On Political Madness

Jared Lee Loughner's motives are obscure, but it's hard to disentangle the shooting of a Congresswoman, and the killing of a federal judge, a 9-year-old girl, and four other people from the political culture that it occurred in, an environment of exaggerated divisions, the demonization of opponents as socialists or traitors, and a lot of gun rhetoric, gun imagery, and ... guns. Almost certainly, history will tie the two together no matter what we learn about Loughner in the coming weeks. Political madness is a recurring strain American history in which, on some level, we all take part: "I shouted out/Who killed the Kennedys?/When after all/It was you and me."

So, this is a collective problem. Pinning blame won't really work, because we end up back in the workings of Loughner's mind, which we don't understand right now, and may never. We're probably not going to find some triggering phrase in all the millions of nasty political words spoken in the past couple of years, either. See Ken Silber's reasoned take on rhetoric. Clearly, for instance, Sarah Palin was not inciting violence with her "rifle sights" (or "surveyor's symbol") graphic, crass and obnoxious as it was. Sharron Angle, with her "Second Amendment remedies" quote, came right up to that line, however. But it's doubtful Loughner was paying much attention to a Nevada Senate race.

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