I strongly disagree with Mr. Hennen's characterization of my letter as one rife with stereotypes. His criticisms were well-worded and well-intentioned, but he either did not actually finish reading my letter past his disappointments, or badly misunderstood it.
I said, rather explicitly: The shooter
it would seem is something of a lone-wolf with little affiliation to any party of any sort. We're in agreement so far, Mr. Hennen. I said that, The question of blame as usual
is incorrect in this instance. It doesn't matter whether or not the Tea Party was directly responsible for the shooting itself
or the GOP. Still going well.
When I made the enormous cognitive leap toward simply recognizing the sorts of things that hardcore conservative media and populist groups advocate-namely ideas of sovereign citizenship
armed citizen militias and so forth-I lost you. Why? I sense that you want to stand up for moderate and reasonable conservatives, Mr. Hennen. I have no qualms about that. I wish someone would. But while you are defending them from the villainies of my wide-painting brush, would you also tell them to speak up?
Yes, speak up. Tell them to voice their reasoned, mature, and stable opinions. Tell them to force Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh to sit down, scale back the anger.
Tell them to make their voices heard, to contribute to political dialogue rather than allowing the fringe to scream down congressmen in town hall meetings, carry assault-rifles to presidential speeches or suggest that George Soros is secretly Emperor Palpatine. Tell them to stand up and represent themselves for what they are-the true majority among conservatives, even if a silent one-and to stop allowing their least capable peers stand for what conservative power and personality means.
I stand by what I said. I didn't say the whole of the GOP, or libertarians, or conservatives or even liberals were to blame. I said that Jared Loughner is a loon, but violently opposed to government, and that where conservatives and loons are consonant in rhetoric of violent empowerment, conservatives need to stop.
Jesse Pyle is a senior studying English.
4
Opinion
