It is pretty stunning how Conservatives can miss the point and at the same time make the point of Liberals. This whole thing over blame is moving into the surreal. Look, it is not about what books Jared Loughner read nor what party he’s registered to. It does not matter if he smoked a bail of pot every hour. Loughner is sick, and violent. He is a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.

What matters is how he got the idea that an elected official was a good target. That is what it all comes down to. When there is one party that is constantly screaming about the evils of government and saying that one party is the cause of all these evils, who do you think unstable people are going to target? Government workers and officials of course.

Now I know it might come as surprise to marginally stable folks like Rep. Virginia Foxx that saying Loughner was “The Liberal of Liberals”, well liberals see that as demonizing us and contributing to the climate of violence. What did the very conservative Rep. from North Carolina draw this conclusion from? The fact that Loughner had Das Capital on his likes list in Face Book. I have Battlestar Gallactica on my likes list; does that make me a Cylon?  . . .

The examples go on, Rush Limbaugh, said:

“What Mr. Loughner knows is that he has the full support of a major political party in this country. He’s sitting there in jail; he knows what’s going on. He knows that a Democrat [sic] Party — the Democrat [sic] Party — is attempting to find anybody but him to blame.
“He knows if he plays his cards right that he’s just a ‘victim.’ He’s the latest in a never ending parade of victims brought about by the ‘unfairness of America.’ The ‘bigotry, racism, homophobia’ of America. The ‘mean-spiritedness of America.’ […]
“That smiling mugshot — this guy clearly understands he’s getting all the attention, and he understands he’s got a political party doing everything it can, plus a local sheriff doing everything they can to make sure he’s not convicted of murder.”

Think about that insanity for a moment. Loughner is universally reviled in this nation right now. He has apparently committed a very heinous crime, and yet Limbaugh is saying to his listeners that every Democrat in the nation supports him. What is an unstable (and the Flying Spaghetti Monster only knows how many Rush listeners are unstable) listener to think. That this evil man is a Democrat and they want to kill people.

This is exactly what we mean when we say Conservatives are responsible for the climate of political violence in this country. They are giving clear examples on a daily basis even as the families deal with tragedy.

I know this won’t sink in to them, but this is the time to call out this kind of speech and hope for a teachable moment. Rep. Foxx and Limbaugh are probably beyond teaching but I hold out hope that others, if they are shown the stark example will learn.

So, what’s on your mind tonight Firedogs? The floor is yours.