Blame the Victim

Over the past number of years of my retirement I have become a constant fan of the series “Law and Order” not only in its basic form but also the two spinoffs “Special Victims Unit” and “Criminal Intent.” While I find it entertaining it has made me very much aware of the fact that I would be a lousy criminal attorney on either side of the legal fence. But at the same time I have learned many tricks that attorneys use in order to get the job done, which would qualify me to becoming a good jailhouse lawyer. Of course we all do something like that no matter what our chosen profession.

I have noticed one of the most commonly used tactics used by a criminal defense attorney is to switch things around for the jury and put the victim rather than the perpetrator on trial. By doing so they try to add confusion to the facts facing the jury in reaching its decision. A good and often used tactic on the show is to blame a rape victim for “dressing provocatively.” It’s called “Blame the Victim.”
The sad thing is that we are seeing a tactic just like this being used in politics today. No longer do nationally elected officials want to talk about the issues and either their wins or losses in Congress, but rather place blame for the disgusting words and treatments that are going on in public today, and what they consider allowable treatment and actions against their fellow representatives and senators. It’s a sad game of “Blame the Victim.” It is also a matter of whipping up the mob, suggesting illegal actions, and then sitting back amazed at what they have caused. The guilty looking innocent.

We’ve seen what is going on today; mobs spitting on Congressmen, cursing at Senators, the renewed use of the “N” word, threats of harm for placing a vote that the perpetrators disagreed with. But what do you expect when political leaders wrongfully claim that Americans are losing their constitutional rights, the killing of Medicare, gambling away your future, claiming we are becoming a Nazi like state and encouraging Americans to stand up and “Reload.” Republican leadership is aided by the likes of convicted drug felon Rush Limbaugh, who threatened to leave the country if the new health care bill passed. (We won’t miss him. Goodbye Rush.)

And now when complaints are made about such actions Republican leadership blames the Democrats, who voted for the new health care bill, for bringing these dangerous, un-American actions on themselves and using the tirade for political gain. Yup, “Blame the Victim.”

What the minority party refuses to recognize and tell their followers is that the new health care law was originally a Republican idea that has been around for over two decades going back even to the days of the Nixon administration. Now they want to redo the whole idea and put in their own program. A good question is why didn’t they bring up their “better ideas” when they had control of both Congress and the Presidency during the six years of George Bush? Guess they were too busy starting a few wars.

But to me the main thing that I would like to see is Republican leaders, who claim to know what all Americans want, standing up and telling their supporters to stand down from the terrible tirade that is infecting America today. Stop blaming their opponents for trying to take advantage of the political terror that Republicans have created and get down to business.