There's been a lot of ink devoted to analyzing Jared Loughner's motivations in the shooting rampage that left
U.S. Rep Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) seriously wounded and six others, including a 9-year-old girl, dead. Much of
the press attention has focused on the question of whether Loughner was influenced by the inflammatory rhetoric of such right-wing political celebrities as Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh.
I think that questions about
Loughner's mindset are legitimate, even if I don't agree with the concurrent calls to regulate political speech. But I also think they obscure a bigger point. What's really scary about Loughner is not that he might have been influenced by conservative politicians or pundits. It's that increasingly powerful conservative extremists -- some of whom occupy the halls of the federal government -- subscribe to the same delusions he does. Consider: