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Possible political implications of the Boston Marathon bombing?

Manopolus

Metaphorical Anomaly
Manopolus
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I'm mostly wanting to open up the subject, and haven't really formed a strong opinion yet. Will it create a rash of largely unnecessary legislation? Will it tilt the country one way or the other in the political spectrum, depending on the culprit?

I'm just interested in what the possibilities are. We may be "trying" to keep it apolitical at the moment, but everyone knows this will not last. I'm mostly interested because I'm worried.

Please note that I don't give a rat's ass as to whether someone thinks this is inappropriate at this time. Since I'm not a politician or a celebrity, I honestly don't care about that sort of thing.
 
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One of the scariest things to me, when envisaging "the next attack" is less the attack itself and rather more the reaction to it.

I am not convinced that America won't go completely ******* - I don't see that resoluteness and calm that you could see in beseiged populations in Israel or England, who seem to manage a much more palpable level headedness in the face of this kind of threat.

Which is not to say they each didn't have their own major freakouts earlier along the way - maybe America needs to have a few more freakouts before it starts on that path of Keep Calm and Carry On...

All that said - would this one rise to threshold of the Major Freakout that followed 9/11? I am not sure the impact is at that level and this has a chance to go down in a similar way to the shoe bomber or times square
 
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Praktik said:
One of the scariest things to me, when envisaging "the next attack" is less the attack itself and rather more the reaction to it.

I am not convinced that America won't go completely ******* - I don't see that resoluteness and calm that you could see in beseiged populations in Israel or England, who seem to manage a much more palpable level headedness in the face of this kind of threat.

Which is not to say they each didn't have their own major freakouts earlier along the way - maybe America needs to have a few more freakouts before it starts on that path of Keep Calm and Carry On...

All that said - would this one rise to threshold of the Major Freakout that followed 9/11? I am not sure the impact is at that level and this has a chance to go down in a similar way to the shoe bomber or times square
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Yes, this is sort of what worries me, too.

We seem to have a tendency to believe that an event like this requires some sort of extreme response. Special interest groups are liable to pick up about anything in the news and say it means we need such-and-so legislation... politicians pick up on this and are liable to do anything, up to and including starting a war. The more extreme the event, the greater our response tends to be.

I wonder how many understand the concept that perhaps it requires no response at all -- or perhaps very little? We have ways to try and prevent these things, but we can't prevent them entirely no matter what we do. Can't we just say we were "on the right course" to begin with, handled it well, and nothing further needs to be done sometimes?

I'm pretty sure that's not what will happen -- and not even entirely convinced that it's what should happen anyway -- it just worries me, because I don't think we always deal with these things well.
 
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Manopolus said:
What if we actually don't solve the crime? I will admit that's unlikely, but it is possible.
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We could have a new, more brazen, unibomber on our hands.

You can bet there will be calls for tougher laws regarding some aspect of this crime but what is too soon to tell.
 
I expect the short-term impact will be closer inspection of trash cans, backpacks, and boxes in the vicinity of large events like that one. Not much else can be practically accomplished without fundamentally altering such an event and I don't think there will be a political will to alter it. The Keep Calm and Carry on mindset will prevail except for behind the scenes, and that is as it should be, IMO.
 
Cynic said:
I expect the short-term impact will be closer inspection of trash cans, backpacks, and boxes in the vicinity of large events like that one. Not much else can be practically accomplished without fundamentally altering such an event and I don't think there will be a political will to alter it. The Keep Calm and Carry on mindset will prevail except for behind the scenes, and that is as it should be, IMO.
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Unfortunately, recent history doesn't bear this out.

911 becomes the Patriot Act/war on terror/related to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
school shooting becomes reason for gun control legislation (or "reason to arm teachers" as a stupid, stupid backlash) (and given the details. I'd say it should have more to do with the drugs we use for mental "health" if anything, but that was barely a side issue quickly forgotten in the excess noise).

I could go on. I'm not so sure that there was much notable legislation after OKC, but Clinton wasn't particularly an ideologue, and the deliberate divisionism from both sides wasn't quite as much of an issue at that time (well, it was there -- just not quite as noisy as it is now). I'm pretty sure that this event is of adequate note to add to the cacophony of nonsense we see in modern politics once the dust clears.
 
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I want to know why Obama refuses to call this an act of terror!!1!

Or else, why he called it terrorism too soon or not too soon enough!

(The important take-away here is that Obama screwed up. Just need to figure out how.)
 
A friend teaches at a nearby college that was evacuated this morning because of a bomb threat. This should be a lesson learned: the immediate effect of frenzied coverage is going to be copy-cat threats.
 
NoahFence said:
Gotta figure out who to aim our anger at first.
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Why? Just invade some random Middle East country whose dictator likes to trash-talk the US.

I hear that Mursi guy in Egypt is some sort of Muslim fundie something-or-another. How about invading Egypt?
 
Praktik said:
One of the scariest things to me, when envisaging "the next attack" is less the attack itself and rather more the reaction to it.

I am not convinced that America won't go completely ******* -
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Based on what?

I recall a relatively productive coming together of different levels of law enforcement following the OKC bombing that led to identifying and busting the culprits.

I think that was an appropriate reaction. I expect something similar will happen but somewhat more quickly with this incident since there are now sooooo many surveillance cameras and handheld devices with cameras in that area yesterday.
 
Based on the post-9/11 reaction (foreign wars and getting drawn into the ME, torture, the colour coding, the breathless commentary and talk about how Everything Changed)... I agree OKC was much more level-headed.
 
Upchurch said:
I want to know why Obama refuses to call this an act of terror!!1!
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Even on NPR they mentioned and then sort of dropped that issue because someone at the press conference hollered out that question ("Was this an act of terror?" or words to that effect) right after his statement.
 
from what i read guns will be banned and martial law is coming....
maybe i have been reading too much prisonplanet :D
 
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