TIME FOR SARAH PALIN TO MAN UP
As of this writing Sarah Palin fails to accept “accountability” for her actions because in her mind she did nothing requiring an apology. It seems to be a character flaw in all those who claim to be “conservative” today e.g. George W. Bush admits that he would still invade Iraq even after knowing what he knows now and he sleeps at night with little or no regard for those now suffering a loved one lost in a war for a reason that didn’t exit outside the mind made delusional by an enormous ego. Sarah Palin’s grandiose delusion is no different. Someone will suffer because one lone lunatic believes a perception of reality created by another lunatic.
Indeed ever since John McCain was told to select her as Vice-President giving her a national presence she’s been preaching hate against those who don’t meet her standards of what constitutes a “real Americans” yet the press continues to cover her daily as if she has anything of value to offer or contribute to resolving the problems facing “all” Americans.
On March 23, 2010 Sarah Palin posted a map of 20 congressional districts identifying the incumbents in the crosshairs of a rifle scope prompting one of the targets, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to observe that “When people do that, they’ve got to realize there are consequences to that action”.
One week ago Rep. Gifford’s was gunned down in an attempted political assassination and Sarah Palin responded by releasing a professionally staged eight minute video casting herself in the role of victim blaming the press for manufacturing a “blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence that they purport to condemn.” She then claimed the actions of the press were reprehensible.” Oddly enough the speech occurred after she tried to propose the laughable explanation that the crosshairs were actually surveyor symbols which her base didn’t question but not those but who are so easily fooled by a demagogue wearing a dress.
The questionable use of the anti-Semitic term “blood libel” is better explained by those who have an historical connection to the term but while they’re at it “reality” demands they mention that when those in the press trot out Alan Dershowitz to invoke an appeal to authority by presenting him to the public as a “Jewish Liberal Democrat” who took no exception to the use of the term they are only telling the public half of the story because Alan Dershowitz is the same “Jewish Liberal Democrat” who took no exception to the use of torture committed during the Bush Administration thereby removing universal condemnation from the morally indefensibility of “blood libel” as well as torture.
That Palin timed the speech for the morning of the memorial service in Tucson was obviously tacky because her claim of victimhood didn’t have to be given on that particular day. She certainly knew that President Obama was scheduled to give a speech in Tucson that evening but based on her past actions it isn’t a stretch to consider the strong possibility that she was intent on injecting herself into the head lines of the Tucson tragedy narrative and in the process crowning herself the flag bearer of the opposition party.
The sheer utter rank and shameless hypocrisy was as glaring as the reflection of the teleprompter shining off the lens of her glasses when she quoted the icon of the modern day Republican Party, Ronald Reagan, “It’s time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions.” The other half of that story which even with the freedom of the press too few dare mention that Ronald Reagan also said government is not the solution, government is the problem and then acted accordingly to prove the self fulfilling prophecy of that anti-government prophet who today’s right likes to quote to those of us who still know it’s nothing more than “do as I say, not as I do.
Reason dictates that it must certainly take some degree of hatred to draw someone on a map in the crosshairs of a rifle scope and the reality of Tucson proves that it only takes the steady squeeze of a finger to commit an act of violence for life to imitate art. But it really takes balls to quote President Reagan’s “…individuals should be held accountable for their actions” and then blame the press for inciting hatred and violence. Now that is really reprehensible.
At the end of the day when the target on Sarah Palin’s map became one of the real victims fighting for her life then Sarah Palin should “man up” by realizing that putting someone in the crosshairs of a rifle scope is a form of malicious and reckless speech that has consequences whether this particular anti-government true believer saw her artistic map or not. Until then only the press will be able to hold Sarah Palin accountable by covering those who engage in more rational forms of political discourse that addresses the concerns of the nation and exposing the hypocrisy of those like Palin whose words reflect nothing more than “do as I say, not as I do.”
