Giffords episode unleashes leftist venom

By Chris Adamo

Within hours after last weekend's horrendous shooting rampage that left six dead and more than a dozen wounded including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, a truly ugly picture of a segment of America has emerged. It does not reflect the isolated actions of a lone, crazed gunman in Arizona, but the monolithic behavior of a reprehensible liberal political machine and its lapdogs in the major media. Sadly, homicidal maniacs have plagued the human race since Cain. Such shameless propagandizing, in contrast, is a relatively new phenomenon.

The disgraceful but predictable blitzkrieg of accusations from the nation's leftists was in full swing even before the splattered blood could be cleaned from the pavement at the Tucson Safeway where the attack occurred. Without knowing any of the specifics, liberals were immediately in front of every camera offering a veritable "who's who" of American conservatives as being somehow complicit in motivating the acts of a solitary mad man.

Since that time, it has become abundantly obvious that "alleged" gunman Jared Loughner was anything but conservative, and is much more appropriately aligned with the morally rudderless and nihilistic counterculture that decries traditional America and its values. Regardless, the calamitous nature of this situation is obviously too valuable of an opportunity for liberals to let it pass by, merely because the facts of the situation do not fit their premises of what ails America.

So, despite the ongoing revelations that daily invalidate any supposed connections between Loughner, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, or the Tea Party movement, liberal hysteria is not abating. It is a great time to cry "foul" and point the finger at every enemy of the political left, condemning them in the harshest of terms and demanding they henceforth be silenced by whatever governmental power can be invoked for this purpose. That this is all done under such sanctimonious auspices as "toning down the harsh rhetoric of recent years" would be comical in its irony, were not the impending consequences of this effort so dire for the future of the nation.

Fortunately, the modern "minutemen" on the right were quick to respond to the situation, rapidly and astutely anticipating the ghoulish glee and enthusiasm with which the leftists would seek to exploit this horrendous tragedy, all for the improvement of their own political fortunes and with total disregard of the facts and the sensibilities of those whose lives were devastated by it. Though the "nightly news" is devoid of such abundantly available information, alternative media outlets are overflowing with accounts of truly hateful and incendiary commentary from liberals in recent years, which most often failed to elicit even a shred of criticism from those like-minded commentators who now look down their pious noses at conservative America and excoriate it in the severest of terms.

That none of this caterwauling bears even the slightest connection to the horrible actualities of the Tucson tragedy, and likewise, none of the proposed "remedies" bear even the minutest chance of preventing any similar future occurrences, is inconsequential. It continues nonetheless. Once the dust settles on all of the appalling grandstanding and jaundiced media "analysis," the fate of those who lost their lives or their loved ones is of little consequence if the liberal cause can be advanced.

Clearly the left is overplaying its hand. The gratuitous efforts to construct some sort of connection between the carnage on Saturday and the noble and legitimate concerns of grassroots America, as it confronts the liberal encroachment of recent years, have only served to highlight the complete lack of sincerity or credibility among the liberal ruling class. By painting with such a broad brush, the left has ultimately indicted itself to a far grater degree than the American heartland which it so despises and obsessively strives to impugn and neutralize.

Nevertheless, the current situation, which is far more defined by an exuberant and invigorated liberal establishment that believes it can shamelessly exploit a grievous calamity to its own ends than by the initial event itself, should serve warning to those who would undertake the effort to turn back the liberal onslaught of the past few years. Real America must recognize to what depths the liberal opposition is willing to descend as it struggles to maintain its dominion.

Conservatives are right to disavow any culpability or association with the Loughner shootings since no such links exist. But they must go a step further. They must seize this occasion of baseless liberal grandstanding and use it to highlight just how brazenly those on the left will demagogue any situation, irrespective of substantiating evidence, to lay claim to the moral "high ground" and thereby advance their morally bankrupt agenda.

Furthermore, no amount of tact, reason, or diplomacy will suffice to convince those who are steeped in the tactics and philosophies of Marx and Alinsky that the end goal of grassroots conservatism is an honorable one, only motivated by the best interests of the country. Despite laughably fraudulent liberal claims to want "civility in the national discourse," no "reasoned discussion" will be allowed or accepted unless it wholly embraces the liberal orthodoxy. Anything else will be summarily consigned to the categories of "hate speech," "inflammatory rhetoric," or some other contemptuous term designed not to illustrate differing philosophies and their benefits or liabilities, but to suppress and silence every idea that does not comply with liberal convention.

Real hate does not abide among those who desire to hold their elected officials accountable, but among office holders who despise and eschew such accountability. Real threats to personal safety, well being, and the future of the nation do not emanate from citizens who are outraged at the irresponsibility of elected officials, but from the arrogance of those officials as they attempt to place themselves beyond any liability for their actions.

Venomous and unfounded accusations from liberal Democrats notwithstanding, it would be a terrible mistake to accept their heinous premise and, on that basis, relinquish the fate of the nation into their hands.

© Chris Adamo