As can be expected, pundits and idealogues have capitalized on a tragedy to support their political aims and cast their political opponents in a bad light. Despite still not having an accurate picture of the beliefs motivating a clearly disturbed individual, many in the media have been all too quick to place the blame on the recent tragedy in Arizona on what they view as hateful and violent rhetoric from those on the right of the political spectrum.

It’s a tried and true tactic of politics to shut down opposition speech by demonizing those speaking. One variant of this tactic is to call the speakers racist. The variant used in the case of the Arizona shootings has been to demonize the speech itself as somehow leading to violence.

It’s a shame such a sad event has been twisted by some to score political points. But that’s the sad state affairs that is politics in an era when increased government intervention in our lives is the trend. As the amount of activities regulated by government increases, so does the amount of activities that become politicized. Now every event in our lives, including terrible events like this, are subject to partisan politicization.

May our prayers be with the victims and their families. And may our partisan attacks take a much-needed break.

President Obama recently said the following:

Part of the reason that our politics seems so tough right now and facts and science and argument does not seem to be winning the day all the time is because we’re hardwired not to always think clearly when we’re scared. And the country’s scared.

In light of these comments (more detailed report on them here), here is a poll:

The latest tactic progressives are attempting is to scare voters into thinking that behind every conservative, Tea Party or Republican candidate or group are secret, foreign corporations and individuals propping them up with funding. The implication is that these 'special' interests represent a threat to our system of democracy. 

Part of the issue stems from a recent Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. FEC, in which the majority of the justices ruled that corporations have free speech rights in respect to their ability to fund political opinion. Many Democrats and progressives, including Obama, have at many times railed against the decision.

One group under attack is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Recently, there has been an effort to insinuate that the Chamber is backed by foreign special interests, despite little evidence to prove it. The Chamber's head of government affairs has even asserted that the push to disclose donor information may be an attempt by the Obama administration to intimidate those who fund the organization. Other conservative-leaning groups, like Americans for Prosperity, have also come under fire from Obama and other Democrats desperately hoping to find a way to minimize the severity of their predicted election losses next month.

It looks like taxpayers may now be subsidizing the re-election campaigns of some of the same politicians who wasted their money on bailouts. GM is back in the political giving business, and the flow of money looks something like this:

Notice how the money never makes its way back to the taxpayers?