Open Thread Feb. 24: The ‘Guns for Teachers’ Distraction

Be prepared: The Guns for Teachers proposal is polling close enough to 50-50 to make it the top choice for Republicans who don’t want to talk about banning military-style assault rifles. As political communications professor Dave Karpf of Rutgers says, “It’s a ridiculous proposal. It’s an unserious proposal. It’s an offensive proposal. And the thing is, that’s the whole point.”

“The strategic logic of the gun lobby’s response to these massacres is generally to deflect, delay, and wait for public attention to turn elsewhere. (hence “thoughts and prayers/now is not the time.”) … If an advantaged interest group can wait out the storm of public attention, then it will regain its advantage. So that brings us back to “arm the teachers.” THE WHOLE POINT of this garbage proposal is to deflect and delay. Rather than being forced to defend the gun show loophole and their opposition to the assault weapons ban, they need us to talk about something else. If they can make the conversation about arming teachers last a week or two, then they can duck the conversation about their indefensible positions. And then some other tragedy will probably happen.”

Unfortunately, the fact that 40+ percent of the public is thinking about it means the media won’t ignore it.

Better news on the Mueller probe: The new charges against Rick Gates have apparently unfrozen his tongue after all. Perhaps more interesting, it appears the meeting about the Ukraine that Gates lied about included Putin’s favorite congressman, Dana Rohrabacher, the one Kevin McCarthy said was on the Kremlin payroll before Paul Ryan invoked omerta.

You’ve heard that it’s turtles all the way down. In the Republican Party, it’s turds all the way down. That special congressional election in western Pennsylvania next month came about because Rep. Tim Murphy, an anti-abortion crusader, was caught pressuring his mistress into an abortion (hey, it worked out just fine for Scott DeJarlais of Tennessee, where even the possums are smarter than the voters). Murphy resigned, but we haven’t heard the last from his mistress. She’s a Republican, too, and she’s running for office, regardless of the fact that she threatened to kill her husband, proving that not all victims are sympathetic ones. I’m telling you, turds all the way down.