A dysfunctional moment in American history

This article was published in Spiked-Online 10 January 2011

Jared Loughner, the possibly deranged 22-year-old who opened fire on Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and an unlucky collection of citizens who stopped by her meet-and-greet outside a supermarket, appears - so far - to lack any coherent political ideology and may or may not be capable of harbouring one. But along with the shock, sorrow and outrage occasioned by the shooting that left six people dead, 14 injured, and Giffords with an uncertain future after a bullet passed through her brain, there were predictable concerns, right and left, about the political fallout of the shooting.

Disparate groups of activists and advocates worried that Loughner might be considered one of them. An initial report that he had referenced not trusting in God alarmed atheists and agnostics who feared (not unreasonably) that his rampage would be cited as additional evidence that we ‘cannot be good without God’. The targeting of a Democratic congresswoman in a very conservative state, with very lax gun laws, worried Tea Partiers whose movement is associated with violent political rhetoric (also not unreasonably).