The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and several other innocent bystanders (six of whom died) on Saturday is a horrible tragedy. Every sane person agrees with that and our hearts and prayers go out to all the victims. Every sane person can also agree with the need to tone down venomous rhetoric on both sides of the political divide.

I think that most people can also agree that Sarah Palin’s now-infamous “crosshairs” imagery in political postings targeting certain congressional districts for conservative electoral victory  was unfortunate and she will likely pay a price politically. And, perhaps, that’s appropriate because the imagery was, in fact, inappropriate.

But, acknowledging that, it’s still a long leap to actually blame Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck or the Tea Party or political conservatives in general for the act of an unfortunate lunatic.

A tragedy like this should, in fact, remind us all that, no matter how much we may disagree on politics, we are all human beings who have a right to express a point of view. That’s what Giffords did in representing her district. Those who use violence (in this case an apparent crazy person) should not be used as tools in which to blanket demonize everyone of either a conservative or liberal viewpoint.

We’re coming up on February 18, 2011 — the one year anniversary of the day Andrew Joseph Stack III flew his Piper Dakota plane into an IRS building in Austin, Texas killing himself and one other person and injuring 13 others.

As documented by the Smoking
Gun, Stack apparently posted a manifesto online prior to his suicidal flight
that ranted against “the vulgar,
corrupt Catholic Church,” “the monsters of organized religion,” and
“presidential puppet GW Bush and his
cronies.”

Are atheists responsible for Stack’s deadly assault because he expressed a negative view of religion. Of course not. Is Keith Olbermann responsible because they apparently shared a disdain for President Bush. No.

Was Al Gore responsible when James J. Lee wielded a gun some months ago to take hostages at the Maryland headquarters of the Discovery Channel? According to a Maryland
newspaper account, following an earlier, less violent, protest outside the
Discovery headquarters in 2008 “Lee said he then felt an ”awakening,”
watched former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary ”An Inconvenient Truth,’
and decided he had been doing too little to protect the
environment.”

Conservatives may think Gore is overselling the threat of “global warming” or “climate change” but that doesn’t make him to blame for what happened in Maryland. Though, like the incident in Arizona, it should remind both sides to avoid overheated rhetoric on any topic.

BTW, I don’t expect the Texas or Maryland incidents to be the subjects of endless network retrospectives — as I think they probably would be if either incident could in any way be connected with the Tea Party. I certainly don’t expect a special commentary from Keith Olbermann noting how political discourse may motivated either man. I’ll give Olbermann some credit for at least giving the idea that both sides need to tone down the rhetoric some lip service — though there seems little doubt that he thinks conservatives are more guilty of irresponsible rhetoric than liberals.

That’s a start. Because, despite what some commentators on the left would like to believe (of have us believe), unfortunately unfortunate violent-tinged rhetoric is not just a product of the right. Real Time host Bill Maher has suggested that the world might be better off without Dick Cheney. Indeed, as a Real Time panelist, Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) even remarked (to a round of applause) that some think the bomb that exploded in Afghanistan while Cheney was visiting the troops was “wasted.” Alan Grayson, the recently defeated U.S. senator from Florida, said on the House floor that, if you’re sick, “Republicans want you do die quickly.” Certainly the likes of Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck Rush Limbaugh are frequently labeled as dangerous or even treasonous by their critics. Comedian Wanda Sykes even (jokingly?) wished Limbaugh kidney failure. And, at this point, it’s beyond counting how many times the left has compared conservative politicians with Adolph Hitler and Nazi Germany.

Of course, the right can be guilty of such hyperbole (as, again, Keith Olbermann is more than happy to point out) and would also do well to avoid it. The fact that both sides do it doesn’t make it right for either side. If both sides were honest (with each other and ourselves) we’d have to admit that the other side of any most debates usually has a point worthy of considering. By considering all points of view is how a civil society arrives at a reasonable and just consensus that eventually allows us all to move forward. Democracy isn’t about stomping the other side into oblivion. It’s about free people developing the wisdom to live together with respect and in peace.

There is, however, a huge difference between political rhetoric that is merely a bit overheated and that which is hateful and just plain crazy. For instance, one video regarding the Giffords shooting features an official at the Westboro Baptist Church that is too vile to even link to. We can’t let the crazies drive the rest of us apart. The rest of us need to talk civilly and learn to understand each others’ points of view.

So, yes, Sarah Palin should not have posted those “crosshairs” over congressional districts she targeted for defeat at the polls. But, as non-idealogical commentators like Howard Kurtz acknowledge, whatever the wisdom (or lack of it) on the part Palin in doing so, she is not to blame for what happened in Arizona. The Daily Kos may also have been wise to avoid headlining a blog criticizing Rep. Giffords from the left this way: “My CongressWOMAN voted against Nancy Pelosi and is now DEAD to me.”  But it isn’t to blame either.

Let this incident remind everyone on both sides of the aisle to cool down the rhetoric. One way to do that is not to use it as a tool to further demonize political opponents — the very thing we should all be trying to avoid.