The Arizona Blame Games

I figure I’d throw my hat into the Tucson attack discussion ring while the conversation is fresh.

Predictably, Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, truthers and non-truthers, and all other political enemies are pointing fingers at one another, attempting to assign blame for the six dead people and the many injured (including Congresswoman Giffords) to entire political parties and movements. While no one should be surprised at this, I still find myself woefully amused by America’s response to the tragedy in Arizona.

I’ve been reading blogs, op/ed pieces, and news articles since the shootings happened. “Damn,” I remember thinking to myself, “If I took what everyone has been saying and writing to be true at face value, then my only conclusion would be that EVERYone is to blame!”

At first, my thoughts were just facetious. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that I was actually spot-on.

It seems that heated rhetoric on both sides of the political aisle can be potentially read so as to imply violence. Tin-foil-hat conspiracy theorists are just as aggressive with their political messages as the Kool-Aid-drinking sheeple are with their blind complacency. Loony, gun-obsessed conservatives are just as guilty as the radical revolutionary anti-American Leftists. Search long enough, and you’ll find enough evidence to blame everybody.

It’s becoming clearer as we learn more about Jared Loughner that his actual political inclinations were much more complex (or insane) than simple left-right politics. The guy listed both Mein Kampf and The Communist Manifesto as favorite books, so he’s a…Nazi Communist? A fascist leftist? A liberal conservative? What next? He professed deep mistrusts of both elected politicians and mainstream media. He divided his political philosophy between nihilism and conspiracy theories in addition to both extreme leftist and extreme rightist politics. Can any one political party or movement then claim ownership of or blame for the murders in Tucson?

Watching Loughner’s YouTube videos and reading some of his posts, one could tell that his thought processes were too abnormal and fringe to be blamed on just Sarah Palin and conservatives or just Barack Obama and the Democrats. However, as much distaste as we claim to have for partisan politics, we Americans still love to play blame games.

Loughner’s actions are indicative of a much more sinister reality, though: things are not honkey-dorey in America anymore. People are becoming more and more fed up with the state of affairs of the nation, and the aggressive political atmosphere is the fault of all those involved in the political process. People on both the left and the right can agree on one thing: the status quo in the United States is not working.

We will probably see politics becoming less and less civil as Americans start drawing lines in the sand. Most people are taking this time to plead for civil discourse (when they’re not blaming their political opponents), but as for me, don’t expect moderation anytime soon. The things for which I fight don’t come cheap. And remember, sometimes people are just crazy.