You know, when the Tea Party movement started rolling, a lot on the Left said that it would lead to violence and mayhem. And they were right — just look at what’s happened in the last week or so.
Down on Cape Cod in Massachusetts, there were a couple of cases of arson. Someone decided to torch two rather nice houses. And at one of the fires, the arsonist spray-painted “FUCK THE RICH.”
Last week, the Tea Party in Chicago decided to hold a Christmas party at a bar. Someone who wasn’t filled with holiday cheer (or, possibly, too much cheer) decided to mess up the party — and set off a fake bomb in the bar’s bathroom. The message left there? “FUCK THE TEA PARTY.”
And, of course, down in Florida a man upset that taxes weren’t raised and his wife was let go from her teaching job started shooting at a school board meeting — until he was shot by a police officer in attendance. He left his suicide note, talking about how he had been inspired by Media Matters For America and several other leftist organs.
Now it’s worth noting that there haven’t been any arrests in the first two, and unlikely to be any in the third — the guy’s dead. But the common elements are here: all three incidents were carrying out (to an extreme) the directives of the left here.
So, shall we lay the body of Clay Duke and the ashes of the Cape Cod and Chicago arsons at the doorsteps of Media Matters and the rest of the professional left?
Oh, it’s tempting. They’ve certainly played that game often enough to us, trying to hang all sorts of violence and mayhem around our necks at every opportunity. It’s very tempting, indeed, to go to Media Matters and say “how ’bout that Florida shooter? He was one of your biggest fans. Why the hell are you fomenting this kind of hatred, inciting this kind of violence? Aren’t you just as culpable as he was, as the arsonists are?” Very, very tempting indeed.
But no. I’m not gonna go there.
I’ve long believed in a simple principle: crazy people do crazy things for crazy reasons. And the responsibility for those crazy actions lie with the crazy people. I don’t buy into their rationales and justifications; to me, they’re just trying to deny responsibility for their deeds.
But I want to keep these cases — especially the Clay Duke case — fresh in people’s minds. Because the next time Media Matters or their ilk start talking like they did during the census worker’s suicide (“send the body to Glenn Beck!”)
It’s their standard. It’s wrong, but they’re sticking to it. So let’s hang it around their necks, and see how they spin it away. Sooner or later they’ll either have to admit they’re wrong, or accept the responsibility for these crimes.
Or, at least, ought to. I’m not betting on either actually happening. They’re not that good at dealing with reality — only “reality-based” constructs.
