Tucson Tragedy: We Won't Come Together

In the wake of the mass shootings in Tucson this week, many are wondering if there will be a sea change in political discourse in the United States.  There won't.  As usual, Jon Stewart discribes the sad situation perfectly.

14 January 2011

Additional:  More on Stewart and Stephen Colbert in relation to the events in Tucson here.  These clips are better, more thoughtful commentary on the entire episode than anything that appeared elsewhere in the media.  Not surprising, of course, but sad nonetheless.

STEWART: So here we are again, stunned by a tragedy. We've been visited by this demon before. Our hearts go out to those injured or killed and their loved ones. How do you make sense of these types of senseless situations is really the question that seems to be on everybody's mind. I don't know that there's a way to make sense of this sort of thing. As I watched the political pundit world, many are reflecting and grieving and trying to figure things out. But it's definitely true that others are working feverishly to find the tidbit or two that will exonerate their side from blame or implicate the other. Watching that is as predictable, I think, as it is dispiriting. Did the toxic political environment cause this? A graphic image here, an ill-timed comment, violent rhetoric, those types of things. I have no fucking idea.


I do think it's important to watch our rhetoric. I think it's a worthwhile goal not to conflate our political opponents with enemies if for no other reason than to draw a better distinction between the manifestos of paranoid madmen and what passes for acceptable political and pundit speak. It would be really nice if the ramblings of crazy people didn't in any way resemble how we actually talk to each other on tv.

.