–updated below–
No one should be surprised that Andrew Breitbart would equate deserved criticism of former governor Sarah Palin with gang rape. This is the type of hate speech from the Right, especially towards women, that is common. Remember their depictions of Speaker Pelosi, Hillary Clinton before she became secretary of state?
Unfortunately, the criticism is wide and deep and includes conservatives, as well as Jewish leaders:
“Instead of dialing down the rhetoric at this difficult moment, Sarah Palin chose to accuse others trying to sort out the meaning of this tragedy of somehow engaging in a ‘blood libel’ against her and others,” said David Harris, president of the National Democratic Jewish Council, in a statement. “This is of course a particularly heinous term for American Jews, given that the repeated fiction of blood libels are directly responsible for the murder of so many Jews across centuries — and given that blood libels are so directly intertwined with deeply ingrained anti-Semitism around the globe, even today.”
From USA Today, (h/t SecyClintonBlog):
Rabbi Irwin Kula observes,
She is probably ignorant of its history as many people are of inflammatory expressions that get into our common culture’s vernacular. What it does indicate is something far sadder and of greater concern. Sarah Palin’s use of this term “blood libel” indicates that she sees herself as the victim this week. This is a profoundly distorted experience of reality that any sane person in this country from left to far right should see given that the true victims, the six Americans murdered have not yet even even been buried yet and fourteen other victims lie wounded in hospitals recovering.
Kula even wonders whether the phrase came to her because,
… at some level, unconsciously, she feels guilty in some way for what has happened. But this is so painful at an unconscious level that she has disassociated and lashed out accusing others of what is a deep self-judgment. This is sad, as she is not responsible at all for the shootings in Arizona. She is simply, along with all of us who have created her, responsible for the coarsening of our public culture at a time when we are facing historic challenges that cut to the very core of what America will be in the next period of history.
The victimhood mentality of Sarah Palin seems to be the only position, a permanent crouch, from which she can operate, so she can be prepared at any moment to pounce, to attack.
Mrs. Palin could have simply come out to say that going forward she was going to be more diligent in her use of language and anything else that could be used to incite violence. But no.
To Palin fans, I was fair to Sarah Palin right up until the moment I rendered much deserved criticism. Just one response:
Taylor you are a low life to talk the way you do and have a hatred for Sarah Palin. All this talk about the right, bull shit!!!! The hatred is on the left. Sarah thinks different than you do and is winning with her way of thinking with the American people and boy does that piss you off.
Barbara Lay
Houston, TX
Delusional people like Ms. Lay and other Palin devotees didn’t read about the Republicans who resigned in Arizona:
Fearing violence from tea party activists, Arizona Legislative District 20 Republican Chairman Anthony Miller and several others tendered their resignation this week following mass shootings that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) in critical condition.
Then there is Joe Wilson ‘You Lie’ Slogan Etched Onto Line Of Assault Rifle Components.
Former governor Sarah Palin had a chance today to regain her footing. Instead she fell on her face and on the way down decided to declare herself a political martyr, too.
That conservatives like Andrew Breitbart felt it necessary to go where no one should go in her defense has been part of the Right’s problem all along. The hate never ends.
UPDATE II: Andrew Breitbart didn’t like my post, so he attacked my hairdresser on Twitter.
UPDATE: Sect. Clinton weighed in on the subject of Loughner today.
In an interview with CNN Wednesday Clinton, who had recently referred to the shooter as an “extremist,” doubled down on her comments saying that the shooter was an extremist who acted on his “bizarre” political views.
“Based on what I know, this is a criminal defendant who was in some ways motivated by his own political views, who had a particular animus toward the congresswoman,” Clinton said. “And I think when you cross the line from expressing opinions that are of conflicting differences in our political environment into taking action, that’s violent action, that’s a hallmark of extremism, whether it comes from the right, the left, from al Qaeda, from anarchists, whoever it is. That is a form of extremism. So yes, I think that when you’re a criminal who is in some way pursuing criminal activity connected to — however bizarre and poorly thought through — your political views, that’s a form of extremism.”
Clinton added that she knows Giffords personally.
“I happen to know the congresswoman,” Clinton added. “I think very highly of her. She’s an extraordinary person as well as a great public servant. And the loss of all of the people — the federal judge, the nine-year-old girl, and others — is just heartbreaking to me.”
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