"Blood Libel Is The Perfect Term For What The Left Is Doing"

It's not often I get email from readers - frankly I don't blog enough to get the attention. But this morning I received an email from "Jason", a Palin supporter who believes the term "blood libel" is the perfect metaphor to describe the Left's persecution of Sarah Palin.

Blood libel is the perfect term for what the Left is doing to the people of this country. You are implying, if not openly stating, that your political opponents somehow have blood on their hands for the events in Arizona. This is bizarre thinking, which is almost as bad as that exhibited by the madman in Tuscon.

Of course, you Leftists are using this as a cynical ploy to denigrate non-Leftists for quite some time. It is a way to shut down speech you don't like to hear - and no not "hate speech" but speech that is critical of the Left.

Take time to examine your own heart and stop spewing hatred for people you don't even know.

First of all, thanks to Jason for taking the time to reach out to me. I'll see if I can do his email justice with a coherent reply.

As I posted earlier, "blood libel" is exactly the wrong term for Sarah Palin to use, regardless of how you feel about the merits of her position. "Blood libel" historically refers to a false accusation that religious minorities, almost always Jews, murder children to use their blood in certain aspects of their religious rituals and holidays.

The libels typically allege that Jews require human blood for the baking of matzos for Passover. The accusations often assert that the blood of Christian children is especially coveted, and historically blood libel claims have often been made to account for otherwise unexplained deaths of children.

Blood Libel is one of the reasons I can't trace my family tree on my father's side any farther than the late 1800's in the Ukraine, because after that, those who couldn't escape were all murdered in pogroms.

So Jason, unless Sarah Palin literally believes the Left is accusing her of using the blood of Christian children for Passover matzoh, she might want to rethink her strategy here.

As to your next assertion that "Leftists" are using the Giffords' shooting as a cynical ploy to denigrate "non-Leftists",  I would challenge you to find any Democratic lawmaker or media type who has said Sarah Palin is directly responsible for her shooting. Instead, what is being discussed here, and rightly so I believe, is the vitriolic atmosphere that has grown up around our elected officials in the last couple of years, and how this creates a toxic atmosphere where the least-hinged amongst us might feel empowered to act.

Sarah Palin had the great misfortune to create a campaign that literally targeted her opponents, including Giffords, with gun crosshairs. Giffords' Republican opponent in the 2010 election, Jesse Kelly,  invited supporters to attend an event at a gun range where they could "remove" Gabrielle Giffords from office by shooting a fully automatic M16.

Do I believe either Palin and Kelly actually wanted Giffords dead or hoped to encourage others to kill her? No. But they denigrated and dehumanized her to the point where she stopped being just a political opponent with different views and became something "other", something evil, something to eliminated and destroyed.

While harsh words may be said on both side of the isle, only the Right has a body count. Only assassins on the Right have flown planes into IRS buildings, killed abortion doctors, opened fire on churches and killed parishioners because they couldn't kill "every Democrat in the Senate and House", or shot up a street because they thought Obama was going to take their guns away.

But it's not just the Left who have been the victims of this toxic atmosphere. Yesterday, three members of the Arizona state Republican party resigned because of constant harrassment from Arizona Tea Party members. After the Giffords shooting, they felt fearful for their lives. One of the officials is quoted as saying, 

"I wasn't going to resign but decided to quit after what happened Saturday. I love the Republican Party but I don't want to take a bullet for anyone."

Jason, Sarah Palin didn't chose to be connected to Gabrielle Giffords shooting, but she's chosen to paint herself as its victim, even as the real victims are being buried today and memorialized by President Obama.

If anyone needs to examine their heart, it's Sarah Palin.

God willing, she won't do it on Facebook.