I'm all kinds of prepared to hear The Stupid out of the mouths of tea partiers. The Stupid, in fact, is right up there with The Hate and The Socialism.
But Dana Loesch - one of the more lucid spokespeople for the Tea Party - laid a whopper of The Stupid on America on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 last night.
More.
Just to set the scene - the cable news types have really (thankfully) picked up on Sheriff Dupnik's comments (video) about the violent rhetoric coming from talk radio and some TV news outlets. They're (regrettably) using it as a launching pad for their typical false equivalence kinds of statements, but I digress. Last night, Anderson Cooper had Dana Loesch, organizer for the Nationa Tea Party Coalition, and David Gergen on one such segment which, of course, started with a video of Dupnik's now famous words.
The transcript picks up from there:
COOPER: We're going to have Bill Maher on in a moment for a couple of blocks. And he frankly does point the finger at the rhetoric and at the vitriol and at Republicans in particular.
Dana -- and we're going to have Dana and David on afterward to get to respond to what he said. But it does seem like some on the right now may be trying to score political points by accusing people on the left of trying to score political points.
I mean this whole thing, it's interesting in the last couple of days how quickly it became politicized.
LOESCH: Oh, it's very -- it's kind of shocking to sort of see it. And it's interesting to think that simply a conservative defending themselves against the charge of being called a murderer, as I've seen done with Sarah Palin, I've seen done with more people than I can count, including myself.
I myself have received threats in e-mail and been called a murderer from people who are trying to condemn this vitriolic rhetoric while also engaging in it at the same time. It makes no sense to me.
But the bottom line is that all of this is completely obscuring two massive points. Those two points are the fact that five people are dead including a child. And the second point is that this is in a long line of -- this is a trend. We see these lone wolf sort of antagonists over and over again. And nothing preemptive is done.
Ok let me stop for a moment - first, Dana, it's six people dead including a child, but who's counting, right? Second, you say that two massive points are being obscured, the first being that five (sic) people are dead. I don't think that fact is being obscured. But I guess I"m being overly picky here. Chalk it up to tea party obfuscation - I just can't let it stand or else it will rear its head again in six months or a year and become someone else's mantra if uncorrected.
Continuing:
LOESCH: We find out after the fact that all these warning signs are there. Confessions all over the Internet, people from like -- with Jared Lee Loughner, the community college, his parents, friends were saying that he's been this -- been this way for incredibly long time. Nothing was done.
And so I think we need to just kind of start focusing on what can be done preemptively to identify this kind of stuff. He's been stalking her for three years and he's made a death threat before. Why was this allowed to happen?
Ok - so, errors notwithstanding, Loesch's central argument seems to be that we should be looking at why this was allowed to happen when a person was clearly observed on multiple occasions over time to be "troubling". Apparently the idea that violent rhetoric and hate speech is also another instance of opportunity - the same as being able to purchase a gun, the same as being able to purchase extended magazines - escapes her. C'est la vie, right?
Let's move on. Gergen, addressing Loesch, gets right to the point of gun control:
GERGEN: It doesn't [change]. And I just wanted to ask, and you say something needs to be done. How is it possible that someone who is this unhinged, when so many people understood that he was in mental deterioration, that he could still walk into a gun store and buy, you know, .9 mm semiautomatic Glock handgun? And also then carry it concealed?
I mean that's -- if there's some cultural insanity here, it is the fact that we haven't put a stop to the capacity of these deranged young people to buy guns and then spray at people. It's just unbelievable.
LOESCH: It's not the -- I have to --
COOPER: Dana?
LOESCH: I have to disagree with you, Mr. Gergen, on that. It's not the gun law. It's the fact that he was refused from the military. He made a death threat before. And he had problems and was removed from community college. None of this was reported.
Uh... Yes it was. That's how authorities found out about it in the first place.
GERGEN: Do you think --
LOESCH: That has nothing to do with the gun laws on the book.
GERGEN: Do you think it's appropriate that he was able to buy a gun?
LOESCH: I think it's inappropriate the fact that you had his parents that knew about his behavior, the community college and the military --
GERGEN: Well, just answer the question. (CROSSTALK)
LOESCH: Well, do you think that those people are able to orchestrate the -- do you think those people should be able to decide who can and cannot get guns? These -- why wasn't this reported? If these had been reported, he wouldn't have been able to get one in the first place.
So the argument that there's some -- a problem with the law is irrelevant. The fact that if his behavior had been reported, he would not have been able to purchase a firearm. End of story.
Is that not one of the stupidest, most incoherent shit answers you've ever heard? It's not the LAW?? If only his PARENTS had reported him, he would have been prevented from buying a gun?? If only the military had reported him, he could have been prevented from buying a gun?? If only the community college had notified some gun-related authorities, he would have been prevented from buying a gun?? The LAW isn't supposed to support this type of action? Jesus H. Christ on a Cracker. And not for nothing - report what to whom and under what legal circumstances? Does this include doctors and the like?
Later, after Bill Maher's segment with Cooper (which is worth reviewing all on its own, particularly for this: "How about this for a gun check, Google. Just Google the guy. In ten minutes, you could read his rants and get a pretty good idea where this man was heading."), The Stupid got even deeper:
LOESCH: I think that there needs to be something different in terms of reporting people like this instance with Jared Lee Loughner. If he had been reported, if they had had a court order, he would not have been able to go in there. You don't change the laws. You be more alert and aware.
COOPER: David Gergen, for you, what did you think?
GERGEN: Well, Anderson, I'm not here to carry water for conservatives or Republicans. But that was so one sided, a few points have to be made on the other side. I'm very much for toughening the gun laws. And in fact, the Arizona law was loosened with regard to concealment. And Governor Brewer signed that into law.
You don't change the laws. Tell that to the families of the six people that died. Even if I disagree, I can appreciate an intelligent argument on gun laws. This was idiotic. It's easy to see why the Tea Party is filled with ignorant racists who fear that they are losing "their" country.