Over thirty years ago, November 1963 to be exact, a mediocre president was transformed. Over a year before the election he held only a one point lead in the polls over his most likely opponent, Barry Goldwater. He had divided the country with his policies.
This president was "believed to be" by "right wing radicals" a womanizer and a drunk back when those were much worse than today. Remember this was back when a man who got a woman pregnant had to marry her. This was the man who was viewed as having left men to die at the Bay of Pigs. Literally 49% of the voting populace was ready to vote against him in September 1963.
Beyond that, in the man's time in office he accomplished absolutely not legislative agenda other than a "tax cut for the rich." (By the way, it worked for the economy.) And then he was shot and killed by (insert your favorite conspiracy.)
After he was buried he was a different man. He did everything but bring world peace and solve world hunger. And what caused this change? The eulogies.
According to the government approved conspiracy theory a Cuban sympathizing Marxist killed Kennedy. According to the eulogies it was conservatism. It was conservatives who called Kennedy a spade.
Over that weekend not only was Kennedy elevated from a nothing to a saint but conservatives were changed from the political opposition to accessories to murder.
If you have not noticed it, the same thing is happening right now. Back then conservatives bought into the guilt syndrome. And worse, they kept quiet while the curse was being laid upon them. It happened once. There is no reason to let it happen again.
Bill Clinton has moved to take political advantage of the dead twice now. First with the children and then with his condemnation of people who are trying to change our present government.
There is no reason, in this moment of national mourning, to let this son of a bitch get away with it. The man is using the dead to condemn imagined causes. He has abandoned his own call as late as Friday the 21st to refrain from laying blame on any person or any group. On the 24th he is laying blame. Hypocrisy is not the word for it.
Physician, heal thyself.
Remove the beam from thine own eye before the mote in thy brother's.
There is no guilt to go around. The people who did it are guilty, no one else. Nothing said by anyone about the government caused this bombing any more than early 1960s conservatives caused a Cuban sympathizing marxist to kill Kennedy.
Emotions are a battleground as certainly as Ohama Beach was a battleground. The way events are perceived is a battleground as much as Guadalcanal.
That a political opportunist like Bill Clinton is taking political advantage of the deaths of children to condemn those who disagree with our current government by saying explicitly they caused the deaths in Oklahoma City is intolerable.
We can not lose the advantage at this point. We have the mechanism of change and there is no reason to pull back from it. If we slow now because some political opportunist attempts to impose a guilt trip is stupid.
Why stupid? There is exactly one person under arrest as of this date because of this bombing. It is still speculation that Waco had anything to do with it. It is speculation that the one man is anything like the political right in the first place. It is speculation upon speculation as to what motivated him, much less that he is sane in the first place.
Given the 1963 example, conservatives swallowed a guilt trip for "inciting" a Castro sympathizing marxist, the very antithesis of the people who found fault with Kennedy for not overthrowing Castro. That is what my mother used to call, "can't win for losing."
But at this point we will not stop criticizing the government. We will not permit anyone to be silenced for speaking against the government.
And to show that we will continue to do it we will counterattack without "understanding" and without "compassion" anyone who wants to use the dead to silence us.
We will continue among ourselves to ridicule those who see black helicopters and UN tanks among our ranks. In that we will be above the opposition which sees every increase in a program a cut. That there has been a lack of vocabulary skills among Clinton and his fellow liberals is hardly in question.
That the only term they have in their vocabulary for anyone not in their party is "extreme right wing" does not mean the rest of us are such dire need of a course to increase our vocabulary. They are applying their limited "us/them" vocabulary to attempt to portray anyone but themselves as mad bombers. Such a limited mind is the best they can do at this point.
They will do worse if unchecked. How hard is it to say, "you are taking advantage of deaths"? That is what they are doing. Say it. Clinton did it. The media is doing it. Continue business as usual and tell them what they are doing and spit on them.