To Congress
Republicans mean to wait out the public once again in the wake of the Buffalo mass shooting and Uvalde, Texas school massacre. To “now is not the time.” To shame anyone who asks the most human of questions: “how and why and who allowed this.” They will disparage anyone who demands they take action to deliver on the security for which taxpayers pay hundreds of billions each year including their salaries.
It took DNA tests to match bodies of 10-year-old victims with their parents. People asked if Emmett Till-style open caskets might finally flip the switch in the public mood from shock and grief flight to mad as hell and not going to take it anymore fight. Republicans are betting that shaming and waiting out the public until resignation sets in will work again. It has time and time again.
I’d be a fool to think this time things are different. But there are signs.
After a moment of silence for Uvalde victims ahead of an NBA game this week, the Miami Heat’s arena announcer added, “The Heat urges you to contact your state senators by calling 202-224-3121 (the crowd began cheering) to leave a message demanding their support for commonsense gun laws.”
There was more: “You can also make change at the ballot box. Visit heat dot com slash vote to register and let your voice be heard this fall.”
The Tampa Bay Rays and the New York Tankees followed suit.
The Rays were not done. They issues a series of tweets on gun violence.
The Associated Press has a list of statements by sports figures who used their celebrity to express shock and outrage. They can expect attacks from Republlican officials who want to nip that shit in the bud.
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) attacked the Heat in multiple tweets for “politicizing a horrific tragedy” and tried to change the subject to the NBA’s business deals in China.
Greg Sargent (Washington Post):
Note that some in the audience cheered the suggestion that lawmakers pass gun-safety measures. This might be what really got Rubio angry: A private business exercised speech that might successfully get people politically engaged in opposition to the Republican position.
[…]
What’s revealing is Rubio’s anger over the NBA’s political speech. In one sense, this is part of a broader trend: Republicans have escalated attacks on private companies and threatened legislative punishment to keep them in line on cultural issues.
Republicans have legislated against Disney for opposing Florida’s “don’t say gay” law, and they’ve threatened companies that advocate against GOP voter suppression. This ugly trend collided with the sports world when Republicans slammed kneeling athletes and threatened MLB for opposing Georgia’s voting law.
Politicizing the shootings?
Republicans themselves are quick to offer policy suggestions after mass shootings so long as they have nothing to do with staunchiung the blood or the supply of weapons. Republican candidates display weapons prominently in commercials as a cultural signifier to Real Americans™ that they are not liberal elitists. But the public, Sargent suggests, is finally catching on to the GOP game and sports figures are not as easy to wedge as un-American.
Should the spotrts world take up the issue, and should the GOP attempt to demagogue against athletes en masse, says sports podcaster Dave Zirin, “it will put Republicans in a position of having to defend the indefensible in front of an audience that might be more likely to listen to athletes than members of the Democratic Party.”
Also, the National Rifle Association has lost Lee freakin’ Greenwood, at least for this weekend.
Holding my breath on whether the tide is turning. Or if there is even a tide.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Request a copy of For The Win, 4th Edition, my free, countywide get-out-the-vote planning guide for county committees at ForTheWin.us.
If in a position to Play to win in 2022 (see post first), contact tpostsully at gmail dot com.