Reply #24: This is a RW red herring that they're using to confuse the issue.

[EarlG]

It is and always has been extremely common to use language like "targeting" in politics. That's not what sensible people are objecting to.

The first difference between this map and Palin's is that this map targets states whereas Palin's targets individuals. But even that isn't the issue. The issue is that Palin's map was presented in the context of dozens of other comments by her and other RW luminaries talking about politics in terms of violence, war, and revolution. "Don't retreat, RELOAD," for example. "Second amendment remedies." "If ballots don't work, bullets will."

How many times did you hear people at Obama rallies in 2008 shouting "Kill him" about John McCain? Because that's what they were yelling about Obama at McCain rallies. How many liberals turned up at GOP town hall meetings in the summer of 2009 carrying signs that said things like "We came unarmed -- this time"?

It's not JUST Palin's map that's the issue here -- her map is merely one high-profile chapter taken from the volumes of eliminationist rhetoric that RW leaders and followers have been spouting since Barack Obama became the Democratic nominee.