It is indisputable that the language of the political right is laden with emotive appeals to violence...That such appeals should provide an impulse for unstable and disoriented individuals to act can hardly come as a surprise...Only weeks ago, some of the same politicians and media spokespeople who are today disavowing the shooting of Giffords were calling for the assassination of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Now the likes of Fox News media mogul Rupert Murdoch, who have incited ultra-right elements, contemptuously deny any responsibility for the carnage in Tucson.
It should not be forgotten that right-wing violence, supported by elements within the state, has historically been used to shift political direction at points of great social crisis in the United States. In the 1960s, three political assassinations ― of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy ― played a major role in shifting the axis of American politics to the right.
The overall social and political environment is the product of the wars overseas and endless invocations of military violence that are essential to imperialism, and the social disintegration at home that is the result of the ceaseless pursuit of corporate profit at the expense of society. This is why the Democrats can never speak openly and honestly, even in the face of events whose political character is obvious.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/pers-j10.shtml
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