Politics is just another form of conflict. The difference between politics and war is that politics is socialized conflict. What this means is that primarily, politics involves words rather than violence. The risk of politics is that there is a fine line between words and actions. While words are innocuous and generally are used to convey ideas, there are cases where the conflict escalates and violence ensues. This is where politics ends.
With the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D-Arizona) by the deranged Jared Loughner, we see the ugly side of politics. I don’t know for certain what political persuasion Jared Loughner was, but that really doesn’t matter a whole lot. Whatever his political ideology was, it was probably secondary to the terrible actions he took. Given what has been found in the backyard of where he lived, it’s quite clear to me that he was a disturbed individual more so than a political ideologue. How many people adhere to one political persuasion or another compared to how many actually shoot politicians?
This reminds me of the Columbine shooting incident where MTV hosts reported on the massacre as if they were going to take the blame for it. When a couple of kids shoot up their peers in a school, MTV usually does get blamed by one loon or another. And the sad fact is, those loons get more media airtime than rational analysts because it bring them ratings.
Right now, there are pundits on the Left blaming Sarah Palin, the Tea Party, the repeal of Obamacare, and just about everything else that is currently associated with the right-wing. On the Right, they are largely pointing out the hypocrisy of the Left in their own calls for death and destruction of certain enemies and some are stating that Jared Loughner was a radical left-wing ideologue. Frankly, I don’t care what this sick individual’s political ideology was. He clearly targeted a political figure, but the reasons need not be political, especially if he is insane.
Currently, I’m looking at all the people who are trying to pigeonhole Loughner’s politics into a particular ideology as nothing more than deranged and sick individuals themselves. For them, life is nothing more than a series of political gains and losses. It doesn’t matter that a 9-year-old girl was killed by Jared Loughner’s indiscriminate shooting at the crowd. It doesn’t matter that six random people are dead. All that matters to these wackjobs is that they score political points against their political enemies.
Yes, words do mean things and words can inspire actions that are good or bad. And while we all have the shared responsibility of taking responsibility for what we say and to say things with measured discipline, that doesn’t mean that our words can held responsible for the actions of others. To do so means that people’s behavior can be controlled and induced based on certain stimuli, which is never the case most of the time. In truth, between the stimulus and the response to said stimulus lies the choice.
And that is what this all comes down to: it is up to the individual to make the right choices for him or herself. Don’t blame the people who spout hatred and violence, in whatever form, because the individual is still free to choose. This is why I refuse to accept that Jared Loughner had any political ideology right now because what he did has nothing to do politics. It had everything to do with an ideology of war.