Esquire's editors: Will We Remember Tucson? Was It Enough? Is Anything?

The editorial that follows is never really explains "enough for what?" If they hope it will an end to vigorous political debate and picking target districts in campaign strategy, there's nothing about this event to do such a thing. Civility is one of those things like bipartisanship that you can't demand from the other side, without applying to yourself. It's a gimmicky sophistry that the Democrats seem to pull out all the time to chastise Republicans. But this time, there's absolutely no connection between the narrative of the the left in this case and what happened. If anything, what might have prevented this heartache would be a proactive approach to picking up, evaluating and committing mentally ill people like Loughner. Kicking him out of school isn't enough. He should have been locked up, but that would have meant a huge reaction from civil rights lawyers, and that makes everybody else gun shy about applying common sense.

Palin shouldn't apologize, since she didn't cause this or influence Loughner in any way that anybody has been able to show. Yet the liberal elits cling to this absurd narrative like a security blanket. As if wishing could make it so.

For a real act of violence triggered by overheated rhetoric, check out this report.