The news of the tragedy in Arizona has raised a lot of questions about the motives, speech, etc of the Right. Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano has raised concerns about "Lone Wolfs" and military threats. Worried about this all, I did a little check on past assassination of politicians in the US:
- Andrew Jackson (Attempt) by Richard Lawrence (Determined as deranged)
- Abraham Lincoln by John Wilkes Booth (Confederate Sympathizer, pro slavery)
- William Seward (Attempt) by Lewis Powell (Booth Accomplice)
- James Garfield by Charles Guiteau (deranged fame seeker)
- William McKinley by Leon Czolgosz (anarchist/Anti-Capitalist)
- Theodore Roosevelt (Attempt) by John Schrank (Deranged - Was told to kill Rosevelt in dream)
- Huey Long by his security detail (Carl Weiss is potential assassian, but the case is confused)
- Franklin Rosevelt (Attempt) by Giuseppe Zangara (Deranged anti-capitalist)
- Harry Truman (Attempt) by Purto Rican Seperatists
- J. F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald (Communist)
- Robert Kennedy by Sirhan Sirhan (Palestinian Anti-Zionist)
- Malcolm X by Talmadge Hayer (In apparent power struggle in Nation of Islam Power)
- Martin Luther King by James Earl Ray (Perhaps a paid assassination by racist elements)
- Richard Nixon (Attemp) by Samuel Byck(Believed government was conspiring to oppress the poor)
- George Wallace (Attempt) by Arthur Bremer (To achieve notoriety)
- Gearld Ford (Attempt) by Lynette Fromme (Charles Mason Follower/Wack Job)
- Gearld Ford (Attempt) by Sara Jane Moore (Progressive)
- Leo Ryan by Jim Jones Cult (Marxist)
- Ronald Reagan (Attempt) by John Hinkely (Insane)
- George H. W. Bush (Attempt) by Sadam Hussain and associates
- Bill Clinton (Attempt) by Frank Corder (Publicity oriented Suicide)
- Bill Clinton (Attempt) by Fancisco Duran (Deranged - Attempting to kill Alien Mist, blah, blah)
There have also been several politically oriented bombings/criminal actions including:
- Black Panthers (Leftists)
- Weather Underground (Leftists)
- Army Math Center bombings by Anti War radicals
- Bank robberies by Symbionese Liberation Army (Left wing radical group)
- Oklahoma City by Tim McVeigh (Nazi/Anti-Government)
In reviewing many acts of political violence the major motivation seems to be fame seekers and nut cases. There are many examples of presidential assassins who are progressive, marxist, etc - left leaning. The violent groups through the 60's and 70's were mostly left leaning anti war groups. It is only recently (Oklahoma City) that there have been serious anti-government led efforts, though Nazism is a left wing philosophy. There is no real evidence that the right wing in the United States is prone to kill or blow things up for a political end.
As far as Arizona goes, I bet we find out the kid suffers an untreated mental illness. Many of the assassins above had mental conditions, in which there target was an a-political choice simply selected for the moment. This has nothing to do with Palin or the Right.
