I have both seen and heard it said that Congress will not
pass any ban on assault weapons. I find this interesting if for no other reason
than why this might be so. I see no reason, logical or otherwise why private
citizens should own assault weapons. The explanation they are for target
practice is feeble in the extreme. The only explanation for the ownership of
such weapons has to do with the belief it might be necessary to defend
ourselves from our own government, a belief no more than a fantasy in the minds
of the truly paranoid. These individuals argue that the Founding Fathers
created the 2nd amendment so that citizens could protect themselves
from their government, a belief actually quite the opposite of the truth. It is
also a belief so transparent in its naivete as to be laughable. The idea that
citizens armed with small caliber rifles, even grenades and rocket launchers,
could defeat the federal government should that be necessary is simply ridiculous.
If it is true that Congress will not pass a ban on assault
weapons it would seem to me there are only two possible reasons. First, there
are enough Congresspersons who subscribe to the paranoid belief the government
is their enemy (I guess we can thank Saint Ronnie for this stupid idea), or
second, they are all being bribed by the gun industry to promote this idea in
order to make more profits. In either case it
is paranoia that drives the market. Thus we are either at the mercy of
the demonstrably insane or an industry that encourages such beliefs for the sole
purpose of short term profits. If Congress refuses to pass a ban on assault
rifles paranoia wins and sanity loses. At the moment I think I would bet on
paranoia as the idea that President Obama is after their guns seems to have
been well established among the not so gently mad.
Republican arguments against the reasonable, logical, and practical
proposals of the Obama administration have now become so untenable they have
had to turn to more personal attacks. They have resurrected an earlier claim
that Obama is too antisocial and does not do enough socializing with
Congresspersons, an argument so pathetic as to be simply ignored. Not only
that, they have now decided their strategy to oppose Hagel should consist of a
discussion of his “overall temperament.”
That is, does he have the proper temperament to run a large organization
and etc., an argument not only pathetic in the extreme but entirely absurd. When
you have no real arguments just bluff and obfuscate and create suspicion and
confusion.
It is now being said that the Republican Party is going to
have to change if it is to survive as a viable political party, change to keep
up with the changing demography of our nation. I do not see how this is going
to be possible given their inherent racism, homophobia, misogyny, xenophobia,
and completely dysfunctional economic theories. These are deep-seated beliefs that are not
going to be easily changed, certainly not in time for the 2016 elections and
quite likely for a long time even after that, perhaps never (happy day).
It appears Republicans have finally realized the debt limit
racket is not going to work for them this time. They are now focusing on other
means of shutting down the government, causing Obama even more trouble,
plotting to keep any progress from being made. It seems to me that Obama, as
President, has been more than merely reasonable with his opponents and has, in
spite of them, been in general pretty successful. The things that bother me
about Obama, the hawkishness, drones, civil rights, and such, are not things
that should bother Republicans. Thus I have to conclude their obvious, even
growing hatred of President Obama is primarily racial in origin. They have not
been able to overcome the basic paradigm of Western-European culture that
featured the Great Chain of Being and the evolution of culture that placed
white males at the very top of the scale and other races and genders below
them. I suspect it will take at least two or three more generations before this
insidious colonial carryover disappears.
The most important
scientific revolutions all include, as their only common feature, the
dethronement of human arrogance from one pedestal after another of previous
convictions about our centrality in the cosmos.
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