North Carolina Democratic Rep. Brad Miller, like many liberals, is trying to make political hay after the tragic shootings in Arizona on Saturday. His reaction resembled the shameless knee-jerk, crassly opportunistic reaction of most lefty bloggers: Blame conservatives for the climate that he claims spawned a crazy person like Jared Loughner, the alleged shooter:
Miller, a Raleigh Democrat, had sharp words for recent political rhetoric that he said has contributed to a toxic environment, saying the right especially has been more virulent in recent times.
He blamed the media for not bringing more attention to issues such as political rally signs comparing Obama to Hitler, and showing dead bodies stacked like cordwood, comparing health reform to concentration camps in the Holocaust.
“There have been posters and T-shirts printed that said, ‘We come unarmed, parentheses, this time.’ The threat of violence in that is unmistakable,” Miller said.
But where was Miller’s outrage when this kind of political speech was rampant in the left-wing swamp during the Bush years? Where were the attempts to sponsor legislation outlawing free speech by political opponents when George Bush was the object of several assassination works of art and fiction?
Here are just a few examples.
The truth is, many left-wing bloggers, media types and Democrats see this tragedy as an opportunity to ban the kind of opposition they ran into with tea partiers over the last 18 months. If the crazy legislation being pushed Democrat Rep. Bob Brady of Pennsylvania were to pass, it would allow almost any opposition to be termed illegal.
And that’s right up a liberal Democrat’s alley.
