The Tampa Bay Times got their hands on a House GOP caucus memo that gave members talking points to respond to constituent questions about mass shootings and the need for common sense gun safety legislation.  The answers are as disgusting and disheartening as you would imagine.  They contain the normal boilerplate bullshit, repeating the mental health and video game mantra, even though those myths have been debunked for decades.  No Republican can explain, since mental health problems and violent video games proliferate throughout the world, why the US is a singular outlier when it comes to gun violence generally and mass shootings specifically.  They will dance around the issue, blaming EVERYTHING except the actual problem – the omnipresence of guns and the ease by which they can be obtained.

Worse, this memo coached House members how to answer the problem which is the answer in the room…violence of extreme right-wingers and white supremacists.  Here’s the coached question: “Do you believe white nationalism is driving more mass shootings recently?”  Here’s the official House caucus answer: “White nationalism and racism are pure evil and cannot be tolerated in any form.  We also can’t excuse violence from the left such as the El Paso shooter, the recent Colorado shooters, the Congressional baseball shooter, Congresswoman Giffords’ shooter and Antifa.”

The letter actually called the El Paso shooter, who was a white supremacist and hated immigrants, a person “from the left”.  They later tried to say that was “a mistake” – no shit, Sherlock.  What the letter blatantly did, though, and what they always do, was to discourage members from telling the truth and to try and frame a false equivalency that “both sides do it”.  Well, both sides don’t do it.  Not even close.  The Anti-Defamation League actually keeps track of domestic violence, and through 2018, not even counting the violence from this year, 73%  of domestic violence in America was committed by rightwing extremists and white supremacists.

So, let’s sum up.  The messaging experts for the GOP are coaching their members to lie, equivocate, obfuscate, and distract from the actual problem of gun violence in America.  That problem is fourfold –

1. It is well known that there are now 400 million guns in circulation in America today.
2. Guns are easily obtainable in many states, and Republicans have been systematically dismantling gun safety laws for the last 3 decades. The assault weapons ban was allowed to expire by Republican leadership and the GWB administration in 2004, kicking off massive growth in assault weapons manufacturing.
3. White supremacism and rightwing extremism exploded during the Obama administration, driven by the corporate backed Tea Party movement which normalized the anti-government, pro-gun culture.
4. Trump has encouraged this culture and has used social media to vilify everyone non-white and non radical conservative.

The combination of these forces has been explosive.  Our homicide rate, which is multiples above the rest of the developed world.  Even so, that rate has been declining, however, in recent years, as red states have stupidly weakened gun laws and encouraged the proliferation of assault weapons, our homicide rate is increasing.  Worse, the incidence of mass shootings has also exploded.  To date this year there have been 262 mass shootings.  There have been almost 9,300 deaths and almost 19,000 wounded.  The gun violence in America eclipses the entire developed world.  Travel advisories have been issued in other countries advising against traveling to the US due to our gun violence.

And what are Republicans doing about this?  What is Moscow Mitch, Trump, and the other shitbags in Congress doing?  Lying. Deflecting. And hiding.  They’re all hiding.  Now is the time for the spotlight of normal Americans calling bullshit on the do nothing Republicans.  Call your Congressperson and Senator.  Write to your local paper.

Raise hell.  Until we get His Orangeness out of the WH, that’s all we can do.

From late last year, George Packer of the Atlantic summarized the last 60 years of the GOP and nailed it, from pre-Goldwater to the Trump era.  Best quote:

“The corruption of the Republican Party in the Trump era seemed to set in with breathtaking speed. In fact, it took more than a half century to reach the point where faced with a choice between democracy and power, the party chose the latter. Its leaders don’t see a dilemma—democratic principles turn out to be disposable tools, sometimes useful, sometimes inconvenient. The higher cause is conservatism, but the highest is power.”

it gives a blistering picture of what we non-GOPers face against “true believers”.  And it ain’t pretty.

Steve Schmidt, McCain campaign manager and prominent Republican strategist, announced last night that he’s left the Republican Party.  His reasons are Trump and his “zero tolerance” border fail that’s consuming our entire country.  Here’s the tweet:

While the media was obsessing this weekend over Trump’s latest foul-mouthed tirade, his staff extended the Muslim travel ban and Republicans in the Senate wrote in more payoffs to hold out Senators to get them to vote for gutting the US healthcare system.  This has become a common occurrence since Cheeto Jesus infested the WH, and I don’t believe it’s a strategy put in place by him; I believe it’s a strategy developed by very evil and very smart people who are exploiting his proclivity for attention-getting bombast.

Trump’s childish tirades and embarrassing behavior are well known.  They’re also predictably unpredictable.  Almost every time he engages in outrageous behavior, his staff slips something out to the public – unwinding environmental protections, rounding up immigrants, issuing some other cringe-inducing executive order.

This weekend, Trump attacked NFL and NBA players for various fake affronts.  Steph Curry declined to come to the WH with his NBA team, so Trump rescinded the invitation in a Twitter based insult.  Later, in one of his silly campaign rallies, this time in Alabama in support of appropriately named Luther Strange, Trump started his war on NFL players who refuse to stand for the national anthem as a form of protest against violence against racial minorities by police.

During the ensuing firestorm, his staff issued a new travel ban, adding countries to the existing ban that has been blocked by the courts.  Also, under the cover of this circus, Senate Republicans added payoffs for Arizona, Kentucky, and Alaska to the latest effort to destroy healthcare for millions of Americans in an effort to get yes votes from John McCain, Rand Paul, and Lisa Murkowski.

Stayed outraged.  But pay attention.

From Jennifer Rubin, one of the Washington Post’s conservative opinion writers – She outlines five scenarios, all very possible – all of which end in Trump’s removal or resignation.  In all scenarios, the GOP pays the price for pandering to Trump, allowing him to be nominated, and supporting him before and after election.  Interesting reading.

Interesting posts on my Facebook feed this morning.  There are articles one after the other about how BOTH major political parties are on the ropes.  I give you the headlines:

‘Trump is What Happens When a Political Party Abandons Ideas’ – Politico

and right after it –

Sen. Bernie Sanders – “Democratic Brand is Pretty Bad” – CNN

In recent days, talkers from both sides have been bemoaning the condition of their own parties.  Some are going after their party leaders; some are blaming everyone from the Russians to their political rivals.  For the first time in over a decade, Nancy Pelosi’s job is in jeopardy.  After the Dems were skunked in the recent special elections, younger Dems are publicly talking about new party leadership in the House. Republican senators are openly refusing to support Mitch McConnell’s plan to destroy the US healthcare system.  The only oddity that continues is that the Republicans remain terrified of Trump and his Twitter fingers.

Are we finally reaching a crossroads in political party life?  Deep inside, the Repubs certainly recognize the smoldering ruin of their party after Trumpzilla rampaged through in 2016.  But it’s worse than that – to cling to power, the GOP has abandoned common decency and common sense, appealing to the worst instincts of the ignorant base.  That’s their problem.

The problem on the Dem side is more subtle.  Party leadership is fossilized.  It’s not adapted to the new normal.  Although the vast majority of creative thinkers and visualizers are Democrats, the party has remarkably failed to engage them in dragging the party out of the 1990’s.  The Dems don’t stand for anything – not to say they don’t have the interests of workers, families, and the disadvantaged – they can’t articulate it.  That was Hillary’s well documented problem…she couldn’t connect on that level.  Senate and House leadership now has the same problem.  While the GOP is in smoldering ruins, instead of taking advantage of that weakness, the Dems are arranging furniture and counting noses – no one is leading.

Maybe the voices of the younger generation will get loud enough for the geriatric leadership of both parties to get the message and get out of the way.  Can you imagine what America would be if we had youthful enthusiasm involved?  Can you imagine if political leadership was 50/50 men to women, inclusive of all faiths and ethnicities?

We’re a long way from that, but I can still dream.