For years I joked that our nation could solve our twin troubles of energy shortages and air pollution by making all our roads go downhill. Anytime I suggested my solution, people responded with that “Surely you aren’t serious” look. I’d then smile and shrug my shoulders, implying that I knew the suggestion was silly. We all knew it was a ridiculously simple—and unworkable—concept. And that’s what made it at least a little humorous.
I had to wonder—momentarily—if they were joking.
So, with GOP leaders across the nation now openly and with straight faces declaring that the solution to our nation’s epidemic of mass murders at public places is to eliminate all but one entrance to all such buildings, I had to wonder—momentarily—if they were joking. Sure, joking about such a horrible and painful phenomenon would be beyond tacky. Who would do or suggest such a thing?
Then I saw the video of former President Trump at the NRA convention, laughing and dancing shortly after announcing the names of the 19 students and two teachers murdered at Robb Elementary School. Tacky, tasteless, tawdry, crude, heartless, callous, degenerate, amoral. Ah, yes, all adjectives describing the Trumpist-controlled Republican Party, the GOP.
Indeed, GOP now stands for Gullible, Obtuse, and Pitiless. This is now the gullible political party that embraces crazy conspiracy theories. It’s the obtuse party that champions “leaders” who warn of “gazpacho police” who will force us to eat foods grown in “peachtree dishes.” It’s the pitiless party enthralled by a former reality show host who dances joyously at a gun-promoting convention just minutes after calling for a moment of silence for victims of gun violence.
Plenty of other pundits—and just plain folks still in possession of common sense—have already pointed out the colossal flaws in the new—post-Robb Elementary massacre—GOP talking point about single-entrance public buildings. Reasonable, rational folks know intuitively that building and retrofitting one-entrance buildings would create rather than solve safety issues. But by now, the few reasonable, rational folks who haven’t fled the sinking GOP ship have been bullied into silence. So, the not-yet-officially-endorsed-but-almost-universally-accepted GOP solution to public mass shootings is equivalent to solving our energy and pollution problems by making all the nation’s roads go downhill.
Downhill is the direction of the political party of the Gullible, Obtuse, and Pitiless. And if the nation’s reasonable, rational majority complacently allow the unreasonable, irrational GOP minority to regain control of Congress later this year, downhill will be the direction for the entire nation.