[lbo-talk] Berlet on Democracy Now

[Somebody Somebody]

The Tucson shooting is not becoming a reenactment of the Reichstag fire considering that the Democratic President just gave a speech more or less tut-tutting liberals for daring to consider the role of right-wing extremists in fostering a climate of political violence. As has become Obama's trademark, he reaches a hand out to the right, while swatting away the hand of his base. 

The overwhelming fact of American political life remains its asymmetry - with right-wingers exploiting every controversy and tragedy and liberals making post-partisan calls for not playing politics and focusing upon the American people instead.