Unfortunately, I wasn't shocked by the shooting in Arizona. Because the amount of violent rhetoric in our body politic has created an environment where this isn't surprising.
Paul Krugman wrote exactly what I've been thinking. Just as months of violent speech against Muslims culminated in violent acts, so too has years of violent, racist speech attacking Latin Americans resulted in a violent act.
I'm not talking about calling Obama a socialist or a communist or even Hitler. You can hate his actions as irrationally as you wish. But when you call for "second amendment solutions" or put crosshairs on a map or talk of watering the tree of liberty with blood, you are suggesting violence. And it's wrong. When we still HAVE freedom of speech and free elections, there is no justification for violent attacks on the government. I can respect the choice of anti-apartheid South Africans for choosing to use violence against a truly repressive regime. But this is evil - this is how regimes like South Africa's get started.
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