Before you read the following, I want you to remember that the man who makes the statement that I’m going to quote is a United States Senator. You might find it hard to believe that he could have achieved such high status and power over the lives of his fellow Americans based on the words he spoke, ones which reveal that his mind is a vast wasteland, but its true.
His name? Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) and this is what he said in response the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords and the deaths of six other people:
Following the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, that left six dead and Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (R-AZ) in the hospital, there have been calls for politicians and pundits to back off violent rhetoric.
But tea party favorite Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) isn’t about to let the tragedy change his tone. […]
“The shooter wins if we, who’ve been elected, change what we do just because of what he did,” Lee told ABC.
Yes, the shooter wins if we tone down the murderous, violent rhetoric such as this remark by Glenn Beck:
The shooter wins if political candidates encourage people to exercise their second amendment remedies if the election results don’t turn out the way those voters expected:
The shooter wins if Michelle Bachman (R-MN) can’t refer to Democrats as “enemies” and implores her constituents to be “armed and dangerous” because a “revolution … is a good thing” to prevent tyranny:
Yes, the shooter wins if President Obama can’t be called a tyrant, a Muslim, a Marxist, and a racist who hates white people:
The shooter wins if Rush Limbaugh can’t call Democrats terrorists:
The shooter wins if Limbaugh can’t call Obama and Democrats “Nazis” and “Brownshirts:”
The shooter wins if Glenn Beck can’t publicly imagine killing Michael Moore:
And the shooter most assuredly wins if Republicans can’t joke about a carnival shooting game which encourages people to shoot President Obama:
I wonder if Senator Lee knows what the term “non sequitur” means?
A fallacy in which a conclusion does not follow logically from what preceded it.
I suspect he doesn’t. I suspect he doesn’t care that he looks like an idiot either. Just so long as he, his Republican colleagues, Right wing talk show hosts and Tea Party supporters can keep using hate speech to encourage unstable individuals to threaten the lives of their fellow Americans, I don’t think he gives a damn what we think.
test
There comes a time when evolution leaves bodies behind to remind us of where we could have wandered off to.
I myself am beginning to have a somewhat depressed view of politics. There seems to be no statement made by the Repukes which results in outrage by the middle, and no statement made by a Democrat which does not.
What middle?
Perhaps there is none. I don’t know. I am thinking of those persons who go back and forth between the parties, the “independents”.
What seems to be happening is that CONVICTION of SOMETHING is more powerful to many than actual truth of what they say. So, for those who attend to Beck or Limbaugh, the conviction and ferocity of their statements seem to overwhelm the lack of truth that they have.
What is the statement that will result in the shunning or banning of these turds?
Let’s be clear what the issue is. The issue is not the speech per se; it’s the lack of responsibility among those who have a very high-powered megaphone.
They can say any of these things on a soapbox on the corner in some small town; they can say them in private; they can even say them in a polite letter to the editor of the New York Times. But they are being paid to say them and are getting a huge megaphone as a result.
As for the two politicians, apparently the in thing among GOP women is to be as inflammatory as possible in as nutty a way as possible. I guess it’s sexy to Republican men.
But it is also the fact that these outrageous comments are apparently accepted.
It’s beyond evil really.
I am watching a program about birds and mating displays. The birds from New Guinea have extraordinary feathers that make no sense. But the females are attracted to their own mates, and to the more extreme displays.
Is this what is going on?
No sense for whom?
The current Republican mantra is “It’s not what I say but what you hear that is important.”
There’s a fundamental communications truth in that. That is why they construct their “convictions” after consulting focus groups. And sucker in the old Jesse Helms “I might not agree with him but I know where he stands crowd.”
It plays in the fact that folks are fed up to being lied to and that it doesn’t take much talent to fake sincerity.
Not only has the rhetoric become more and more extreme as the mouthers find they have to ratchet up the nastiness to stir up the base but people are more often reaching for weapons to express themselves.
Just this week we have the domestic bomber at the MLK parade in Spokane, 4 Detroit police officers shot today and 2 more officers & 2 bystanders shot in Wash state. Add to that the Tucson shooting and recognize that we’re not even done with the month yet…
“sequitur” not “sequitor”.
Third person passive/deponent ending (the ‘it’ in the translation is -tur.)
Damn
Spell check bites me in the a** again