The GOP Has Literally Drunk Its Own Kool-Aide

I don’t embarrass very easily, but at the same time, I don’t like being embarrassed either. And right now, my cheeks are still burning. I mean, how pathetic is is when you end up being a poster child for somebody else on how to not do shit?!

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau just proposed a new series of gun control measures that are expected to pass through Parliament like shit through a goose. Things like a total ban on the sale of handguns, a mandatory buyback program for semi-automatic weapons, and red flag laws. Any of that sound familiar? And in his speech he said, All you need to do is to look at our neighbor to the south to see how this can spiral out of control if you don’t get a handle on it. Beautiful. The greatest, longest lasting democracy in the history of the world, and we’re being used to show how ineffective democracy can be when you have assholes with the car keys.

And the sad part is that Trudeau is 100% correct, in every regard. Especially the one that points out that when you let partisan politics and special interests come before basic public policy, you are doomed to failure. And while I’m as ashamed as shit that we look like this, I’m happy that somebody can use the debacle of our gun control debate to avoid the same mistakes.

The GOP writ large, including FUX News will never let the word gun pass their lips in the gun control debate. Cruella de Ingraham had a guest on who declaimed the evils of pot causing psychosis. Bad news, shitheels. At Columbine, pot was still a class 1 narcotic. Pot was illegal in Florida for Parkland, in Connecticut at Sandy Hook, In Nevada for the Route 66 music festival slaughter. They blame violent video games. Shit, I was playing Medal of Honor and Wolfenstein back in the ’90’s. They blame porn. Ummm, somehow or other, jerking off in front of the television never made me want to go out and shoot up a school. Anything but guns themselves.

But it was former GOP Florida congressman, now independent Never Trumper who may have unlocked the chest. Tonight, Ayman Muhyidin asked Jolly on his program if, in his private conversations with former colleagues and GOP operatives, if any of them were willing to admit in private just how batshit out of touch their positions were?

And Jolly’s answer knocked me back in my chair. He started shaking his head while Ayman was still speaking, and then said, No Ayman. You have to understand, the GOP has been in the hip pocket of the NRA for decades now. And while, when the lobbyist first came in with the envelops, spouting his pap, the response may have been, “Yeah, sure, whatever, just so the check doesn’t bounce,” like any other big lie, the more often it’s repeated, with no rebuttal, you begin to believe it. 

And that’s where the GOP leadership, right on down to the middle levels is right now. They have been hearing the same shit for so long, with no rebuttal, that they’ve actually started to accept the mantra. Guns aren’t the problem. People are.

And you know what? I’m pretty much ready to take Jolly at his word. For the simple reason that it fits the GOP psyche. Look at the Senate negotiations. Sure, McConnell and Cornyn may approve a few modest tweaks to background check laws, just to show good faith, and they’re more than happy to let the Democrats throw more money at mental health and hardening schools, because it’s a distraction. But they’re never going to raise the purchasing age from 18-21. Because guns aren’t the problem! People are.

After all, we’re talking about the Trump party now. The party literally built on The Big Lie. The party overtaken by disinformation and Q-Anon conspiracy theories. It’s much easier to believe that porn, violent video games, and crazed stoners overstuffed with Cheetos are responsible for mass murder than the guns themselves. Just like it’s easier to believe that infantile nonsense like critical race theory, and Disney and the Democrats are secretly grooming your children for transgender harvest is much easier to accept than the simple fact that the world is a fucked up place.

SO yeah, I can see it, just as clear as day. What do I say, The first victim of a successful con man is the con man himself. He’s so much smarter than the rubes. It started out as a con for campaign donations, but with repeated exposure, they actually started to believe that Guns are not the problem! The only path forward to realistic gun control measures is a Democratic majority in the Senate large enough to make Manchin and Sinema moot when it comes to the filibuster. Anything else is just window dressing.