They have no shame. They will never have any shame.
The Republican Party–that foul entity that surrendered its dignity to the NRA and the arms industry decades ago–is, for all intents and purposes, an unindicted co-conspirator in the deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas one week ago tonight. The GOP’s steadfast refusal to consider restrictions on access to firearms–even after a President and a Congressman from their own party were nearly killed by easy access to firearms–is proof positive that the party is a pestilence.
I’ve written before about the psychological toll mass shootings have taken upon my life, and the lives of millions of Americans. That psychological havoc was brought to us by the Republican Party, the folks who have fetishized the Second Amendment, the folks who worship the gun as a false idol.
Any Republican who claims to be a Christian but who refuses to take steps to reduce the gun violence that takes the lives of the children they claim God created should be ridiculed to their faces. Does anyone doubt that if a Republican had to run from their home in an emergency, and had to choose between taking their gun or taking their Bible, they’d take the gun? Does anyone doubt that if Jesus did come back and call for this country to place limits on easy access to firearms, Fox News commentators would call for Jesus to be crucified a second time?
It’s a goddamn disgrace, a disgrace embraced by everyone who continues to promote the party of pistols. If there was one flaw in Michael Moore’s otherwise brilliant Bowling for Columbine, it’s that the film didn’t go far enough in linking our gun-crazed culture to the GOP’s misanthropy.
It is the Republican Party that genuflects to the gun and bows to the bullet. It is the Republican Party that has intimidated Democrats and the mainstream media into near-silence on guns. It is the Republican Party that spreads fear about future gun confiscation at every turn. It is the Republican Party that offers nothing to victims of gun violence but vapid thoughts and unanswerable prayers.
As long as the Republican Party wields power, this country will never stop the bloodshed. The day will soon come when 75 perish in a mass shooting, then 100, then 150, then 200, then 250. It won’t matter. Those lives won’t matter to the GOP, a party that values the Second Amendment over the First Amendment. The next time one of these shootings occur, mainstream-media entities should make it clear that such carnage was facilitated by the Republican Party’s refusal to behave responsibly on the issue of easy access to firearms. That wouldn’t be “bias.” That would be fact.
Republicans are not ignorant. They know full well what they’re going. Donald Trump knows what he’s doing. The NRA is his God, and he will always take a knee in front of their altar. The same can be said for virtually every single member of that party.
Imagine a Republican member of the House or Senate seeing his newborn son or daughter in the hospital, seeing that child take their first steps. Imagine that Republican raising that child, sending that child off to college. Imagine that Republican finding out one day that their child, their flesh and blood, died due to gun violence.
Then, imagine that Republican, having retained his seat despite his party’s loss of control over Congress, deciding to vote on a Democratic-sponsored bill to place modest restrictions on access to firearms.
Even if his child died as a result of gun violence, that Republican would, in all likelihood, vote no.
If that doesn’t tell you something about the fundamental and intrinsic perversity of that party, nothing does.
