The incivility of politics, and how the media covers it, hit new lows this week as pundits shamefully politicized the shooting of a Republican Congressman.
Rep. Steve Scalise, the Majority Whip in the House, narrowly escaped death last week when an overzealous supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders opened fire on a field of congressmen, who were practicing for a charity baseball game.
While most of the nation prayed for the recovery of Congressman Scalise – and that seems to be occurring – some news commentators chose to blame Scalise himself for the shooting. By some twisted logic, it wasn’t the bullets of a crazed gunman that took down Scalise, it was actually his views on health care and the politics of sex that put him in the hospital on the critical list (since upgraded to serious).
Check out CBS anchorman Scott Pelly, who gratefully has retired this week. He said, on air, that Scalise’s wounds were self-inflicted and could have been predicted. In other words, blame the victim!
“Too many leaders, and political commentators, who set an example for us to follow, have led us into an abyss of violent rhetoric which, it should be no surprise, has led to violence,” Pelley added.
Was he looking in the mirror when he uttered those words?
At least one congressman replied that Pelley should be ashamed of himself. And he should be. So much for the objective reporting of the evening news!
Then there were the far left voices of MSNBC. Host Joy Ann Reid wondered whether we must put aside the congressman’s political views just because he was shot and nearly killed.
Instead, she demanded that the congressman’s traditional views on marriage as between a man and a woman make him a homophobe, his financial concerns about ObamaCare make him a racist and his support for the Constitution’s Second Amendment make him a menace to the country.
These vicious attacks upon the stricken congressman are despicable. They fail to differentiate between the well-thought out convictions of so many and the emotional rantings of the politically correct crowd.
Let’s get real. Maintaining that marriage is between a man and a woman is a logical view based on thousands of years of rational Judeo-Christian thought. Thinking with the prophets and the saints does not mean you are hostile to gays.
Believing that people have a right to bear arms in order to protect themselves does not mean you support armed insurrection and mob rule. Just the opposite!
Opposing ObamaCare premiums that no one can afford does not mean one is a racist. You simply believe there must a better way to assure everyone gets covered by health insurance.
The political invectives of the current debate have got to end. The rhetoric must be tampered down. Those we have elected to govern should get back to governing and stop the finger pointing. Come up with solutions. Otherwise, I believe the voting public that sent a strong message to politicians last November will continue to make their voices heard at the polls. It wouldn’t be the first time our representatives failed to heed the will of the people.
Dear Mr. Wilkinson,
I read with amazement your diatribe against the over politicization of the Congressman Scalese. What why was announcing that the shooter was a Sander’s supporter ? Was that germane ? Why not just leave it at he was mentally ill ?
The Scalese shooting shooting was full of irony that the media could not dismiss. Congressman Scalese voted to allow the mentally ill to carry fire arms. Then he was shoot by a mentally ill person.
Congressman Scalese believes that gay marriage is an abomination but his life and the lives of others was said by the heroic action of a gay married woman.
By this time you must realize that the Republican health care plan is not a way to solve what is wrong with Obamacare. It is a redistribution of wealth from the poor to the wealthy. To not see this is willfull ignorance.
The German people were not absolved from the horror of the Holocaust because they acquiesced to the government for the ” good of the country, Catholic leaders and editorial writers will not be absolved from what government is planning to do to the poor, disabled, and aged.
Dear Editor:
“Your own mouth condemns you….” [Job 15:6]; “…. By your own words you will be condemned.” [Matthew 12:37]. We have it on good authority that one’s own words can indeed be used against them, to indict and condemn. While I must emphasize that I’m the last person on this planet to defend the leftist odium that passes these days as journalism, whether print or tube, broadcast or cable, the editorial “The Tone of the Political Debate Has Hit a New Low” in this week’s Editor’s Space causes me to do the unthinkable — defend a network “commentator.”
I must be missing something. I read no words in Scott Pelley’s quoted comment that assert anything other than an opinion I share that hateful rhetoric can kill, or at least inspire to kill. Perhaps Pelley said more. Perhaps Mr. Wilkerson read or heard more that would indeed condemn Pelley. But nothing, at least nothing in the quote given in print, condemns Pelley. The despicable words you attribute to him constitute your paraphrase. Did Pelley actually say “self-inflicted” or is this a matter of “reading between the lines?”
Similarly you only paraphrase the statement of Joy Ann Reid. MSNBC. Hmmm. Such a statement from such a source would be no surprise, but I for one would like to read or hear her very words. Did she actually utter words so contemptible and repulsive? Did she indeed speak the words “homophobe” and “racist” and “menace” in identifying the wounded Rep. Scalise? Did she actually verbalize the terms “armed insurrection” and “mob rule,” or is this again a matter of The Tablet reading between the lines?
Nothing spewing from the leftist media would surprise me, but in the interest of precision and avoiding any tinge of biased interpretation or “editorializing” as they so often do, let’s allow the commentators’ own words to condemn them. Just suggesting.
By the way, the quote is “Nemo dat quod non habet.” Memories of my four years of Latin at Loughlin never fade and sometimes still haunt.
Sincerely,
Thomas G. Straczynski
Whitestone, NY
Unfortunately, The Tablet continues to support the right wing, pro-Trump agenda as evidenced in its editorials and in the majority of its Letters to the Editor. Perhaps it is time it focused more on Church issues and less on political opinion.