Thomas Zimmer
The Party of the Gun
Republicans uniformly embrace the gun cult and will only ever double down on the gun-toting militancy they have made a key element of their political identity.
It’s grotesque.
https://twitter.com/ronfilipkowski/status/1652283410788884480?s=46&t=1xecvNVImNo8TKt3oEvqnA
Thomas Zimmer
To put this in perspective: There is absolutely no equivalent to this among major parties that could be regarded as even remotely mainstream / “conservative” anywhere else. It’s the most obvious indicator of what an extremist outlier the GOP is by international comparison. 2/
Thomas Zimmer
I don’t want to downplay the role of NRA money - obviously, that’s a huge factor. But the problem also runs deeper: to the level of a political culture that has normalized the gun fetish to the point where it’s hard to imagine how a functioning democracy might be sustained. 3/
Thomas Zimmer
It’s also the result of a social order built on the idea that some people - especially white men - have the absolute right to defend their place and status against all threats, real and imagined, and defend it by violently lashing out, by preemptively using excessive violence. 4/
Thomas Zimmer
The U.S. is built on and around that social order, in which powerful political and economic forces have decided that the right to use violence, be violent, and access guns to be violent, must not be meaningfully restricted - a situation that’s utterly incompatible with democracy. 5/
Thomas Zimmer
Democracy depends on people feeling safe in the public square. If they don’t, because it’s ruled by intimidation and threats of violence, they won’t be able to participate.
How could anyone feel safe in a gun cult society, in a public space dominated by gun fetishists? 6/
Thomas Zimmer
I wholeheartedly support policies that would make it harder to obtain a gun and reduce the obscene number of guns out there. Such policies would be effective, as they have been in all comparable nations. But much more profound change is also needed. 8/
Thomas Zimmer
I hadn’t even seen this yet. In the U.S., it’s always right after AND right before a mass shooting, regardless of whether we apply the term to shootings in public space or in the home.
And one the two major parties calls this “freedom.” It’s simply grotesque. 7/
https://twitter.com/momsdemand/status/1652306443289149440?s=46&t=1xecvNVImNo8TKt3oEvqnA
Thomas Zimmer
I wrote about the politics of gun violence in America after the shooting at Covenant School in Nashville. But that was about a month ago, and in the U.S., that means there have been so many more mass shootings since, so much more death and destruction. 9/
https://thomaszimmer.substack.com/p/america-is-sacrificing-its-children
Thomas Zimmer
We also devoted the latest episode of “Is This Democracy” to gun violence.
It is outrageous and infuriating to know that this conversation is guaranteed to stay relevant for a very long time - even though a clear majority of Americans rejects the gun cult.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/22-land-of-unlimited-gun-violence/id1652741954?i=1000610075038
LeeFromVT 🌎🌌🐈♂️♏🏳️🌈 🇺🇦
I never understood the GOP need to publicly masturbate their guns. Its not a hard skill.
Try showing off a universal healthcare proposal. Or pass a US Equal right set of laws. Fight to raise minimum wage!
StuartB
@tzimmer_history
In the US, the time right before and right after a mass shooting are the same time!
At least, that's the way it looks from somewhere with saner gun laws.
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