Unhinged in Tucson

Insanity was clearly on display in Arizona over the weekend, but was it a symptom of a deranged political culture or merely the mental illness of a single young man?

In the wake of a gunman’s deadly assassination attempt on U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords on Saturday, the op-ed pages struggle to make sense of a senseless act:

The Globe and Mail editorial board blames the shooting rampage in Arizona on the toxic culture of U.S. politics, in which guns are sacred and political rhetoric often hints at violence. “The culture has, in short, glorified political attacks,” says the Globe. The paper says the shooting was the logical extension of “constituency meetings that quickly descended into shouting matches” and Sarah Palin-issued maps marking her opponents congressional districts with crosshairs.

The Ottawa Citizen's Andrew Cohen has a similar take, asking “Are we surprised to see that an America that tolerates the language of violence in its assemblies and in its media — whether explicit or implicit — finds a culture of violence in its streets? … Tucson is America unhinged, again.” Cohen singles out the Tea Party as a major source of the trouble and “agents of a contagion of right-wing extremism in the United States.”

“Not for the first time, Americans have been plunged into a wrenching, soul-searching debate over the vitriolic passion and reckless rhetoric that infects their politics,” says the Toronto Star. The Star also singles out the American right for polarizing political debate, and calls for some reflection. “Whatever the motivation, this tragedy invites Americans to take a hard look at a political and media climate that encourages otherwise decent adversaries to demonize each other as un-American, tyrannical, Communist, Hitlerian and the like, and to routinely draw on violent military and hunting metaphors.”

While it’s tempting — especially for relatively politically docile, left-leaning Canadians — to blame American political culture for the shooting, this column by Armstrong Williams reposted by the National Post wisely urges against ascribing political connotations to the actions of a madman. “Please, for the memory and love of those who perished, do not cheapen this criminal act with political charges,” he writes. “The shooter was crazy. Pure and simple. He echoed and acted on behalf of the devil himself — pure evil. Not a political party.”