Guest post: Let’s politicize the shit out of this
Originally a comment by Screechy Monkey on No politics, please, we’re here to solicit $$$$.
Here’s what I want someone (well, someone other than me, someone with actual influence) to say after the next mass shooting:
The NRA and its lackeys don’t want us to talk about guns now. They say that would be “politicizing” this tragedy. And I say: yes, it would, and that’s exactly why we should do it.
“Politics” has come to be a dirty word, that brings to mind petty bickering and disingenuous posturing. But that’s not all that politics is. Politics is the means by which we, as a society, decide how to govern ourselves. It’s how we make changes that might prevent or reduce the frequency or severity of these tragedies that have become all too common.
Simply put, politics is the way we can come together to address this problem. The gun lobby knows this. While they’re telling us how wrong it is to “politicize” this issue, they’re busy politicking hard. Already they’re emailing their membership lists, scaremongering their supporters about how any discussion of reasonable gun control means that those crazy liberals are a-coming for your guns, so you better buy some more, and donate to us, and warn your government representatives that you won’t stand for it.
And that’s how they keep winning. Polling data consistently shows that reasonable gun control legislation has broad majority support. Most responsible gun owners don’t object to background checks and prohibitions on dangerous individuals owning firearms. But what the gun lobby counts on is that this broad majority doesn’t vote on this issue. That most people won’t make noise with their elected representatives about it, or donate or volunteer or otherwise get active about it. Meanwhile, their side is showing up. They’re voting, they’re donating, they’re making noise, they’re scaring their elected officials into believing that the safe thing to do is to either do the gun lobby’s bidding, or avoid the issue entirely, which amounts to much the same thing.
Even though they’re outnumbered, they keep winning, because their side shows up for the fight, and they’ve persuaded too many of us that’s it’s wrong or vulgar or undignified for us to show up and fight back.
Let’s stop being fooled or intimidated by this. Let’s put an end to not showing up for the fight and then wondering why we don’t win. Like it or not, “politics” is the battlefield on which this issue will be fought, the weapons are your vote and your voice, and the reasonable, sensible majority has disarmed itself for too long. So let’s politicize the shit out of this. Write or phone your Congressperson, your Senator, your state representatives and Governor to demand action. Attend rallies. Vote for, volunteer for, and donate to candidates who are willing to do more than shrug and offer “thoughts and prayers.” And if you can’t find one, than run yourself or encourage others to.
And when the gun lobby cries foul and demands that you stop “politicizing” this issue, you say: you first!
Hear hear.
Amen.
Thanks! What people don’t seem to get is that the alternative to politics is tyranny, by whoever has the force to threaten or injure you. It’s especially disturbing when the link is this tight, when the political issue is whether or not people, of any mental state or intention, ought to possess any weapon anywhere at any time, as opposed to any restriction at all on any of that ability to threaten and injure.
The gun lobby is an enemy of civilization.
Yeah, Jeff, I just want to beat my head against something when people say, “Oh, I don’t do politics”. Oh really? You prefer someone else to do your politics for you? Maybe you prefer someone else to do your thinking for you? Your eating for you? Your bathing for you? No, of course not (well, thinking, maybe – some people really would rather have someone tell them what to do than to make decisions themselves).
How can you call yourself free, even at the somewhat flawed level of free that exists here, if you “don’t do politics”?
People also seem to assume that politics have no relation to morality or one’s day to day life… and if you’re a white dude there’s a certain amount of truth to that… some of us can’t compartmentalize things in that way however.
And as always, be skeptical whenever someone tries to pass of his/her own views as the “unpolitical”, “non-ideological” position..
I’m really impressed with how the surviving kids are handling this. Many of them are taking to Twitter and telling the gun fondlers to go fuck themselves. One asshole had the nerve to get pissy about this and suggest that the students should be spending more time attending their classmates’ funerals instead of arguing online. It…. did not go well for him.
This is something no kid should ever be told. Anyone who would say this in any context does not have the decency to be a decent human being. In this context…shit, I don’t even know. The word evil doesn’t begin to be enough.
I wonder how fast the NRA and RNC would change their tune if the shooters started to target their conventions. But considering their actions, I’m afraid they would instead demand that normal people be able to buy RPGs, tanks, stealth bombers and nukes.
Thank you, Screechy Monkey. Can you please clone yourself? We in the rest of the world need more people like you!
iknklast,
Here’s a link to one of the students’ responses. (My memory was a little off, but not materially — a gun fondler was implying that these kids couldn’t possibly have had time to organize and grieve, so they must be shills for the Democrats.)
To tigger and the others who have offered praise,
Thanks. It’s a rant that I’ve been storing up for a while. I’m often astonished by how accurate the old caricature is that “a liberal is someone who is too enlightened to take his own side in an argument.” At least in the U.S., conservatives figured out a long time ago that politics matters, and they’re prepared to get their hands dirty and their knuckles bloody.
Screechy, I’d like to add a belated ‘hurrah’ as well.
In that twitter thread you link to, it was interesting that the supposed Texan attacking the survivor used the flag of Chile, rather than Texas. How many Texans would make that mistake?
Oh, and speaking of douchebags attacking the surviving Parkland students, here’s convicted felon Dinesh D’Souza mocking them. Michael Shermer was right, D’Souza really is a valuable contributor to public debate.
From D’Souza’s Twitter bio…
At least he’s honest enough not to claim to be a thinker or a decent human being.