For three consecutive days the hard left of American politics executed a prepared battle plan:
* Personify the Enemy (Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck)
* Isolate him or her (Rightwing vitriol, conservative talk radio, “crosshairs”)
* Vilify without mercy (Hate, violence, accessory to murder)
Democrat Mark Penn showed us the left’s cards in November when he said that Obama needs an Oklahoma bombing to help him “reconnect” with the American people.
Enabling Event: When a seriously deranged young man opened fire on a crowd of people surrounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson on Saturday, George Soros’ s propaganda machine went to work.
Round One: A series of blog posts and tweets shot across the internet. The messages were scripted to create a false story: the shooter was a tea partier and Army veteran doing what all conservative do.
Round Two: The complicit press jumped in with “news” stories about Republican ads showing bulls eyes and crosshairs and containing “dangerous” words like “target.” The media applied no filters or logic to the progressive script, presenting the Words Kill meme as fact.
Round Three: Leftist politicians like Dick Durbin (D-IL) hit Sunday talk shows to read their scripts. Mimicking the press, these pols state unequivocally that tea partiers and their “harsh rhetoric” killed six people in Tucson.
Round Four: Progressive members of Congress introduce legislation (prepared in advance for quick filing) to sharply limit First and Second Amendment rights.
But something happened.
This time, Conservative America didn’t lay down and let the left walk all over it. This time, we didn’t have to rely on Republicans to show spine in the face of vicious lies. This time, the Tea Party movement—established February 27, 2009—was ready. This time, we were prepared to represent ourselves against the forces of darkness.
Thousands of conservative bloggers, researchers, tweeters, and pundits gave up their weekend to examine the charges and respond. Quickly we recognized patterns. It was obvious that the leftist assault was coordinated and planned. Markos Moulitsas and Eric Boehlert and Keith Olbermann and Bill Maher did not write their evil little libels on the fly; they merely selected “Option 984.b” from their play books and assigned “Tucson” to the variable when prompted, it seemed.
Once Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik launched his over-the-top tirade, we realized that the left was committed to all out war.
Saturday evening, Sunday, and Monday we posted our findings and our opinions. Those with larger megaphones spoke for the millions of wrongfully accused Americans.
**By Monday night, the left began wobble. **
Liberal comedian Jon Stewart announced that he doesn’t buy the left’s story that Jarod Lee Loughner is a product of conservative politics.
On Tuesday, more liberals began to back away from the abyss into which so many of their fellows had willingly marched.
Erica Payne said don’t blame the tea party:
The blame for this heinous act lies squarely with the voices in Jared Lee Loughner’s head, not the ones pontificating over talk radio. And repugnant as I find Sarah and her cosmic boyfriend, they are not responsible for the violent actions of a single crazy person.
Barbara Walters says not to blame Palin:
“This is a deranged young man. This is a Timothy McVeigh… We don’t know what his motives are and we can hope that all the vitriol calms down. But to blame Sarah Palin as some are doing I think is very unfair to her,” Walters added.
Salon’s Steve Kornacki actually admitted to speaking too soon:
But it should also be noted that what we have learned so far about Loughner defies ideological branding. Based on his MySpace page and series of YouTube videos he apparently made, Loughner is fixated on his area’s literacy rate, government “mind control methods,” and … something having to do with America’s currency. A high school classmate describes him as “left-wing.” He also is apparently fond of “Mein Kampf” and Karl Marx and may be somehow connected to a fringe anti-immigration group. And he despised Giffords. Make what you will of all of that. My hunch is that Lougnher is just basically crazy, and that his political thinking isn’t particularly coherent or organized.
(h/t Jennifer Rubin of WaPo)
Former Politico journalist, Josh Kraushaar, calls out his old blog and media in general:
And in the aftermath of the Tucson shooting, the media’s worst tendencies were on display, from the onset of the crisis when several outlets inaccurately reported that Giffords had died, to the immediate, unwarranted assumption that the killer was associated with the tea party.
**These might be acts of conscience. Or is it self-preservation? **
The Hill reports (via Gateway Pundit) that only 32 percent blame “rhetoric” for the Tucson shooting. It’s sad that 32 percent of the people either manufacture or swallow whole vicious lies about decent people. But the poll could spell big trouble for the left.
Saturdays’ shootings and murders were horrific. They require mourning and grief. Many of us suspended or suppressed those feelings because of lies perpetrated by the most prominent names in leftist politics: Kos, Boehlert, Olbermann, Matthews, Clinton, Durbin, Fonda, and more.
The left, particularly the press, exploited a tragedy and toyed with raw human emotions in order to slander their political opponents. When that fact sinks in, the American people, including many liberals, will be furious.