Dangerous Words
There is a lot of speculation today about why 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner (according to law investigators) allegedly shot Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. The Sheriff covering the crime, some politicians and plenty of political pundits have said the massacre serves as an example of the danger that can stem from political debate becoming as hateful as it is now in America today.
Clearly, it is far too soon to conclude politics could be behind this tragedy. Evidence also points to Loughner suffering from mental instability. No matter how lucid he may have sounded in court today, when you hear reports of a skull surrounded by rotting fruit and candles at his home, along with a form letter from the Congresswoman locked in a personal safe, he doesn't come across as entirely sane. That said, if this awful, senseless act has also focused attention on the vitriol in political discourse today, it is a critically important discussion that is long overdue.
Maybe you didn't notice, but when the new Congressional members were sworn in last week, Congress lost a Democrat from Michigan named Bart Stupak. He walked away from his Congressional seat in disgust. What a loss. I remember him as a straight-talking former cop who seemed to be motivated by ideals and a sense of right and wrong but was always willing to listen and treat others with respect.
In an interview with Mitch Albom, published in Parade.com on November 7th, Stupak admitted public service is "hateful now"....adding, "every boundary of decency has been crossed." He said he attracted death threats when he voted to support President Obama's health care bill. That, negative campaigning and the colossal amounts of cash required to run pushed him right out the door. As he put it "Remember [the movie] 'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington?' Those days are gone."
In that Frank Capra classic, Jimmy Stewart played a man of the people who went to Washington with honest intentions to make his state, and the country a better place. As Mitch Albom put it, the Mr. Smith of today "no longer dreams of going to Washington. He dreams of leaving it."
What an indictment of our present political landscape: that people with drive, passion and dreams feel the need to escape the nation's capitol, and even the public eye, because politics have become so poisonous. Whether or not the polarized political climate is now dangerous, it's already proved damaging. Once the difficult task of determining the motive behind Saturday's terrible tragedy is done, the next question to ask is: how deeply damaged is our democracy?
