Soapbox

Second Amendment Remedies

    It's a question we all wrestle with whenever someone shoots up a room full of people. Why do so many of us feel that mass murder is the only answer to anger?

    Some blame  a lack of good mental health care in America, or too-easy access to guns. Others point the finger at violent music lyrics and video games. Lately we've ben told that it's because there aren't enough 'good guys with guns' to kill the bad ones. Some say it's because we don't 'let Jesus in the schools any more' and that kids would grow up fine if they just were made to pray before math class. Some insist that it's because slutty women take birth control and won't just stay home to take care of all their babies, causing the family to decay. Of course the gays are always ruining everything, and abortion makes God so wroth that he turns loose madmen to shoot children.

…and then there's shit like this.

   An Alabama Republican party newsletter just published a piece written by the husband of a county GOP official. In it the man expressed outrage that the Arkansas House (in an effort to keep much-needed federal dollars flowing into Arkansas)  voted to use the Obamacare health insurance exchanges to expand medical services to the state’s poor.
   In other words, they agreed to use the free market to allow poor people to get health care.

The writer called it 'a betrayal' that will 'lead us down the road to socialism' and told readers that really, these legislators should become 'bullet backstops'.

      "We need to let those who will come in the future to represent us [know] that we are serious.  The 2nd amendment means nothing unless those in power believe you would have no problem simply walking up and shooting them if they got too far out of line and stopped responding as representatives. It seems that we are unable to muster that belief in any of our representatives on a state or federal level, but we have to have something, something costly, something that they will fear that we will use if they step out of line.
If we can’t shoot them, we have to at least be firm in our threat to take immediate action against them politically, socially, and civically {sic} if they screw up on something this big. Personally, I think a gun is quicker and more merciful, but hey, we can’t. "
 

    Really? This is what passes for political opinion in conservative Alabama? For the good of America, if someone says something you believe is wrong… SHOOT 'EM? This is what you think the second Amendment is for- to allow you to kill people who don't share your belief system? This is how democracy works in your book?
   Huh. And to think us crazy liberals, when looking for something to make our misbehaving legislators fear, just think 'ballot box!"  This gang, they think 'bullet box". And aww shucky-durn, what a shame we can't just cut right to the chase and kill these traitors, but those pesky  law-and-order huggers will probably get upset about it.

    The state republican leadership called this letter which said they deservd a bullet in the head 'scary' (ya think??) and seemed to think that this fellow's problem is that he doesn't understand what a good job Republicans in Alabama have been doing. The spokesman pointed out that hey, they were saving people money by this action and always  voted as pro-life as possible. 
    “I don’t see how as a conservative we could have had a better session.” He further argued "As for the Second Amendment, we had one of the strongest pro-gun rights session in history"

     Seriously? You actually think that in response to this threat you need to defend your voting record to this putz? This guy wishes- in a public forum- that he and his friends could  walk up and shoot you in the head any time you don't vote the way he thinks you should, and you think that the only thing  it wrong with that is his failure to recognize what a good job you're doing???
      You don't want to maybe rethink that whole  "Everybody should have as many guns as they want" plan of yours now?

    Yes America, this is how a terrifying number of people think Democracy should work : I elect you to the Statehouse and in exchange you do exactly as I tell you to. If you step out of line- if your vision of what will help people is different than mine, even on something like health care, then in a fair world, me and my like-minded patriotic friends would be waiting in the parking lot to gun you down.
   And this is what they think the second Amendment means! Skip right on past that "well regulated militia" part and go straight to the old watering the tree of liberty with the blood of tyrants crap, which isn't exactly in the constitution and apparently the definition of 'tyran't has been expanded beyond mere "despotic king who is keeping people in chains'  and now also includes… well, anyone who doesn't share your pet conservative obsession.

   And this wasn't just some back-woods ignorant red-neck bitching to his buddies over a couple of beers. This was a piece written by the husband of a local Republican party official, and one which the newsletter saw fit to publish as legitimate discourse.

     Imagine for a minute that a local liberal official had opined in a democratic newsletter that since Obama has sold us out on the whole "Chained CPI" thing, any democrat who had voted to support Obama's policy should be shot. Say he insisted that democracy can only work if people like Nancy Pelosi believe that if she does not vote the way he wants her to, she might be shot in the head.
    I'm pretty sure our reaction would be a little stronger than to defend the democratic voting record. I expect we would call this a threat of terrorism.
     But apparently, for the Arkansas GOP, terrorism is only something which brown/liberal/Muslim folks do. To them, this was merely 'disturbing' and 'not our position'.

     Well that's good to know.