Can They Please Use The Same Playbook?

On January 8th of this year, Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head at point blank range by Jarod Loughner, a mentally disturbed man who had been displaying more and more odd behavior prior to the shooting. The main stream media and many people on the left, including politicians, were quick to blame right wing rhetoric for Loughner’s actions. Some blamed statements by Sarah Palin and a majority said it was right wing hate speech and violent rhetoric, such as putting the opposing candidate in the “crosshairs” of the campaign, that caused Loughner's actions and demanded that this type of rhetoric stop lest more blood be shed. Any type of violent reference or rhetoric was supposed to cease immediately.

Last month, during the debate over the debt ceiling, politicians and pundits on the left, including many main stream media anchors, made references to the Republicans “holding the American people hostage” and “holding a gun to the head of the American people”. Some, including the Vice President of the United States, referred to members of the Tea Party as terrorists because they were making demands of more budget cuts and less government spending.

So what happened to the demands from the left for an end to the violent rhetoric? Isn’t hostage taking, holding a gun to the head, and terrorism, violence? Is it not considered violent rhetoric?

Well… apparently it isn’t. There were no apologies for the comments from politicians or news anchors, only a denial by the President that Joe Biden called Tea Party members terrorists. Sadly for the President, the truth is “perfectly clear”. http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/60421.html

So why is it that one side is condemned for any type of speech that can be considered violent or hateful and the other side seems to get a pass? I’m not going to try to pretend that only one side of the political spectrum uses such rhetoric because anyone who actually pays attention to politics and the news knows that both sides are guilty of it. What confuses me is why, given the expressed outrage of the left after the Gabrielle Giffords shooting and the demands to end the violent rhetoric, politicians and news anchors on the left seem to have forgotten their outrage. Or they simply believe it’s OK for them but not OK for the other side.

I just wish both sides would use the same playbook. Either it’s wrong or it’s OK but for both sides, not just one. Maybe they do both use the same book. Maybe the last chapter in that book simply says “No matter what we say, if the other side says it, become irate and demand that it stop!” Never having seen that book I wouldn’t know. But it wouldn’t surprise me.