Last updated on April 16th, 2013 at 10:34 pm
The End Times conservatives keep warning us about might actually be here, because Republicans are engaging in hara-kiri at every turn. The latest episode of cray-cray comes from Republican Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-SC), who believes that the background check legislation with bipartisan support in the Senate will lead to a Rwanda-esque genocide.
Republican Representative Jeff Duncan wrote on his Facebook page:
The 2nd Amendment is (or should be) equal to the 1st Amendment and the 4th Amendment and all of the others. Ask yourselves why it is under attack? Ask yourselves about a National gun registry database and how that might be used and why it is so wanted by progressives.
Read about the Rwandan genocide, the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. Read that all Tutsi tribe members were required to register their address with the Hutu government and that this database was used to locate Tutsi for slaughter at the hands of the Hutu. (Since the government had the names and addresses of nearly all Tutsis living in Rwanda (remember, each Rwandan had an identity card that labeled them Tutsi, Hutu, or Twa) the killers could go door to door, slaughtering the Tutsis.Not with firearms, mind you, but with machetes.
I use this example to warn that national databases can be used with evil consequences.
That’s not the end of the crazy, but it’s far enough.
Fact: There is no central database. Vice President Biden explained:
“So this idea that there is a national registry, there is no place in the federal government where you can go, not a single place, and find out everybody who owns a gun.”
Also, the government is not going to come after gun owners, just like Bachmann’s FEMA camps never materialized.
If the Rwanda genocide of the Tutsis (an ethnic minority) serves as any kind of reminder of the evils that can befall humanity, it is a reminder to be careful of our prejudice, of fear-mongering, of demagoguing, and to be cognizant of the dangers lurking in rhetorical targeting/dehumanizing of minorities. The Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies wrote, “The Rwandan media, encouraged by the Akazu , played a major role in inciting genocide by convincing many Hutu that they themselves would soon become the victims of a genocide mounted by the Tutsi.”
What’s that again, Congressman? They’re coming for us? We should arm ourselves because they’re out to get us?
Where have we heard a group of people compared to animals? Whose rights are being restricted in this country right now? Who is being called ugly, offensive names? Who is being dehumanized consistently on TV and on daily radio shows?
It’s not responsible gun owners. No one is calling responsible gun owners pedophiles, or trying to take their voting rights away, or coming for control over their own bodies or trying to keep them from having the right to visit their loved one in the hospital.
No, in fact, among others in his party, it’s Tea Partier Jeff Duncan who compared immigrants to “vagrants” and “animals” during a Q&A event with Furman University students:
“It’s kind of like having a house — and you’re not homeowners, a lot of folks in this room, but your moms and dads are — taking the door off the hinges and allowing any kind of vagrant, or animal, or just somebody that’s hungry, or somebody that wants to do your dishes for you, to come in. And you can’t say, ‘No you can’t come in.’ And you can’t say, ‘No you can’t stay all night.’ Or ‘No you can’t have this benefit, using my deodorant.'”
Speaking of national databases… Can I see your papers, please?
To be fair to the Congressman, his South Carolina district is so steeped in conservative paranoia that he has an entire section of his website devoted to debunking crazy email forwards, like “Will Handgun Owners Be Required to List Their Guns on the Next Federal Tax Return?” and “Did the Social Security Administration Purchase Large Amounts of Ammunition?” Oh, South Carolina.
The Congressman has obviously been getting a bit of heat about Republicans opposition to either or both ObamaCare and the state expansion of Medicaid, because he has a section devoted to whether or not congress members get free healthcare. He justifies his healthcare bennies as part of a “several private insurance companies competing to be federal employees’ insurance provider. Members of Congress pay part of the premium each month, which varies based on which plan is chosen.” You can thank him for explaining so well how the basis of ObamaCare (which he opposes) works so well for him and is so fair and market-oriented.
What we have here are the burgeoning signs of a party-wide infestation of mental disturbance. Psychology Today made the argument, “Signs of psychopathology can also be seen among their political bedfellows, conservative Republicans, especially when you consider a wide range of illness indicators. In his award-winning 2005 book Dr. James Whitney Hicks discusses 50 signs of mental illness including denial, delusion, hallucination, disordered thinking, anger, anti-social behavior, sexual preoccupation, grandiosity, general oddness, and paranoia. ”
Paranoia looms large in the GOP. And while it might be amusing in its insanity, dangers abound. The constant refrain of death and accusation that the “other side” is Hilter, is going to kill you, is coming for you, you need to be armed or else they’re gonna get you, is not healthy, it’s not productive, and it’s also simply not true. If Republicans really believe this stuff, they need to seek help immediately.
h/t Think Progress
Image: Psychology Today
Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
Connect with Sarah on Post, Mastodon @PoliticusSarah@Journa.Host, & Twitter.
- Philly DA Warns Anyone Planning to Play Militia ‘F Around and Find Out’ - Mon, Nov 4th, 2024
- Opinion: Republicans Kill Another Woman with Abortion Ban as Pregnant Teenager Dies - Fri, Nov 1st, 2024
- Musk Flouts the Law with No Repercussions in Pennsylvania - Thu, Oct 31st, 2024
