At Half-Mast

Did it have to come to the terrible bloodshed in Arizona for the call for political and rhetorical disarmament to be heard and given a chance in America? If it has a chance, it hangs not least on President Obama.

The flags at half-mast, a minute of silence — America mourns the victims of a violent criminal, who has shocked, horrified and hit the nation. An openly mentally ill young man has caused a massacre, because he wanted to murder a U.S. House of Representatives member. A national tragedy, President Obama has called it. He and the leaders of Congress have come together, calling for a time of contemplation and reflection. Did it have to come to the horrible bloodshed in Arizona in order for a call for reflection and the disassembly of political and rhetorical disarmament to have a chance to be heard?

It is a signal of the condition of American politics that the search for the allegedly guilty parties began immediately with impeccable vehemence, without government appointed prosecutors, or the slightest inkling of the alleged perpetrator’s motive. For the left, the case is clear: The man must have left college, because the teachers already figured him for the worst, and he did not fit the pattern. He was of the Republican right and inspired by their heroine Sarah Palin. The aggressive anti-state rhetoric fired him up. Does that lead directly to the assassination attempt on

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords? Such shortcomings will not detract from the poisonous political climate.

This poison has grown ever stronger over the years. Every president in the past few decades has wanted to try to civilize the political debate; in the end, the political debate simply became more heated than before. And the hate has grown, both camps standing superior to the other, even as parts of the hard right transition to extremism. And, of course, there is a certain feeling of a “tradition” of power and ideology, which is glorified.