Guest comment: "I don't believe I will be...shutting up any time soon"

Keith Coniglio--former New Yorker; current Colorado outdoorsman, firearms expert and Renaissance man; and, not incidentally, my nephew-in-law--wrote an interesting response to my recent post "Lesson from Arizona mass murder--conservatives must stop criticizing liberals."  As might be expected of a marksman, Keith is, I think, right on target.

He begins by highlighting the following paragraph from my post:

"If only they could make it seem that conservative advocacy was responsible for the Arizona tragedy, conservatives would have to become more subdued in their public comments--and Democrats could pursue their agenda unencumbered."

Then Keith continues:

A very good point.  The "mainstream" response to this was predictable but there was a small hint of desperation as well.  An undertone of "Would you just SHUT UP NOW?!?"

To date, their most successful tool had been shame.  Admitting to harboring such "old fashioned" values as personal responsibility, limited government and fiscal restraint was mockable.  Then it was disgraceful.  Then it was offensive.  Then it was racist (this, apparently, is a crime of the highest order and worthy of being branded with a scarlet "R").

When the Bush administration kicked off the orgy of bailouts and constituent dismissal, people started to mobilize.  And that was okay, since it was against a Republican.  But when things continued under the current administration and the Tea Party coalesced, out came the usual tactics.  They didn't work this time.  Even the "r-word" was getting shrugged off as overused to the point of being meaningless.

So now, this last grenade of guilt: "Your refusal to play - and lose - by our rules has cost lives!"  I don't think they would care to play tit-for-tat over how many lives their words and policies have extinguished.  And I don't believe I will be riding in the back of the bus or shutting up any time soon.  And I *really* don't think they'd want to try to make me.

I don't think so either, Keith.  May there be 300 million more like you.