Sarah Palin Speaks

Ironically, quoting the guy who started the anti-government movement (via msnbc.com):

She quoted former President Ronald Reagan as saying that “we must reject the idea that every time a law is broken, society is guilty rather than the lawbreaker.
“It’s time to restore the American precept that each individual is accountable for his actions,” Palin continued, still quoting Reagan.

To be clear, a deranged individual pulled the trigger in Tuscon last weekend, and six people died. That individual was responding, in his deranged way, to years of anti-government rhetoric urging him and others “to action.” Reagan brought the anti-government meme mainstream during his first term as president. Palin and her ilk brought it to a crescendo since she took the stage with John McCain.

As Rush Limbaugh is fond of saying, “words have consequences.” If you call people to action using gun-related imagery (cross-hairs on elected official’s districts) and language (urging supporters to “target” those officials), you bear responsibility we one of them does what you say.