It occurred to me as I watched the big crowds of high school kids marching in multiple states about the Parkland Massacre that they are … tomorrow’s voters. Has the Republican Party thought about that? I’m sure they have – but for some reason they seem to be beholden to the NRA, an NRA that is led by 2nd Amendment absolutists.
Do they think those kids are just going to forget that their concerns about their own survival were shrugged off?
This is a moment the Republican Party should seize by putting forth substantive gun legislation. Instead, as many news outlets have noted, the Florida Legislature, controlled by the Republican Party, refused to debate an assault weapon ban, but chose to put forth the assertion that porn is a health hazard. It’s as if they stuck their heads in the sand and declared that The 1950s was a golden age and, by god, we’d better do what they would have – and that’s be worried about porn!
All in front of impressionable folks. I shan’t call them children, at least not the survivors from Parkland, for two reasons. First, they’ve had their childhoods ripped away, and, secondly and more importantly, they have demonstrated the will to change what needs to be changed. This is not a mob milling around mindlessly, these were folks aware that their leaders have let them down, and asking them to do better.
These are people on their way to being adults. They’re aware of the world around them, they’re paying attention to who would help them – and who’ll stand by and counsel them that wiser heads have determined the proper course.
They’ll remember that.
And they’ll remember who taunted them. Who called them “crisis actors.” Who seemed focused on discrediting their efforts, their selves – and the tragedy which has enveloped them.
They’ll remember that, too.
And behind all this is an NRA that is now under investigation by the FBI for possibly illegal financial ties to Russia. Now, I don’t really believe that the NRA has become a mouthpiece for Russian warfare, mostly because the NRA leadership has been around for quite a while now, and I don’t credit Russia’s leadership with the ability to carry out plans that stretch for decades.
But it’s interesting how it’s all coming together. Between stirring up divisions in American society when we should be coming together, putting forth ludicrous arguments that are still taken seriously, and leaving America with only one functioning political party, the Democrats, which much of the populace seems to distrust, the political scene in America is really messed up – and that’s just what Russia would like to see. There’s no proof of their involvement in the public messaging of the NRA, and probably lots of disproof out there.
But I can’t help but notice the congruence.
Just as I can’t help but wonder if the Republicans are in the final act of slow seppuku.
