Finally one lefty with some common sense about the Giffords shooting. Thank you Steve Kornacki over at Salon here. You have confirmed that there are some on the left who still use commons sense not just ideology.
But it should also be noted that what we have learned so far about Loughner
defies ideological branding. Based on his MySpace page and series of
YouTube videos he apparently made, Loughner is fixated on his area?s
literacy rate, government “mind control methods,” and … something
having to do with America?s currency. A high school classmate describes
him as “left-wing.” He also is apparently fond of “Mein Kampf” and Karl
Marx and may be somehow connected to a fringe anti-immigration group.
And he despised Giffords. Make what you will of all of that. My hunch
is that Lougnher is just basically crazy, and that his political
thinking isn?t particularly coherent or organized.
If anything, the shooting reinforces a point that James Fallows has made:
The motives of political assassins rarely have anything to do with
mainstream political debate and rhetoric. For now, at least, this seems
to be the case with Loughner. This doesn?t mean it?s unreasonable to
criticize Palin and others who push the envelope with their rhetoric.
But when liberals use this moment to highlight every provocative
statement Palin has made, it?s also not unreasonable if she says that
her opponents are trying just a little too hard to make her the villain.
