On social media, I've seen commenters wondering why the left politicizes these horrific tragedies, but those alleged "concerns" are pure hypocrisy and disingenuous posturing coming from right-wingers. They're the ones who have been using the much-vaunted Second Amendment for political gain for decades, walking hand-in-hand with the NRA for more years than I can remember. Just today, Senate Republicans blocked a bill aimed at focusing the federal government on combatting domestic terrorism. This had been an attempt by Democrats to properly respond to the recent mass shootings but, while the bill passed the House (albeit along party lines), it failed to gain traction among Republicans in the Senate. Now, it appears that Mitch McConnell has sent John Cornyn--John Cornyn!--to meet with Democrats to see if they can agree on some sort of legislation requiring background checks and red flag laws. Given Mitch's past efforts regarding gun control, I expect this is just an empty display to gin up support in the midterms. In other words, don't imagine anything much will come of it.
Face it, the Republican Party of today is a nihilistic dinosaur lumbering backwards towards its own doom. The problem is that it's moving much too slowly, refusing to go gently back into the abyss from whence it crawled, determined to take no prisoners as it sinks into a quagmire of cruelty and blood. By the time the GOP finally gives up the ghost, many--MANY--Americans will have needlessly died, sacrificial lambs to the NRA, Evangelicals, science deniers, and the self-deluded good guys with a gun who bask in their righteously orgasmic fantasies of a second civil war. This is what the GOP has become. While the worst of them may be a minority, they have somehow managed to take over our country, turning it into their own toxic approximation of the Wild West, where letting down one's guard can have serious, even deadly, consequences.
Having spent my deeply-closeted adolescence in a small town in south-central Oklahoma I know a little bit about being on my guard 24/7. Back then, all it took was one slip of the tongue, one wrong move, and you could wind up being a punching bag for the (abused and sexually confused) psychopath and his buddies in the grade ahead of you. Or possibly even exiled to social Siberia by your friends who couldn't be seen associating with a queer. In the past few years, for completely different reasons, obviously, I've found myself on guard every time I've gone into the supermarket or the movie theater or any other public place where one might encounter a madman with a gun. Old habits, it seems, die hard.
The question for the sane people of our country, the true patriots who believe in a fair and just society where everyone is guaranteed equal rights, is how to remove this cancer that is rapidly metastasizing within our public body without killing the patient? The country is already hopelessly divided so let's not pretend that we're all suddenly going to link arms and sing Kum Ba Yah. A civil war is not the answer, no matter how much the lunkheads on the Right want it. But, turning the other cheek and continually reaching across the aisle only to have your hand slapped away, is not a solution either. After all, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. So said somebody in history, although I have my doubts that it was Einstein (usually credited with uttering those words). The only thing I keep coming back to is voting. The Supreme Court is not going to save us, our current Congress can't, and forget about the police rushing to the rescue. It's up to us to save ourselves, our families and our own country. The only way forward is to vote. There are more of us than there are of them. Sadly, we won't all make it to the next election. There will be more mass shootings, more COVID deaths, more hate crimes--that's an unfortunate given in modern-day America--but the only way to change things is all of us coming together with one voice on election day and defeating the forces of fascism intent on destroying us. All of our votes in both 2022 and 2024 will be essential to our future as a democracy.
Well said, and 100% right and 0% wrong. I was thinking along the same lines today. My conclusion -- very much the same as yours -- is that the only forward for the U.S. is elimination of the Republican party. And in my view the only way that can be accomplished is their obliteration in an extensive string of elections. And some way to deal with SCOTUS (which could be as simple as increasing the number of justices -- which might be possible if we attain the above).
ReplyDeleteVoting enough of them out of office so they can't continue doing major harm is just the first step. There have to be term limits set for both Houses of Congress (8 years max) and the Supreme Court (up to 12 years). We also have to put power back into the hands of the American people, and stop electing representatives who serve corporate and special interest groups. If they can't serve we the people, they don't deserve to serve at all. There also needs to be a common sense approach to interpreting the Constitution, one that the majority of voters can understand and agree on. This could be accomplished by breaking certain controversial amendments down into 2 or 3 talking points on a ballot and you can check which you agree with. For instance, check box a if you believe the Second Amendment states that any American can own a gun regardless of their background or mental state, check box b if you support such and such controls on gun ownership, or check box c if you want military style weapons banned from the public altogether. Unfortunately, the same process may have to be used with regards to abortion, LGBT rights (including marriage), etc., but if that's the only way to ensure equal protections then put the questions to the American public and let them decide. I THINK most voters believe in some form of abortion rights, as well as the right of consenting adults to marry whom they choose so this may, ultimately, be the only way to finally codify just and equal treatment under the law. Maybe I'm being fanciful but I honestly don't see any other peaceful way to ensure a democracy that functions for everyone.
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