Cracks in the FunHouse Mirror, Part II

We like feedback and many of us require it so we can feel secure. Most of us need a mirror in order to properly shave or to apply makeup or, in Eddie Izzard’s case, both. We want to know how we’re doing. We see this desire in children, loved ones and co-workers. We seek affirmation from people whose opinions matters to us and often from authority figures. Here’s a warning to TEA Partiers and other conservatives and libertarians: Don’t expect an honest reflection from the left or from the media.

As amazing as it seems, there are still those who expect a true accounting from mainstream media, and even more astounding, from the left itself. It will never happen. The hatred of the TEA Party has become such an obsession for the left that it is a part of their identity. For the left to confess that it was mistaken, even in part, regarding its most high profile opponent is to admit its own shortcomings.

As for the media, the TEA Party Fanatic has become a part of their cultural mythology. In that myth put forth by political liberals, where logic and reality are unheeded suggestions, the TEA Party is full of violent, ignorant, stupid, homophobic, trigger-happy racists who hate all government but aren’t cool enough to be anarchists. And the facts to support this myth are . . . apparently unnecessary. Logic and facts are, after all, tools of an oppressive western civilization that liberals hate almost as much as they despise the TEA Party.

The latest example of the left’s political necessity and the media’s cultural myths is the reaction to the murder of six people in Tucson, including a federal judge, and the shooting of an additional 13 people, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Because Giffords is a Democrat, the immediate outcry from the left and their pet media was to blame the rhetoric of the TEA Party and other conservative sources. That fact that the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, did not even vote in the last election and, reportedly, did not watch news or listen to talk radio, was no obstacle to the left’s politics and mythology.

The reality check question is, “After the shooting in Tucson, has the condemnation of the political left fallen more on presumed shooter Jared Loughner or the members of the TEA Party?” Loughner has largely been given a pass by the media and the left, while the accusations falling on the political enemies of the left has continued unabated.

Even without admitting its errors, one would think that the left would have slithered away into its hole and cut its losses. The left is counting on the usual attention span of the public, and here is where reality has sharp teeth: the TEA Party and its allies are now paying attention and there will be no neutral ground for Democrats in 2012.

Those who failed to call for a halt to the unsubstantiated attacks will be held accountable just as those who voiced that same heated, hateful rhetoric. Their feedback will be given in November of 2012.

Cracks in the FunHouse Mirror, Part I

There was no mourning on the “Professional Left”, just gleeful expectation at the opportunity to undermine a particularly effective foe. When the editorialists of the New York Times launched their attacks on the TEA Party, the name of the vile, worthless shooter in Tucson was still unknown – as were his political beliefs. It didn’t matter and, frankly, I don’t believe it would have mattered, regardless of facts.

Here’s a reality check question for you: Since the Tucson shooting, have you seen more verbal attacks on the presumed shooter, Jared Loughner, or on the Tea Party movement? Just ponder that for a moment. Does this strike you as people upset that lives were violently taken, or does it appear more likely that political hacks are not allowing “a good crisis go to waste”?

Liberals are ambitious in political matters. They are not content to simply take an excuse to attack conservatives and libertarians; not when larger matters are at hand.

We all knew that the TEA Party would be blamed for the shooting in Tucson. It was as certain as the sun setting in the west, though a lot less pleasant. Then, the left followed swiftly with attacks on our rights as free human beings.

Why does the generic response from the generic left always seem to involve a restriction of God-given rights? Within two days, there were hysterical calls to restrict first amendment (speech, including “symbology”), second amendment and tenth amendment rights. Sadly, I’ve probably overlooked some others.

The left wants to use a, “troubled” I think is the preferred term now, man as an excuse to steal more of our rights as the country mourns. This is equivalent to a burglar breaking into your home while he knows you’re at the funeral of a loved one. Let’s face it; it’s just plain creepy as well as disgusting.

If I fail to communicate anything else, I hope you will remember this: Our laws – federal, state and local – are written for sane, responsible adults. Yes, there are exceptions for criminals, for incompetents and even for irresponsible people – but those are noted exceptions. We cannot afford to write laws that assume everyone is a criminal; that everyone is not sane; that everyone is incompetent. We certainly cannot use one unstable young man as an excuse to strip us of our rights.

To do so is to repudiate everything that Thomas Jefferson believed. It is to repudiate everything this country is founded upon. It would be a declaration that man is not capable of ruling himself - a “Declaration of Dependence”.

Loughner wasn’t political; he was unstable. We now know that Loughner was registered to vote as an “Independent” and that he didn’t even vote in 2010. In addition, Loughner’s friend Zach Osler stated, “He [Loughner]did not watch TV. He disliked the news. He didn’t listen to political radio. He didn’t take sides. He wasn’t on the left. He wasn’t on the right.”

Some people will wait for an apology from the left. It won’t come, because the reaction to Tucson is about many things, but truth is not one of them.