On the flip side, I'm pretty sure that no one in this thread--certainly not me--suggested that we ought to sit on our hands and do zilch. Or that there was no way that right-wing rhetoric was responsible. It definitely played a part, but not as obvious and direct a part as a lot of people apparently wanted it to, and I thought it was a bit silly to be saying so mere hours after the shooting, before we knew much of anything. Since then it's been a war of spin, one that, for once, the right is arguably losing--I'd argue that the mere fact that Palin (in particular) is so heavily on the defensive means that the accusations are sticking to her, and makes her look bad in the public sphere. But the situation is more complex than that, and I would indeed argue that there's a wrong way to go about blaming this on the right. As Fred Clarke says in that post I linked to, it's not "violent rhetoric" so much as the more serious underlying assertions that go along with that rhetoric. Attacking the superficial language of the right is the kind of thing that can end up backfiring, since everyone does indeed use that kind of language. And trying to pin Loughner with whatever politics are convenient for your argument is probably not going to work either, since the guy was so obviously a space cadet. (Ironically, there have already been plenty of much MUCH clearer examples of violent right-wing politics being linked to spree killings--Byron Williams, James von Brunn--but they apparently don't have the cachet of shooting a Congresswoman.)
Apparently the majority are rejecting the idea that the heated political rhetoric set off Loughner. I don't know if I trust the polls at this point, and people might change their mind, but I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with engaging in a war of spin.
Look, you just have to take for granted these days that everything is going to be crassly and tastelessly spun by the extreme right punditocracy, and yes, this might be a potential "silver bullet" to help weaken them. But you have to aim the bullet. In the immediate wake of the shooting I saw people on the left rushing to spin the hell out of this, in ways that weren't necessarily accurate, in a disturbingly right-wing kinda way. I don't want the left to win the argument because they fought idiotic fire with fire. I want them to win because they're RIGHT.
In the days since I think the argument has gotten more thoughtful and insightful, but I worry that initial rush to judgment is going to come back and bite the left on the ass.
