and tracing relationships between rhetoric and reality without fodderizing a woman being shot for her politics and a child dying.

Extremism is dangerous, but it's not just militias and assassinations. Moderate does not mean "Does not shoot people for opposing beliefs" or even "Does not pull a Henry II about meddlesome Democrats." That's not a standard of behavior; that's a fairly clear sign the baseline needs to change. This list does not need to be expanded.

*****

At Huffington it is reported that Representative Gifford has not yet woken up nor spoke to anyone.

In more uplifting news, Daniel Hernandez's role in Representative Gifford's survival is documented here. I'm pretty sure most college interns don't sign up with this in mind, and his actions in the wake of the shooting are everything you hope to see in someone who might one day serve the public.

Comments

TL;DR i am dead in my soul

[fightingarrival]

In a sick kind of way I can kind of - kind of, mind you - see how the right's first thought might be 'how can I not get blamed for this?' even though my reaction so far has been 'if the shoe fits, y'all.' Because whenever I get wind of a major crime one of first thoughts will always invariably be some variation 'please let them not be black, please don't be of color, please let the perp be white' and preparing for whatever windfall that may come of it if my hopes don't come true, 'cause I'm all cynical like that.

Of course racial background != a political party or movement whatever people may want to frame it. But I don't think that people thinking ahead to what's going come of this and what shockwaves it might send is the worst thing ever even though I may disagree with their aims on an ideological level. I mean, I probably wouldn't know about this attempted murder all the way up in MA or particularly cared if it hadn't been elevated to possible attempted political assassination, callous as that may sound.

My thoughts are still with the victims and their families, but as with any act of terrorism the effects go beyond this one incident.

Re: TL;DR i am dead in my soul

[seperis]

Because whenever I get wind of a major crime one of first thoughts will always invariably be some variation 'please let them not be black, please don't be of color, please let the perp be white' and preparing for whatever windfall that may come of it if my hopes don't come true, 'cause I'm all cynical like that.

Hopefully this comes out right...

That's a sane reaction though. Any crime not committed by a white guy, no matter what it is, has concrete reprecussions for anyone of the race--or suspected to be of the race--of the perpetrator. I'm white and I twitch when the news talks about how the perpetrator is described as Hispanic; it's like a countdown to a whole new slew of nastiness about immigration and stealing jobs, most ironically from people who happily exploit day labor.

It's horrible to have to live in a world where this is true, but that kind of reaction is smart; it helps head off nasty surprises. I don't live as a victim of it, just with friends and family who get the side-eyes and the commentary and the rhetoric and the potential dangers, so I know it's not the same as the concrete knowledge that x goes straight to y ever time being part of daily life.

I need to think how to frame this; it's inevitable, but instead of it being a motivator for people, it's an excuse. Instead of the mourning of the dead, some are entering this with either a resentful attitude, how dare this happen because obviously now those icky Liberals think they are right and have evidence, or almost--gleeful whee proof of rightness. I hate to say it's a tone thing, but I've read conservative commentary that refutes the Palin-gun thing that didn't make me rage and liberals about guns that didn't piss me off. I didn't agree, but I didnt' feel they were coming from a place of exploitation for gain, if that makes sense.

My thoughts are still with the victims and their families, but as with any act of terrorism the effects go beyond this one incident.

Dear God is that true. Five Congressmen, four presidents; the historically interested and sickly curious part of me wants to line up our stats with other countries and see how we're doing in political bloodsport.

Re: TL;DR i am dead in my soul

[elaran]

Because whenever I get wind of a major crime one of first thoughts will always invariably be some variation 'please let them not be black, please don't be of color, please let the perp be white' and preparing for whatever windfall that may come of it if my hopes don't come true, 'cause I'm all cynical like that.
:S Huh, I read that and just realised that I do it too.