It’s kind of amazing what 24 hours can do in a news cycle.  While, yes, there were some who blamed the Tea Party directly for the shooting, the common theme otherwise was about the rhetoric, the words used to create their reality, and how it’s simply gone too far.  Is it, or those who spew such violence-infused rhetoric, directly responsible for what happened yesterday?

No.

That being said, however, one cannot deny that the media saturation of such rhetoric, from both left and right, has resulted in a society desensitized to violence and one where “bullet solutions to ballot problems” has gained a modicum of credibility, and acceptability.

That is, unless, you are Judson Phillips of the Tea Party Nation.

In a post on the Tea Party Nation website titled “Aftermath: the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords and the left’s attack on the Tea Party movement” Jud lays the blame for yesterday directly at the feet of a “leftist lunatic” and urges his members to blame liberals early and often for the attempted assassination.

Note: In order to read the full post, you have to be a member of Tea Party Nation.  What follows below are excerpts of Jud’s statement along with a sampling of comments from TPN members.  I fully expect my membership in the TPN to last no more than 24-48 hours, but believe that this was, and is, important to share with the readers of HT.

In a moment, a leftist lunatic destroyed a half a dozen lives. Six were killed. Others were wounded. Gabrielle Giffords, who could probably be described as a rising star in the Democratic Party remains in critical condition, with a gunshot wound to the head.

The leftist sheriff of Pima County was one of the first to start in on the liberal attack. He said, “When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the Mecca for prejudice and bigotry.” This is the same guy who announced he would refuse to enforce SB 1070 (The Arizona Immigration law) because it offended him.

Next week we will see a more serious attack from those who are the masters at the dark arts of media and politics.

This attack has already started and you can see the liberal meme forming. They will say the tone and rhetoric from conservatives and the Tea Party is responsible for this crime. In Politico today, first an unnamed “Republican” (read RINO) Senator said, “tone matters.” Politico then quoted an unnamed Democratic operative who followed the same “tone matters” line, blaming the “overheated rhetoric” for the shooting…

In a decent world, we could all take a moment to mourn for those killed by a liberal lunatic. Political civility is long since dead and the left will not let us do this.

So be it.

The left is coming and will hit us hard on this. We need to push back harder with the simple truth. The shooter was a liberal lunatic. Emphasis on both words.

Now, I don’t know, and don’t particularly care, what Loughner’s politics were.  In the end, I don’t think he can be defined as right or left, but tended to gravitate towards whatever political viewpoint satisfied his paranoia.

To the credit of some TPN members, they took offense to Jud’s ‘call to arms’.  One commenter stated:

Just stop it….  I really don’t care if it’s the right or left or in the middle…  6 people are DEAD for heaven’s sake and all you care about is the Tea Party….. this hatred has to stop on both sides of the fence.  this is NOT WAR.   This used to be  America land of the free and home of the brave… not hatred because your black, white, liberal or conservative…  all of the parties are spreading hate if you don’t agree with them…  give it a break

To which Jud responded:

Did you bother to read what the left said yesterday? The wounded were not even to the hospital when the started the attacks. What would you prefer we do? Stick our heads in the sand? Perhaps we should just let the libs shut us up? Maybe you would prefer that. The left is going to use this to blame the Tea Party for the murder. I am not going to let them get away with it and I suggest you wake up and help with the fight.

FYI, it is a war. the left wants to take over our country and destroy the freedoms that we have.

Here is a screenshot of his response:

Sounds a wee bit paranoid to me.

Other commenters responded (the emphasis added by me, the spelling is all TPN):

You are so right.  This country is on the brink because the majority became the “silent majority” and sat on their laurels for the last fifty years.  The left, a.k.a., libs, progressives, commies (whatever they call themselves) have been very patient in their quest.  They have infiltrated every aspect of our society including our schools (to indoctrinate our children), the media (to brainwash the ignorant), and our government.  Hundreds of thousands of patriots have given their lives to stop the progression of communism and now we allow them to live openly in our society and even govern us in the halls of congress.  Think of how many avowed Socialists are running rampant in Washington D.C. We need to be silent no longer and get back to the Constitution and the prosecution of the ones who seek to destoy our great nation.  The oath is to protect and defend the constitution against all enemies, foreign and DOMESTIC.

The reality is that the Progressive left have been at war with America for decades…and have been winning because Americans didn’t realize we were under attack. The liberal  Progressive have dominated the narrative in our media and our schools and have silenced patriotic Americans in the name of multiculturalism, bilingualism, and tolerance.

i believe the socialist left is somehow behind most things like this. beck showed what people like soros is capable of and proud of what they did.

I resent your thoughts _______. FYI your in the presence of the brave (The Tea Party). People that will have your back and stand with fist. I definetly wouldnt want you in my foxhole. And it is a WAR of idiology lady and this is still America.

Unfortunately, this IS war. A war of ideas and a voting and political battle to take back majorities in every branch of government so we can end the destruction of freedom.

The marxists are not going to “just stop it”.  Nice thought but won’t happen.   They are on a mission to take over and destroy America. We are on a mission to protect and defend the constitution of the United States.

The liberal left, really reminds me of devout muslims ,whose quran (bible) says it’s ok to LIE, to bring the infidels to your side and convert them! This really is the problem, people need to be made aware of the TRUTH, and the left uncovered for their bold and blatant LIE’S !, This is really why they hate Glenn Beck so much,and other truth providers, and like devout muslims killing their own family in the name of what they think is holy ,will stop at nothing, and I do mean nothing!

No one should be surprised by the attacks already leveled at us or those to come.  This incident could develope into the “tipping point” they have been looking for if we do not get out in front of the media.  Martial Law is their goal we must not allow this to esculate to that point.

After obviously having enough hatred and vitriol thrown at her, the original commenter says goodbye to the Tea Party Nation, to which Jud replies:

Classy, Jud.

Among the other comments are paranoid rants about chemtrails, about marxist takeovers, of impending martial law, along with numerous references to the “Lame Stream Media”.  There are even some blaming Giffords herself.

It is interesting to note, however, than any and all commenters who dared speak in opposition to the Great Gazoo, are immediately shouted down and dismissed as liberal trolls.  Even those calling for civility, for respect for the dead, are summarily dismissed by the folks over at TPN.

I don’t know about most folks, but if you’re going to claim that you aren’t engaged in violent rhetoric while simultaneously talking about “war” with the “liberals who want to destroy America”, you can’t expect people to take you seriously.

Related articles

• Tea Party Nation Founder: Arizona Shooter ‘A Liberal Lunatic,’ We Must ‘Push Back’ (huffingtonpost.com)
• Arizona shooting: ‘Does she have any enemies?’ ‘Yeah. The whole Tea Party’ (guardian.co.uk)
• Pima County Sheriff Sets Off Debate on Price of Free Speech (foxnews.com)
• “Heated Political Rhetoric” And The Giffords Shooting (outsidethebeltway.com)
• Bloodshed Puts New Focus on Vitriol in Politics (nytimes.com)
• Judson Phillips: This Means War! (omnipotentpoobah.com)