Over the last five years, a deadly new trend has developed in American politics — a willingness of mainstream voices, and law-abiding citizens, to introduce the gun into our democratic system.<\/p>\n
There was a time, decades ago, when the left indulged in the same rhetoric and symbolism, suggesting constantly that violence would be a reasonable alternative if goals couldn’t be achieved peacefully at the ballot box.<\/p>\n
When Malcolm X promised progress “by any means necessary” it was an implicit and irresponsible threat.<\/p>\n
But this latest resurgence of violence-tinged rhetoric is largely the province of the right.<\/p>\n
When a conservative activist\u00a0 brings an assault rifle<\/a> to one of President Barack Obama’s rallies; when one of the nation’s most prominent right-wing broadcasters, Glenn Beck, warns that Democrats are taking Americans “to a place to be slaughtered”; and when a top Republican politician talk about “2nd amendment remedies<\/a>,” it’s time for decent Americans to push back.<\/p>\n Here’s what Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle told an interviewer during last year’s campaign:<\/p>\n I hope that’s not where we’re going, but, you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around? I’ll tell you the first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Today we’re all wrestling with the news that a Democratic congresswoman has been shot in Arizona.<\/p>\n We’re learning, moreover, that last March Rep. Gabrielle Gifford’s windows were smashed or shot out<\/a> after she voted in favor of the Democratic healthcare bill.<\/p>\n And we’re learning that following a political event in August 2009, a conservative protester opposed to the healthcare bill was ejected from one of her allies, after a pistol fell from his pocket.<\/p>\n And we’re learning that in June 2010, Gifford’s Republican opponent held a political rally called “Get On Target For Victory,” at which attendants were encouraged to “shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly.”<\/p>\n This followed on Sarah Palin’s Tweet manifesto to “commonsense conservatives and lovers of America,” urging them:\u00a0 “Don’t retreat, instead RELOAD!”<\/p>\n This fromt he New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n Ms. Giffords was also among a group of Democratic House candidates featured on the Web site of Sarah Palin<\/a>\u2019s political action committee with cross hairs over their districts, a fact that disturbed Ms. Giffords at the time.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re on Sarah Palin\u2019s targeted list,\u201d Ms. Giffords said<\/a> last March. \u201cBut the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they\u2019ve got to realize there\u2019s consequences to that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n We don’t yet know whether Gifford’s assassin had political motives and it appears that he was mentally ill.<\/p>\n But this isn’t the first time in the last 12 months that the gun-fueled political rhetoric has translated into terrifying action.<\/p>\n In July 2010, a right-wing activist named Byron Williams fired at police after they spotted him driving erratically.\u00a0 Williams was captured wearing full body armor and carrying an arsenal of weapons.<\/p>\n It turned out Williams had set out to murder “progressives,” and was motivated in large measure by information gathered on Glenn Beck’s radio and television programs.<\/p>\n In April 2009, Pittsburgh man was accused of killing three police officers in Pittsburgh.\u00a0 According to the Washington Post<\/a>:<\/p>\n