On My Mind

As a Messianic Jew, registered and non-far-right Republican, and descendant of a pogrom survivor (among other Crypto Jews) as well as a relative (including a descendant) of many Crypto- and genuinely-Messianic-Jewish Roman and Byzantine Catholics (including the pogrom survivor; a young suppsosed-Polish-Catholic boy born Antoni Chernetski, whose dad- Julian Jan “Julian John ‘Felix’” Chernetski- changed the family name and risked converting to Roman Catholicism to survive and save his wife and son); I can tell you that I expect Sarah Palin, a self-professed Christian and Republican, to be above using incendiary rhetoric.

Just because far-left Democrats and fellow far-right Republicans (some of whom are also self-proclaimed Christians) use rhetoric like “blood libel” and “in the crosshairs” does not mean that Sarah Palin has to. By the way, Chernetskis and other relatives (including Rusnak cousins) were lost in the Shoah. I hope that Sarah Palin remembers that especially Jews like the children and grandchildren of Yoshua Rusnak literally died trying to just live life as best as possible in the Anti-Semitic Diaspora (i.e., Nazi-riddled Europe) or even make aliyah especially so as not to die in the Shoah.

Phil,
You make good points but the sad fact is “Sarah Palin and her ilk” comments need to balanced (which you don’t do) with the understanding the “left-wing and their ilk” do exactly the same inflammatory rhetoric (a mere single example of the “left-wing and her ilk” at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DuafAqAHrc).

Let’s not be holier then though here. If President Bush had been assassinated would you and those who don’t recognize the “both sides do it philosophy”, have been pointing fingers at the left? I hardly believe so as no one on the left criticized this rhetoric either.

Allan, you’re missing the point. Clearly the killer is deranged and had his own reasons for doing what he did. But Sarah Palin and her ilk acted extremely, heinously irresponsibly, using inflammatory and violent rhetoric, heavy on the gun language, to stir up their base. If we believe that music, TV, and movies can influence people to violence, why not violent rhetoric by famous, influential politicians and journalists? The privilege of a platform comes with the responsibility to act like a human being. Phil isn’t saying that Palin did the shooting herself, but that she undoubtedly contributed to a political climate of incitement.

Phil,
I totally disagree with you.  Please read Alan Dershowitz below.

http://www.newsmax.com/InsideCover/SarahPalin-AlanDershowitz-BloodLibel-ArizonaShootings/2011/01/13/id/382766?s=al&promo_code=B764-1

I am really surprised you are agreeing with the liberal media’s attempts to use this tragedy for political gains.  If you had done your homework before trying to demonize Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and other conservatives, you would have found out that the killer did not even listen to talk radio or watch the news.  In fact, he had a problem with the Congresswoman back in 2007 even before Palin had come on the national political stage.
If anything, the killer was a leftist.