Nothing, absolutely nothing, will change the gun culture of this nation. To be sure, this is a deep moral issue. But let’s face it: The legislative apparatus that could put some common-sense checks and balances on gun ownership will not be enforced. American politics are dominated today by the cruelty of the Republican Party. It is a party of fascist impulse; a party of masculine, White domination; a party where the wealthy are God’s elect and all others are less-than and secondary. The Republican Party is the image of a deformed Christianity whose God is also White, male, violent and greedy. A party, a polity and a theology that is callous in heart, and utterly blind to the consequences of its actions.
Even in the aftermath of Las Vegas, the Republican Party has plans to rescind legislation that would ban silencers on guns and the manufacture of armor piercing bullets. Do you really think a politics of sanity would allow every person to become an individual militia? The truth is that the Republicans are not sane. They are bat-shit crazy. They relish a nation of people armed to the teeth, glorifying military uniforms and global armed interventions. This is the party of shoot first and coverup later. This is the party of continual undermining of actual democratic reforms that would give citizens greater authority over the military and the local police (a militarized force whose primary objective is to protect property and property owners). It is a party that demands submission — ruthless, soul-less, vicious and deeply religious. It is the primary source of the unraveling of American idealism and, in a different time, in a time of courageous awakened citizens, they would be run out of office.
But obviously they are not being run out of office. Indeed they gain strength. And they gain strength because of the utter mediocrity of the Democratic Party. A party that has over and over proven to be a visionless, gutless, wimpy band of financially corrupted hypocrites. The Democrats have evidenced little capacity to legislate for a better world. A world of energy resources other than fossil, a common-sense demand for universal health care as a basic human right, the necessity of limiting the military surveillance society through deep budget cuts, the primacy of diplomacy over saber-rattling, the reform of domestic policing, and the eradication of privatized militias. Democrats talk but are afraid to push. Republicans mock and then crush their opposition.
In other words, when all the voter has is a choice between an Apocalyptic Party versus a Hapless, Hopeless Party, why not bring on the Apocalypse? Maybe after the bloodbath a new beginning can unfold.
Rev. Rich Lang is the District Superintendent of the King County United Methodist Church and can be reached at [email protected].
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