If one fixation seemingly defined the Republican cult, it was Second Amendment gun rights. Yet dishonesty and hypocrisy are the party’s overriding features. Thus even guns are now thrown under the bus.
Triggered by the Pretti murder in Minneapolis. Desperately seeking to somehow excuse this atrocity, they’re saying Pretti had it coming because . . . guess what . . . he carried a gun. Despite their decades deeming that an inviolable sacred right. Well, maybe only for themselves, not anyone else. Even with a lawful permit, as Pretti had. Yet Trump himself says it was wrong for him to carry heat.
That gun was holstered. Not “brandished” or threatening, as the regime lies, bullshitting that Pretti came to the protest as an “assassin” to “massacre” law enforcement. In fact he was helping a woman ICE thugs had knocked to the ground when they attacked him, grabbing his gun. Only after he was disarmed did they pump bullets into him. WTF?
Yet still these shameless creeps somehow blame his gun for the killing. Despite all their longtime veneration of gun rights. Proving once more that Republicans have principles only while convenient. Their supposed principles are a sham. As a book title says, It Was All A Lie, written by repentant longtime GOP operative Stuart Stevens in 2020.
By the way, Pretti’s being armed, though lawful, was stupid. More proof that guns “for protection” is a misguided idea. Such guns actually protecting anyone almost never happens. Instead, overwhelmingly, they harm their owners, families, or friends. A gunless Pretti would likely still live.
Back to GOP dishonesty, another fundamental touchstone is their gearing up, in the false guise of serving ballot security and public confidence in voting, to mess with elections and achieve the exact opposite. Impeding opposing people from casting votes. And to just steal elections. As Trump lyingly tried to do in 2020, a body blow to our democracy. Now 2026 and 2028 are in their sights.
The “Law and Order” slogan is more of their bullshit. And supposed backing of police. Those lies were exposed by January 6; a violent attack upon law and order and upon police — with all those criminals pardoned by Trump. Now his regime claims protesters are interfering with ICE’s enforcing the law.
No: ICE is violating the law, in the most fundamental way. Invading homes, breaking down doors, without a judicial warrant, thumbs their nose at the Fourth Amendment. Indiscriminately detaining anyone they feel like. Not to mention shooting people with no justification. They’ve grabbed a five-year-old, Liam Ramos, putting him alone in a distant squalid detention center. With another outright lie, that his father abandoned him.
One top judge has documented how ICE violated 96 judicial orders — in January alone — more than some government agencies have done in their entire history.
They call protesters “domestic terrorists.” No: the domestic terrorists are ICE thugs. Studying history, I’ve sadly seen that repressive regimes always find legions of antisocial young men to do their dirty work, men who enjoy brutalizing people. This is ICE, with its indiscriminate recruitment of exactly such misfits. A recent column by George Will (one conservative refusing to drink the Trump Kool-aid) highlighted the word “lout,” coining a new term for what America now suffers: a loutocracy.
* A vulgar heading. But a recent email from our governor had the same subject line, naming an opponent. Our civic culture is in the toilet — mainly thanks to Trump. Doubly justifying my own heading.
