View from the Left: When our 'leaders' fail us, we are our own best defense
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America didn't see it coming. But after 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School perished last week at the hands of yet another school shooter with an assault weapon, the kids of America had had enough. At a rally last weekend in Fort Lauderdale, sView from the Left: When our 'leaders' fail us, we are our own best defense
America didn't see it coming. But after 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School perished last week at the hands of yet another school shooter with an assault weapon, the kids of America had had enough. At a rally last weekend in Fort Lauderdale, survivors of that shooting put Republicans and the NRA on notice: your days are numbered. As shooting survivor Emma Gonzalez told the crowd, Politicians who sit in their gilded House and Senate seats funded by the NRA telling us nothing could have been done to prevent this, we call BS. They say tougher guns laws do not decrease gun violence. We call BS. They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun. We call BS. These student activists are yet another reminder that, when there's a vacuum of leadership at the top, leaders often come from the most unexpected places. On guns, our nation has been dreadfully in want of leadership on both sides of the aisle for a couple decades now—though Republicans in particular have quite literally become a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association. And it is Republicans who uniquely advocate for the status quo after every mass shooting. But events last week provided a glaring demonstration that the person who now holds the highest office in the land is unequivocally, 100 percent useless when faced with mortal threats to our republic and our citizens. Following the massacre at Stoneman Douglas, Donald Trump—the low-information pr*sident—began by blaming the victims, tweeting that the shooter's «neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem.» «Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!» he admonished Thursday morning. By the time he made brief remarks from the White House hours later, he seemed to have been advised that the shooting survivors were perhaps worthy of empathy. «No child, no teacher should ever be in danger in American schools,» he offered. Then Trump went into hiding on the matter, failing to offer any meaningful solutions or even a road map to finding them initially. He reportedly even reduced his usual rounds of weekend golf because his aides must have informed him that it wouldn't look good. When the furor didn't die down by Saturday morning and it became clear that multiple people had indeed warned authorities, Trump settled on the ultimate scapegoat: the FBI's Russia investigation. «Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter,» he tweeted. «They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign - there is no collusion.» Understandably, Trump's myopia elicited well-deserved rage from the students. Here's just one among many responses to him: «17 of my classmates are gone. That's 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But you're right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain» While Trump was diddling around on twitter, Parkland student activists were doing more than tweeting—they were gathering steam at a Saturday rally that announced the emergence of a #NeverAgain movement more powerful than any of us had imagined. Trump has been playing catch up ever since, suddenly issuing a directive on bump stocks Tuesday and holding two gatherings on gun violence at the White House Wednesday and Thursday. The kids are not fooled—they want meaningful gun restrictions and they are heavily focused on voting Republicans out of office, because you can't negotiate with lawmakers who are bought and paid for by the NRA. Read more