Some of you know my writing schedule has been cut back due to some recent heart surgery. Unfortunately, I have filled my time with even more cable news-watching. A perplexed Dana Bash and endless CNN media polls are trying to convince me that Joe Biden is a failure and ninety-one criminal charges against Donald Trump are to his benefit. Record employment numbers, drug cost negotiations, wage hikes, the best inflation numbers of any industrialized nation (since the onset of COVID-19 and supply chain issues), arguably the most comprehensive climate change package in American history, a manufacturing boom, and finally, infrastructure legislation, apparently—for some Americans, are accidents and not the results of President Biden’s management.
What is most disturbing is the preoccupation the conservative media has with shoplifters. Endless video loops of stunned employees watching Lululemon stretch pants and Yves Saint. Laurent purses (after all, one must complete the ensemble) stuffed into plastic garbage bags. All to the backdrop of outraged voices of talking heads advocating the harshest penalties for the thieves, without a thought or prayer for their circumstances. I am not making light of the losses of hardworking storeowners or the dangers they pose to the employees and shoppers. Still, I cannot understand that same lack of outrage at the pictures of tiny crosses in schoolyards or shards of stained glass sprayed over hallways or linoleum floors when a heavily armed murderer blasts their way into a church, grocery store, or mini mall.
On the contrary, Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenage gunman who, according to his testimony, drove himself miles where he armed himself to shoot the people he feared were damaging property in Wisconsin, is a conservative hero. Rittenhouse admittedly lied about his qualifications as a medic, which he partially used to gain access to the scene of the shootings, and was later acquitted. Wednesday, former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, whom I am sure would list his vocation as a pastor ahead of his public service suggested bullets may replace the ballot. “Here’s the problem—Huckabee said to his Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost audience—“If these tactics end up working to keep Trump from winning or even running in 2024, it is going to be the last American election that ballots rather than bullets will decide,”he said during his monologue on his TBN show“Huckabee.”
The fear that has enveloped the Republican party, which can no longer win the national popular vote, has them choosing to abandon democracy for authoritarianism. The talk of civil war and guns is becoming a more popular refrain among the GOP and their ilk than ‘Try That in A Small Town.’ The crying and cowardly frauds convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to heavy prison terms have cried, begged, pointed fingers, and blamed Donald Trump. One of the now-convicted felons, Dominic Pezzola, threw up a fist and yelled, “Trump won,” while being led off to jail. Daniel Rodriguez, who tasered Officer Michael Fanone prior to his heart attack, also proclaimed “Trump won” at his sentencing.
Republicans are entrenched, and no matter what the mood or changing politics of the country, if they cannot win at the ballot box or the court, it seems violence and guns are their thoughts and prayers.
Vote Against Guns