When the Huffington Post sent in a blogger with a cell phone to a closed event and captured Barack Obama saying, "And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations;" the press gasped and prepared the country for outrage. Obama was responding to a question about how well-to-do San Franciscans can communicate to rural Pennsylvanians as part of their canvassing efforts. His point was that when people perceive that the system has failed them, they grasp for what they know. This last point seems well articulated when you listen to the full statements that were made.
Now it seems that people are grasping for their guns all over the place. Richard Poplawski reached for his guns and planned a show down with police in of all places...western Pennsylvania. Friends suggest that Poplawski was worried about a coming gun ban and other "fascist-like" infringements on liberty that the Obama administration would carry out in their unhinged liberal ways. No suggestion had been made to date that the Obama administration was going to make any changes to gun laws, but that may all change with the recent spate of gun violence across the country. Mr. Poplawski may be a catalyst for the very curtailment of rights he feared by virtue of being an example of how those rights cannot be responsibly held by some.
But the fears stoked in Mr. Poplawski, as disturbed as he might turn out to be, come from somewhere. These thoughts of impending fascist takeover don't come from obscure extremists. Instead, they come from the former Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich and are distributed by the most popular cable news channel Fox News. And these actions are carried out with reckless abandon. Mr. Gingrich may feel he is warranted in having such thoughts, but Fox News should be more circumspect about giving them credibilty through its good (in some people's eyes) offices. These comments and this thinking is distributed as valid fact on Fox News without much debate. There are consequences in stoking fears. Heat (controversy) versus light (insight) might get ratings, but Fox can no longer ignore the social implications...and oh by the way...they may want to examine the merits of Mr. Obama's statements from last year that they so enthusiastically derided which seem to now have some merit.
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