Hey, want to celebrate Martin Luther King Day? What better way to honor the life of one of this nation's greatest citizens, assassinated by a racist lunatic with a gun, than to show up armed at your state's seat of government. If MLK day isn't excuse enough for prominently displaying your weaponry maybe the January 8, 2011 shooting deaths of six people and the wounding of 13 others in Tucson, Arizona by a madman with a semi-automatic and extra-capacity magazines will entice you to strut your heavily armed stuff before your government.
Sounds crazy but this is just what happened yesterday in Virginia. According to today's Washington Post, a group of cretins lobbying tha state for even more gun rights stood "in solidarity with about 200 other activists lobby the Virginia General Assemby for increased gun rights." These misguided souls carried guns, both openly and concealed, according to the Post, as they walked on the grounds of and into VA legislative buildings. One man even waited "outside his state senator's office with a semiautomatic AR-15 rifle on his shoulder," according to the Post.
With so few restrictions on the sale and ownership of guns or even the capacity of magazines for handguns you have to wonder, in states like VA and Arizona, just what additional rights these nuts want anyway? The right to fire a few rounds at their elected representatives if the spirit moves them?
Given the recent AZ shooting and the fact that it was MLK day, this was just the latest and perhaps most egregious example of genuinely disturbing behavior by the "don't tread on me," "tree of liberty" crowd. People were packing openly even in Massachusetts during the general election campaign as the man who would become our current President was speaking. Instead of eliciting only horror, the AZ shooting has led to a familiar but no less incredible buying spree of handguns in general and Glocks (the gun used in the AZ shooting) in particular. After these kinds of shootings folks are always afraid, it seems, that the government might actually respond reasonably and act to restrict the sale of handguns, or at least their ability to kill or wound so many people so quickly and efficiently. And of course there are the people who believe we would all be better off if only we all carried weapons. Especially twisted, though, are the meat heads who want the exact same gun the AZ shooter used. It appears these unfortunate weenies aren't worried about the government restricting their ability to own a handgun, they just want one that works as efficiently as the shooter's.
The gun crazies need not fear any restrictions, it appears, no matter how common sense they may be. As misguided as these folks are and as irresponsible as is the NRA, which likens common sense restrictions on handguns and magazine capacity to the imposition of Communism on the US, it is our Democratic leaders who are just as much to blame for the continued lack of common sense restrictions on handguns. Just as they have all but made the Republican philosophy on taxes their own, they, too, are leery about doing anything that could be perceived as restricting access to guns or even the magazine capacity of handguns. These are issues that all but a few Democrats are willing to cede to Republicans in order, they believe, to be reelected and continue to do the wonderful things they have convinced themselves they do for this country.
As long as Democrats continue to show no spine on the issue of common-sense restrictions on handguns we will go through this charade of handwringing, soul-searching, and the ultimate return to business-as-usual every time some maniac with ammunition he's purchased at Wal-Mart or a gun at a gun show in VA decides to dramatically and brutally express his inner demons.
Obama's heartfelt speech at the University of Arizona ceremony honoring the fallen in the Tucson shooting was silver-tongued, hit tones that resonated with most Americans, and was completely meaningless with respect to putting a brake on gun violence in this country. Given the past inactions of Democrats, we are likely to experience many more such heartfelt ceremonies.
We expect better of you, Democrats and President Obama. The little girl killed in Tucson that terrible day, would expect better of you.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
After the Deluge
In a previous blog, on the 2008 Presidential campaign, I spent way too much time chronicling the silliness of the primary and general elections. One of my contentions was that Obama had little chance against the Republicans and that Hillary Clinton would be a stronger candidate. I was wrong about this misunderestimating, as one of my favorite politicians might say, the ineptness of John McCain, the Republican's candidate, and the intense yearning for something new after the disastrous years of George W. Bush.
Given the aftermath of the election, though, I don't think I was wrong so much about the fact Obama would be cast by Republicans as a wild-eyed liberal bent on making Kumbaya our national anthem but rather I primarily got the timing wrong. Smote by the recession and Bush's dual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the nutbags had a delayed reaction but found their stride during the health care debate and Obama's measures to stave off financial ruin after this usurper was elected to the Presidency. The "birther" controversy took on new life, so-called patriots took to conspicuously packing heat in public places, a right-wing political movement headed by a woman who has sawdust between her ears was spawned, and politicians throughout the country croaked of 2nd amendment remedies. Never mind that Obama has done more for private industry than W ever did--health insurance companies will now have a captive country paying their ridiculous premiums, and bankers, the real estate industry, the auto idustry etc., were not only put on a sound footing but basically told to return to business as usual--he's a socialist from whom the good citizens must wrest back their country.
This new blog isn't about the upcoming Presidential election, though, but more generally about politics and culture in especially the US. There is an awful lot to write about and I've been wanting to do this for some time. The madness that erupted in the aftermath of the shooting in Arizona was the final straw, I think, and I'll be writing about that soon. In the meantime, apologies to Warren Zevon for the title of this blog, or at least to his estate. It is difficult, though, to think of a more appropriate trinity for the issues of the day than this one.
Given the aftermath of the election, though, I don't think I was wrong so much about the fact Obama would be cast by Republicans as a wild-eyed liberal bent on making Kumbaya our national anthem but rather I primarily got the timing wrong. Smote by the recession and Bush's dual wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the nutbags had a delayed reaction but found their stride during the health care debate and Obama's measures to stave off financial ruin after this usurper was elected to the Presidency. The "birther" controversy took on new life, so-called patriots took to conspicuously packing heat in public places, a right-wing political movement headed by a woman who has sawdust between her ears was spawned, and politicians throughout the country croaked of 2nd amendment remedies. Never mind that Obama has done more for private industry than W ever did--health insurance companies will now have a captive country paying their ridiculous premiums, and bankers, the real estate industry, the auto idustry etc., were not only put on a sound footing but basically told to return to business as usual--he's a socialist from whom the good citizens must wrest back their country.
This new blog isn't about the upcoming Presidential election, though, but more generally about politics and culture in especially the US. There is an awful lot to write about and I've been wanting to do this for some time. The madness that erupted in the aftermath of the shooting in Arizona was the final straw, I think, and I'll be writing about that soon. In the meantime, apologies to Warren Zevon for the title of this blog, or at least to his estate. It is difficult, though, to think of a more appropriate trinity for the issues of the day than this one.
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