Right wing's violent rhetoric taps rage and frustration and leads to assassination attempt in Arizona

Democratic Party Congress Woman Gifford. Target of assassination attempt.

Our blog condemns today's attempt to assassinate Democratic Congress woman Giffords in Arizona. In doing so we remember she was not the only one who was attacked. Six others were shot and died. One a nine year old girl who has not had a chance to have a life yet. Our blog condemns unreservedly this attack which has killed six people and left a total of 19 victims.

While condemning these killings we also must also try to understand why they took place. These killings result from a combination of factors. First of all there is the extreme right wing vitriolic imagery and attacks on government and political opponents by the Republican Party and their Tea Bag types. Do not take our word for this. Listen to what local Sheriff Clarence Dupnik had to say in his press conference.

"I think its the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in day out from, uh, people in the radio business and some people in the TV business...............I think it is time we did some soul searching. When you look at unbalanced people... how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down government.............the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately Arizona, I think, has become a sort of capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry." The sheriff was referring here amongst other things to the recently passed Arizona law which would make cops pick up people if they "looked to be" undocumented workers. The suspected assassin posted on the Internet attacks on people who cannot speak in the district of Congress Woman gifford.

When this anti immigrant law was passed this sheriff spoke out against it and against the forces in the state who pushed it. He called the law "racist" and "divisive" and a "national embarrassment". He said the state had all the laws it needed. The Sheriff also spoke about people making money out of the vitriol he condemned. He also spoke about free speech. He said he was for free speech but "free speech has consequences." This Sheriff was spelling out the madness of the extreme right over the past years and their responsibility for their part in this assassination attempt and the killing of six people and the total nineteen victims.

Let us look further at these right wing forces. In the last election twenty Democratic politicians were portrayed in posters and websites in cross hairs. That is as targets to be shot. Sarah Palin has used this term to attack Democrats and opponents. She has talked about putting them in the cross hairs. Congress woman Gifford was opposed in the last election by Republican Jesse Kelly. He ran an ad which said: "Get on target for victory in November. Help remove Gabrielle Gifford from office. Shoot a fully automatic M16 with Jesse Kelly." This is almost unbelievable. These people bear responsibility for these killings in Arizona. They have to be mercilessly condemned.

But it is not only the right wing and their rhetoric who are to blame for the violence in society and events such as this assassination attempt. Life for working class people in the US gets harder and harder. The force that can give a way out, the organized labor movement is paralysed by its own leadership. It shows no way out. Instead these leaders insist in supporting the capitalist Party the Democrats, who along with the Republicans are unconditional supporters of the system. Rage and anger and frustration therefore builds and builds. This is how we have the fertile ground for the people who go on about putting others in the cross hairs and for the unstable and frustrated people who actually try and do this.

This will not be the first or last political assassination or attempted political assassination in this country unless things change. And change in this way. That is by the building of a mass workers movement which can challenge the system which is making peoples' lives so miserable and difficult and give an alternative. The union leaders in this country have a responsibility in this assassination attempt also. They continue to provide no alternative to the present rotten society so the pot is beginning to boil over and in a way that is not productive such as these Arizona shootings.

And finally as we wrote about recently in our blog there is the culture of violence in US capitalism. Guns are everywhere, the entertainment industry feeds people non stop violence and slaughter. Instead of showing the positive way to live, that is by living together in solidarity and working together collectively, we are fed a constant diet of individualism, selfishness and violence. This also has to be condemned.

This attempted assassination is having very powerful reverberations in US society already. The Republicans are terrified that they and their tea party friends will be associated with the assassin. So they have pulled any controversial bill from the Congress. They are suddenly wanting to be friends with the Democrats, that is they are running for cover, trying to hide behind the Democrats. There will be no more talk of cross hairs for a while. This attempted assassination has thrown the Republicans and their friends in the tea party movement on to the defensive. It will probably not last long as the Democrats are so determined to prove to capitalism that they are just as reliable as the Republicans that they will rescue the Republicans from their past sins. That is their connection with the extreme right such as the tea party people and the right wing radio hosts and their violent lying rhetoric.

A final note. One reporter on CNN said that a crowd had gathered in solidarity with the victims of the shootings and that these people were singing a song. What was the song? It was the old Woodie Gutherie song "This Land Is My Land." This was a very popular song of the left in decades past meaning the US belonged to working people and not the rich. If this report is true then it is significant. Were they saying this land was their land meaning not belonging to the assassins and the right wing? Who started this song amongst these people? Whether this leads to something more immediately it is a sign of how the old traditions, militant and socialist traditions, will be reborn in the future. It is a truism of socialism that sometimes for the movement to take a step forward it first needs to be thrown back, or in other words, sometimes the revolution needs the whip of the counter revolution.

Remember as you read this post Bradley Manning still sits in solitary confinement. Please keep campaigning for his release.

Sean.