"What threatened the right the most was losing control of the national political narrative"

[marmar]

from HuffPost:



Marty Kaplan
Director, Norman Lear Center and Professor at the USC Annenberg School

Posted: January 9, 2011 07:38 PM
The Vitriol in Our National Bloodstream


"Clarabelle Dopenik." That's what one wit on the popular conservative Web site freerepublic.com called Clarence Dupnik, the Pima County, Arizona sheriff who turns 75 this week. Elected continuously since 1980, he is the public face of the investigation into the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 19 others. He is also, according to bloggers on that site, "an incompetent unhinged sonofabitch" and "a jerk" "using this tragedy for baseless, cheap political shots."

Sheriff Dupnik's crime was decrying

"the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out from people in the radio business and some people in the TV business.... When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government -- the anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on this country is getting to be outrageous, and unfortunately Arizona has become sort of the capital.... People tend to pooh-pooh this business about all the vitriol we hear inflaming the American public by people who make a living off of doing that. That may be free speech, but it's not without consequences."

The problem with Sheriff Dupnik's calling out vitriol, blogged one conservative, was that it was actually "calling out Rush, Glenn, Sean and Fox!!!!!" Dupnik was, wrote another, "inciting violence accusing Rush, tea parties, Palin, and Republicans of bigotry and murder."

What threatened the right the most was losing control of the national political narrative. Until the slayings in the Safeway parking lot, the master story had been the triumphant G.O.P. sweeping into Congress to repeal "the job-killing health care bill." But as of Saturday, the new story connected the dots between the inflammatory rhetoric of McCain/Palin events in 2008, the ugly confrontations at congressional town halls in the summer of 2009, the "lock and load" cackling of the 2010 campaign - and the cultural climate of the Tucson murders. Within the space of a few hours, the story had been transformed from a revenge narrative (Obama brought low) to a soul-searching meta-narrative: How has our society come to this season in hell, and what must be done to heal us? ..............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marty-kaplan/the-vitriol-vitriol_b_806514.html

[William769]

1. DING! DING! DING!

We have a winner!

[xchrom]

2. Recommend

[PDJane]

3. That is the problem.

I was hoping someone would say so, and I have my wish.

[bemildred]

4. Yep. It's all about keeping their demented narrative going.

Otherwise they gotta admit what a bunch of losers they are, and that they have been screwed by the very people that purport to "lead" them. It's like finding out Daddy is a Drug Lord.