I tried to watch the CNN town hall last night. I made it right up to the point where a bereaved father asked Rubio if guns were "the factor" in the Parkland shooting. Rubio made it about 10 seconds before saying "of course!"
This time is different. After Sandy Hook and Las Vegas, I think that gun owners relaxed a bit and assumed that sufficient political will to successfully attack our rights would never be summoned. I know that I was a little surprised when nothing happened after Vegas, especially given all of the video footage.
Unfortunately, Parkland presents us with a perfect storm. The survivors are old enough that no one has any compunction about putting them in front of a camera; it's fairly obvious that some of them are used to being in front of a camera, which is probably more a product of Youtube than anything else. The survivors are a part of the snowflake generation where the child, and not the parent, says "because I said so" effectively; they have been raised to FEEL that their opinion matters because they are special, not because they have knowledge and experience to reinforce that opinion. The survivors and the bereaved lived through an absolutely horrifying experience, and there is no way to effectively engage in dialogue with so little time having passed.
Rubio made a mistake by trying to mollify a crowd which is still operating 100% on emotion, at an event which CNN produced for ratings and to further the agenda of their tribe. I never thought I'd say this but so far Trump has been the template for how to handle this situation, at least based on how he behaved yesterday at the White House.
The bottom line is that this time is different. Things will change for the worse, I just hope it's not for the worst. Some folks here will shrug and say I'm overreacting, and I hope that I am. But I can hear gravel sliding down the slope.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/marco-rubio-gun-debate-cnn-town-hall/index.html
This time is different. After Sandy Hook and Las Vegas, I think that gun owners relaxed a bit and assumed that sufficient political will to successfully attack our rights would never be summoned. I know that I was a little surprised when nothing happened after Vegas, especially given all of the video footage.
Unfortunately, Parkland presents us with a perfect storm. The survivors are old enough that no one has any compunction about putting them in front of a camera; it's fairly obvious that some of them are used to being in front of a camera, which is probably more a product of Youtube than anything else. The survivors are a part of the snowflake generation where the child, and not the parent, says "because I said so" effectively; they have been raised to FEEL that their opinion matters because they are special, not because they have knowledge and experience to reinforce that opinion. The survivors and the bereaved lived through an absolutely horrifying experience, and there is no way to effectively engage in dialogue with so little time having passed.
Rubio made a mistake by trying to mollify a crowd which is still operating 100% on emotion, at an event which CNN produced for ratings and to further the agenda of their tribe. I never thought I'd say this but so far Trump has been the template for how to handle this situation, at least based on how he behaved yesterday at the White House.
The bottom line is that this time is different. Things will change for the worse, I just hope it's not for the worst. Some folks here will shrug and say I'm overreacting, and I hope that I am. But I can hear gravel sliding down the slope.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/22/politics/marco-rubio-gun-debate-cnn-town-hall/index.html
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