Liberal Values Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought

“Bad news for Palin: for the first time, her approval rating has fallen to a number that she can count to.” –Andy Borowitz

The recent controversy over violent rhetoric from the right led to many bizarre arguments from the right as they tried to deny that there is a problem. I received many near incoherent arguments from conservatives based upon an erroneous belief that the polls showed Americans supported them in their bizarre defense of violent right wing rhetoric. This was fallacious both as poll results do not prove whether an argument is correct–a majority could be wrong. More importantly, the poll they cited was quite different from the actual issues being argued.

As far as I know there were no polls over some of the key questions: Was Sarah Palin wrong to keep up the graphic of Gabrille Giffords in crosshairs after Giffords expressed fears about the consequences of this? Was Sarah Palin wrong to link to this graphic with calls to reload? Does violent rhetoric from the right pose a danger? These are the issues which led to criticism of Palin and others on the right, not whether Palin is to blame for any individual act of violence.

The closest we now have to polling results regarding this issue are those which show that Palin’s unfavorability ratings have risen to new highs. Gallup found that 38 percent have a favorable view of Palin compared to 53 percent who see her unfavorably. Most likely this is not only a consequence of more people considering the consequences of her violent and hate-filled rhetoric, but also her poor response. Responding by making it appear that the entire story was about her, as well as including an anti-Semitic slur, certainly did not help Sarah (Reload) Palin.