Everyone should take a few minutes and watch the video of President Obama's news conference yesterday announcing the executive orders he's issuing in the wake of daily mass gun violence in this nation. The video link is at the end of this diary. Obama's signature line: "The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they cannot hold America hostage." Slam. Dunk.
Arguably, Obama’s remarks represent one of his finest hours as our nation's commander in chief: Plain-spoken, focused, logical, determined, tearful yet in control, and very clear on the need to do something. All of which makes anti-legislative Republicans in the nation's national legislature look smaller and more ridiculous. Their collective reaction: sue Obama for "executive overreach," whatever they think that is.
Will passive-aggressive Republicans vote on common-sense gun control measures that, GOP rhetoric aside, surely would prevent some shooting deaths? Not before next fall’s election, if ever. Sen. Ted Cruz notwithstanding, the biggest wanker in that whole crowd right now might well be House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin). In attempting to thread the needle on this issue, Ryan has managed to piss off almost everyone on both sides of the issue.
On the one hand, Ryan professes to believe that some common-sense gun regulations are in order, and that he would vote for them --although, incongruously, he has received a straight-A rating from the anti-regulation, anything-goes National Rifle Association. Ironically, that weak-tea Ryan statement has infuriated Trumpists who see Ryan as some kind of fellow traveler in Muslim terrorist Obama's secret employ (check out some of the yak at www.cafepharma.com/... if you don't believe that).
Ryan also says Obama's move in the wake of GOP intransigence is not only in some indistinct manner lawless, but that it wouldn't really do any good. Ryan's very clear on that latter point: Why bother trying to control gun violence if any law or regulation you can possibly conceive would not be 100 percent effective? So, apparently, do nothing, instead. Oh, sure, true, he’d do something if he only had the votes from his own party. He says.
Here's how Mediaite.com reported Ryan's views, before he knew anything definitive about Obama's executive orders:
“We all are pained by the recent atrocities in our country, but no change the president is reportedly considering would have prevented them,” Ryan said. “We have seen consistently that an underlying cause of these attacks has been mental illness, and we should look at ways to address this problem.”
Thus, to sum up: In order to believe the GOP/Ryan wonderland logic, you first have to believe that Obama’s relatively careful, somewhat tougher gun control orders represent two contrary effects: First, they are a massive intrusion into citizen rights, and two, they’ll do nothing to save any lives. Hmmm.
Or, maybe, you’ll buy Ryan’s view that this is really just about political prerogatives; about who in public power has the right to deal with this problem. [Smug historical note: Republican President Dwight Eisenhower in 1957 issued an executive order desegregating the entire Little Rock (AK) school district.] www.ourdocuments.gov/...]
Just to cover all the bases, Ryan also thinks gun violence is often about mental illness. Never mind that this idea is overly simplistic, ignoring domestic terrorism from the likes of people who would not likely be found not guilty in court by reason of insanity. Moreover, it’s a meme wholly unfair and in fact threatening to the mentally ill, who as a class are less likely to be involved in shooting incidents. See kuow.org/...
Still, to the extent some shooters may be mentally deranged, GOP lawmakers have refused to fully fund effective programs to treat and serve the mentally ill. Not to mention their votes that make it harder for health researchers to gather data on the causes of gun violence and formulate better strategies, and their unwillingness to change the law so that terrorism suspects can't easily buy guns.
For his own part, Ryan added that a better solution than Obama's 23 executive orders would be the federal government's enforcement of existing (albeit weakened) gun-control laws. Of course, a casual review of Obama’s orders shows that’s pretty much what the president in fact is doing. Ryan also neglects to mention that the GOP-led Congress refuses to fully fund enforcement of the remaining patchwork of national gun laws we still have. After all, does the president deserve Republican vituperation for seeking congressional help to appoint a director for ATF, the federal agency that oversees gun trafficking?
Obama moved after lack of action by the GOP-led U.S. Congress. Ryan is at the top of the House with Sen. Mitch McConnell in charge of the Senate. Beyond screaming at Obama for his bully-pulpitting and executive orders, will GOP lawmakers in this session consider more effective laws that actually would deter shootings? It’s pretty safe to say that prospect is gun, baby, gun.
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