Aug 14, 2008
A Return to Tradition
Back in May, I asked here why we were seeing so little violence associated with the growing political anger that divides the country.
Two months later in Tennessee, a 58 year-old man named Jim Adkisson entered a Unitarian church and shot nine people with a shotgun. A police report concluded that Adkisson shot members of the congregation"because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."
Today, another white man in his 50s walked into the headquarters of the Arkansas Democratic Party and killed the state party chairman with a handgun. The motive for the Arkansas shooting has not yet been announced, but witnesses said the shooter sought out the state chairman. This was not the product of a stray bullet, or the random act of a street crazy.
Since 1992, Americans have seen remarkably little internal political violence. In that absence, we've come to think of this kind of violence as unusual. It's not. Here's my awful bet: We'll be seeing several more of these shootings before November -- as the McCain campaign gears up to take Mark Penn's advice for Hillary Clinton, and a presidential candidacy is repeatedly portrayed as an attack on American values and America's security.
If you turn up American anger, you're likely to get a reminder of its history.
Two months later in Tennessee, a 58 year-old man named Jim Adkisson entered a Unitarian church and shot nine people with a shotgun. A police report concluded that Adkisson shot members of the congregation"because of its liberal teachings and his belief that all liberals should be killed because they were ruining the country, and that he felt that the Democrats had tied his country's hands in the war on terror and they had ruined every institution in America with the aid of media outlets."
Today, another white man in his 50s walked into the headquarters of the Arkansas Democratic Party and killed the state party chairman with a handgun. The motive for the Arkansas shooting has not yet been announced, but witnesses said the shooter sought out the state chairman. This was not the product of a stray bullet, or the random act of a street crazy.
Since 1992, Americans have seen remarkably little internal political violence. In that absence, we've come to think of this kind of violence as unusual. It's not. Here's my awful bet: We'll be seeing several more of these shootings before November -- as the McCain campaign gears up to take Mark Penn's advice for Hillary Clinton, and a presidential candidacy is repeatedly portrayed as an attack on American values and America's security.
If you turn up American anger, you're likely to get a reminder of its history.