Are they happy now?

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

I was at my dad's house when I heard the news about the shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson, along with nineteen others. So I turned on CNN and watched the story unfold with my wife and my sister. After the initial shock and revulsion wore off, I remember saying, "This doesn't surprise me."

It didn't surprise me because I've been worried about this for two years now, worried that with all the hateful rhetoric coming out of the rightwing that some crazy person would do something terrible.

While a direct, causal claim is hard to prove, the repeated use of violent imagery helped create a climate that made such a shooting thinkable.

Shame on Sarah Palin, for saying, "Lock and load."

Shame on Sarah Palin for writing, "Don't retreat. RELOAD!!!"

Shame on Sarah Palin for having, on her website, Giffords literally in the crosshairs as #4 on her list of twenty targeted House Democrats.

But Sarah Palin was not alone.

Shame on Sharron Angle for speculating on the need for "Second Amendment remedies."

Shame on Sean Hannity for cheering on "Tim McVeigh wannabes."

And shame on Glenn Beck for all his vile rants.

One of the reasons I wasn't surprised--horrified, but not surprised--is that Chip Berlet of Political Research Associates has been warning you and me, in the pages of The Progressive , about this threat of violence.

He did so last February in "Taking Tea Partiers Seriously." And he did so again for my article last June, "Chomsky's Nightmare: Is Fascism Coming to America?" I quoted him in that article saying, "The mentally unstable people act first," and that an assassination was not out of the question.

The rampage in Tucson reminds us that there are a lot of nuts out there, and a lot of readily available guns to go with them. It should give everyone pause before playing recklessly with violent rhetoric.

T his month, we end our year-long mourning period for Howard Zinn, the standard duration...