Three Seconds of Dead Air

Early Christmas Present April 21, 2010

My friend Adam reminded me of something else I was going to mention in yesterday’s post about the Tea Party movement.  In that post, I discussed three recent articles that essentially prove that the Tea Party – for all its blathering about being a vital third party that stands in opposition to all government – is really just a bunch of typical Republicans who will protest anything Obama does for no reason other than they’re sore losers.  The details are here.

But one of the things rattling around in the back of my head yesterday that Adam reminded me of this morning is Monday’s armed protest in Virginia. A group of “patriots” held an anti-government rally on the shores of the Potomac River, ostensibly in opposition to health care reform, climate control, bank bailouts, and Obama’s insistence on “totalitarian socialism.”  So, in other words, it’s the same tired old bullshit.  The difference this time?  Well, here, from the article:

[Daniel] Almond plans to have his pistol loaded and openly carried, his rifle unloaded and slung to the rear, a bandoleer of magazines containing ammunition draped over his polo-shirted shoulder.

This anti-Obama rally (because, really, let’s stop pretending it’s anything different) holds the dubious distinction of being the first whose attendees carried loaded weapons in a national park.  It’s tempting to digress and discuss the truly frightening aspect of this rally, which is that so many on the right (including some in attendance at the rally) have threatened violence against the president and the Democrats in Congress.  The appearance of guns is just one more step on the path marked “armed insurrection.”

But what I briefly want to do is tie the rally to yesterday’s post by simply reminding you of a couple things.

1) At no time has Obama uttered even the slightest hint of a breath about repealing or limiting the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.  So this protest can’t be about the simple exercising of a Constitutional right.  What, then, is the purpose of bringing guns to a rally in opposition to Obama?  It’s a threat, clear and simple.  A promise of violence.  Guns exist for one reason: to kill.  And I don’t care how you want to gussy it up, bringing guns to a rally that’s supposedly about health care reform is nothing more than a reminder to Democrats that those in opposition to you have the power to take you out.

2) The beautifully ludicrous aspect of this rally is that Obama defended the rule (originally proposed by Bush) allowing loaded weapons in national parks, and the law was passed during Obama’s presidency by a Democratic Congress.  So the protesters – because they’re such clearly intelligent, informed people – are protesting the policies of the President who allowed them to carry their guns in a national park in the first place.  Once again we see that those who stand in opposition to Obama will stand in opposition to him even when he does things that are in their interest.  It’s the good ol’ Republican way of doing business: obstruct, obstruct, obstruct, even when it makes absolutely no sense.

*****

Current listening:

Kate Nash – My Best Friend Is You (2010)