So, and unfortunately I swear this is true, Mike Pence has defended the shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis as a response to "the fear the American people feel about the crime wave" in the country.
What a cold, heartless, unthinking, pandering, robotic, empty piece of pond scum. And that's the polite version. There is a terrifying "crime wave. It's criminals who shoot totally innocent people who did nothing more than knock on their door by mistake or drove into their driveway by mistake or opened the wrong car door by mistake. And got shot to death. That's the crime. That's creating massive fear. Not pulling a car into the wrong driveway. That "fear" is created by the NRA -- to continually, relentlessly agitate their malleable customers to be so frightened of black people and cheerleaders and anyone accidentally entering their driveway that they'll buy guns and more guns, ready to shoot and kill innocent people, which (to be clear for those who don't know) is deeply criminal. And it is that fear which is picked up and nurtured by extreme right politicians like Mike Pence. And it's happening so often now that it is that which is becoming a crime wave. Just not the one that Mike Pence wants you to think about. Shooting to death innocent people by Republicans. In some ways, what Mike Pence (R-NRA) said in his interview on CBS yesterday was even worse, if that's possible. When pointed out to him that innocent people who shot for doing nothing more than knocking on a door, he replied almost as if writing from a script -- "Well, our hearts go out to the families of lost loved ones and the incidents in Kansas City and in upstate New York. I just can't imagine the pain that they're enduring in that tragedy." Oddly, it's the "Well..." that leaps out as making his words so empty, as if he needed a buffer before expressing the pain he can't imagine and then remembered his prepared speech. And while it's understandable to not be able to imagine such pain, what real empathy does is try to imagine it as far as possible, but not leave it at, "Well, sorry, I can't imagine the pain." And if his heart actually did go out to the families (presuming he had a heart, which isn't fully clear), he'd want to do something to ensure such tragedies didn't happen again. But no, not Mike Pence, because in his next words, he justified it happening again, saying -- "But tragedy should not require us to forfeit our liberty. And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States." So, in the Gospel According to Mike Pence, when such shootings happen again, that's the way it should be, because it's the price you pay for living in the United States. He almost makes it like the shooting victims are heroes of America. So much for his heart going out to anyone... Of course, what Pence misses is that this is not about "law-abiding citizens." It's about those who who shot guns at innocent people and even killed some, which are crimes. And which also are enshrined in in our laws. And enshrined, too, in the Declaration of Independence. Y'know, the whole "Life" part in the pursuit of happiness. The only positive thing about what Mike Pence said is that he didn't add that there are good people on both sides.
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. Feedspot Badge of Honor
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