Step back or fall forward

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http://blogs.lancasteronline.com/smartremarks/2011/01/11/escalation/">Smart Remarks:

Back in the bad old days of the Iraq war, some lefty protestors carried posters with Bush’s picture next to a noose. There were “Bomb Bush” and “Wanted: Dead or Alive” posters. The rhetoric was absolutely over the top, though the sentiments were directed specifically at public officials, rather than conservatives in general.

Which is to say, I saw no posters showing - say - a gun sight superimposed over the Republican elephant with the line, “Speak to them in a language they understand.” Though it strikes me I might make a lot of money producing such a shirt; and the right could not possibly object.

I also do not recall seeing any “Conservative hunting permits,” though perhaps I should make one of those as well. “Can be used at 9-12 gatherings, gun shows, Sarah Palin book signings, Republican conventions.”

That would go over well, don’t you think? I can hear the right shrieking right now.

But the point is, the left has not engaged in blanket suggestions that violence be done to its political opponents en masse. The left has not suggested “hunting” conservatives, it has not made veiled threats that is certain legislation passes liberals will show up with loaded weapons. Liberals have not shown up at Republican events with semi-automatic weapons slung over their shoulders.

Conservatives have engaged in all of this. ...

But the right’s also missing the big picture in all of this. The nation has now paused to consider the political climate that may have contributed to this shooting. The right is in the position of arguing that there is nothing wrong with any of its rhetoric, and if there is the left has done it too!

That suggests that the right is reluctant to abandon the imagery of violence, even now.

Well, I tell you what - if they don’t, it amounts to escalation. Which is to say that if the right doubles down on the gun sights and veiled threats to shoot its political opponents, that can and ultimately will be a two-way street. Perhaps one day we see the New Black Panthers showing up outside a Sarah Palin event with semi-automatic weapons in tow, exercising their Second Amendment rights.

I’m sure the Fox News crowd would accept that they’re just exercising their Constitutional perogatives, right?

Now’s the chance to cool it; now is the chance to step back and consider the whole picture, the culture that all of this has created - and where it leads.

If we as a nation fail to do that - it’s going to lead right off the cliff.