On most days, parents drop their kids off at school, hoping they get a decent day of education and come home at night for supper. However, in the United States of America, that, unfortunately, is not always the case. There are times when some of those children do not come home. Because in this country, we value the right to have a firearm over the right not to be mowed down by a lunatic.
Only in America is this the case. And we have one political party that continues to look the other way and allow it to continue, unabated. This is also the same party that calls itself pro-life. The problem, of course, is that the only lives they consider sacred are the ones that sit in the womb of a mother.
The rest of us? Not so much.
On the day of yet another mass shooting at one of our schools, where we received the usual “thoughts and prayers” mantra, the GOP official account on Twitter tweeted out the following:
The tweet was a reference to what was going on at the Supreme Court of the United States where the justices were hearing a Mississippi case that would ban abortions after 15 weeks, which, if affirmed by the court, would essentially overturn Roe v.Wade and with it, nearly 50 years of precedence.
On Tuesday, on the same day of the mass shooting, GOP senators held a press conference proclaiming their belief in the sanctity of life, imploring the Supreme Court to uphold the Mississippi law. Later that evening, Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy had had enough and headed to the Senate floor to make an impassioned speech calling out the utter and complete hypocrisy of those senators:
“Do not lecture us about the sanctity of life when 100 people every single day are losing their lives to guns,” Murphy said.
The senator is correct. These Republican senators, and their counterparts in the House, continue to ignore the bloodshed on the streets of America because, damn it, we cannot take away the rights of our citizens to bear arms. God forbid we do some common-sense legislation to try and prevent crazies from acquiring guns in the first place and getting weapons of war off our streets.
To be clear, the shooting on Tuesday had nothing to do with background checks that might flag someone from acquiring a gun due to mental illness. It appears, however, that the father of the young man purchased the gun a few days ago. Charges may still be coming for the parents for allowing their son access to use the weapon in this horrific crime.
Does it matter, though? Isn’t the real issue that we have more guns than people in this country? That we’re awash with so many military and semi-assault-style weapons seems to be the problem. But the GOP and their gun-toting members only want more of those types of weapons on the street. After all, they’ve got to have those weapons if the government goes too far. At least that’s the reasoning I keep hearing.
The fact is, the GOP calling itself the pro-life party might be the biggest misnomer in the history of humankind. It’s not just them lecturing the rest of us on how precious the fetus’s life is while ignoring children being slaughtered in the classroom. It’s much more than that.
All we need to do is look at how the radical right has been during the worst pandemic in over 100 years. We’ve been bombarded with scenes of maniacal parents attending school board meetings, threatening members, and yelling about school mask mandates. Those mandates, by the way, were put in place for the sole purpose of protecting those children from getting COVID and from spreading it to their families at home, some of whom may die if infected. Isn’t that the actual pro-life stance? Shouldn’t we do all we can to protect the children from harm? Is wearing a cloth mask that much of an infringement on their rights?
These are also the same people who go mask-less in grocery stores and elsewhere, regardless of signs saying they need to wear them. It’s an entirely selfish act, ignoring health and safety protocols all in the name of their ‘personal freedom.’ If they infect someone who ultimately dies, so be it.
There’s also word that some GOP senators are advocating for shutting the government down in the coming days. But this time, the reason is to take a stand against the Biden administration’s mandate that businesses with over 100 employees must be vaccinated. That’s right, let’s shut down the government because the radical liberals are trying to save lives.
Meanwhile, some GOP governors now reward employees who ignore vaccine requirements with unemployment benefits if they lose their jobs. By all means, let’s incentivize people who dangerously and recklessly endanger others. This is who they are, folks. They do not care about the lives of others. It’s about taking a stand and showing up the radical left.
And this is the pro-life party?
But, sure, go ahead and lecture us about the sanctity of life and how important it is to save the life of a fetus. Never mind that outlawing abortion or severely restricting it hurts poor women the most. But that shouldn’t be a big shock. Being poor is their choice, they keep telling us. If only they could pull themselves up from their bootstraps as they all did. If only we could all be like them.
Once a kid is born, the GOP raises their hands to say hallelujah – then says, in so many words, “you’re on your own, kid. Good luck.” That doesn’t seem to mesh with their disingenuous stance on valuing life. At least not in my view.
Hell, we’ve even got GOP members of Congress threatening to assassinate their colleagues these days, which was met with even more embarrassing silence from house leadership. It’s all about devaluing lives, mocking non-Christian religions, and being as terrible to others as they possibly can.
Yesterday was a watershed moment in American life. I listened to those arguments before the Supreme Court and came away from it with a sorrowful feeling. We’re on the verge of something very dark in this country. If the court does what it seems they’re poised to do, we will enter into a new phase, especially for women. What the evangelicals did by standing with Trump, even while knowing he was a despicable human being, is now bearing fruit for them.
The radical judges he gave them are now ready to deliver what they’ve always wanted, on a silver platter no less: purging women’s rights back to the days when Leave it to Beaver and Ozzie and Harriet were the top shows on television. Subservient to men, out of the workplace, and carrying a baby to full term, no matter the circumstances; that seems to be the goal.
I’m sorry, but the GOP is not the party of life. They stay ominously silent when it comes to the thousands who die each year from gun violence yet preach to the world about how concerned they are for the health and welfare of the unborn.
Time and again, they side with the gun lobby, rather than a large majority of Americans who simply want to regulate and control dangerous weapons – not take away their right to own a firearm.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if GOP politicians had the same zeal and emotion dealing with regulating guns the way they do when regulating women’s bodies? How much better of a country would we be?
On The Fence Voters 
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