Too Little Too Late

I have long questioned the IQ of Tea Party darling, Sarah Palin, but with her response to the recent Tucson tragedy, I find myself questioning her EQ as well.

I cannot say if the woman is as intellectually challenged as she seems, serving up stupid quips for answers to serious questions and inventing her own words to compensate for an inadequate vocabulary, but common sense and human compassion seem to be in short supply in her heart, based on the tepid, insincere-sounding “condolences” she offered in the aftermath of the shooting of one of the members of Congress who were targeted in her ill-conceived crosshairs map.

“My sincere condolences are offered to the family of rep. Gabrielle Giffords and the other victims of today's tragic shooting in Arizona. On behalf of Todd and my family, we all pray for the victims and their families, and for peace and justice,” she said. My, how emotionally uncharged, in view of the deaths of a federal judge, a 9 year-old-child, and others, and the wounding of even more, including that member of Congress she so disingenuously targeted on her website. You have to wonder why the map, which was posted as part of the rhetoric of a long past election, was still up on her site…and why its disappearance did not happen until shortly after the shooting of one of the targeted members of Congress.

Oh, I know that “everybody” believes the shooter was not a Tea Party supporter and that his shooting of Rep. Giffords was more personal than political, but that does not alter the fact that Palin’s map, with rifle crosshairs marking the location of 20 members of Congress she and her Tea Party brethren sought to unseat, could easily be looked upon by the less mentally stable among us as a mandate. Coupled with Palin’s own command “Don’t retreat, reload!” and the Tea Party rhetoric “If ballots don’t work, bullets do!” there is no question that Palin is culpable in creating an atmosphere of political hostility that can easily go off the rails.

Her lukewarm passive-voice commentary…“my condolences are offered” instead of a more engaged, genuine-sounding “My heart goes out to” or “I offer my deepest condolences to…”…denotes insincerity and a lack of emotional connection to the tragedy or to the victims. It is saying the right thing (almost) with no indication of accompanying empathy.

Sarah and her ilk have missed a golden opportunity to step up to the ethics plate and repudiate (not “refudiate”), formally and publicly, any form of violence or illegal behaviour in the furthering of one’s political causes or ambitions. The illegal Watergate break-in caused the unprecedented resignation of a president…shouldn’t someone speak out against the similar break-in and vandalism of Rep. Giffords’ office? Or the untrue allegations by the GOP-funded “Swift Boat Veterans” who lied about John Kerry just days before that election? Or the wasting of millions upon millions of US taxpayer funds to embarrass a sitting president for a sexual liaison between two consenting adults? I find it absolutely appalling that Ms. Palin finds it acceptable to offer no more than a token message of condolence and make no comment whatsoever about the violent act that brought about its necessity. Is she tacitly consenting to such behaviour through her silence? Hers is supposed to be the “family values” party: when did dishonesty, cheating, law-breaking and assassination become acceptable family values?

Silence, after all, is consent.