Rod Thomson

It happens. Every…single…time. Another mass shooting, another mass effort by Democrats to squeeze out some political gain.

In these circumstances, this is beyond the pale of normal ugly politics. It’s vicious, cold-hearted, self-centered, void of common decency, almost a sickness in part because of the rapidity of the response.

Literally within hours of a psychopath in Las Vegas slaughtering 59 people and injuring more than 600 others at a country western concert, leading Democrats in Congress, the media and entertainment everywhere were falling all over themselves to get their holier-than-thou positioning out to the masses — well, their masses anyway. They had one overarching goal: Turn an act of human evil to their political advantage.

It is as Democrat Rahm Emanuel, former Obama advisor and current Chicago mayor, infamously said: “You never let a serious crisis go to waste. And what I mean by that it’s an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Democrats’ endless efforts to limit gun ownership and interpret the Second Amendment as essentially rifle hunting, continually fail because they cannot get such laws through Congress. There are never the votes and the American people largely get the Second Amendment. Further, the policy prescriptions after each mass shooting are never related to the shooting or would have prevented it — from Sandy Hook to Orlando to Las Vegas.

There are no reflections on the condition of human nature, on the reality of evil, on the price of freedom. No, these killings are all simply opportunity crises not to be wasted.

Going through just a sampling of the responses, it is clear that this is not some responsible “gun control” measures, but pure political opportunism, because none of them propose anything that either can pass or is not already illegal.

Democrats could have joined with Republicans to donate blood and call for blood donors, as the mayor of Las Vegas immediately said blood was desperately needed right after the massacre. This humane response in the following hours would have been a uniting action and maybe opened the door for legislative actions. But it would not have been politically advantageous.

So we got this.

Democratic Sen. Bernie Sanders tweeted: “It is long past time for Congress to take action on gun safety to save innocent lives.” Vacuous in content and relevance to the shooting; meant to score political points.

Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted a series of tweets: “Thoughts & prayers are NOT enough. Not when more moms & dads will bury kids this week, & more sons & daughters will grow up without parents. Tragedies like Las Vegas have happened too many times. We need to have the conversation about how to stop gun violence. We need it NOW.” But she doesn’t mean a true conversation, she means take guns away from Americans.

Democratic Sen. Ed Markey tweeted: “Let’s close the close the gun show loophole.” Yes, he was so anxious to get this out the morning after the night shooting, he fired off typos. But of course, when he tweeted this, he had no idea (and we still don’t as of the writing of this) where the killer got his weapons. The “gun show loophole” isn’t any more real than me selling a gun to a friend “loophole” because all of the dealers in the gunshow must follow all of the normal laws. And there is no evidence that any mass shooting has been accomplished through this supposed loophole. Just gross opportunism.

Former Democratic Vice President Joe Biden tweeted: “How long do we let gun violence tear families apart? Enough. Congress & the WH should act now to save lives. There’s no excuse for inaction.” Just as vacuous as Sanders. No thought for cause, motive, the reality of evil. It’s all about the gun.

Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin tweeted: “The notion that there’s no way to prevent gun violence is false — and without action to stop gun attacks, Congress is complicit in them.” This is the height of politicizing absurdity considering the level of violence in Chicago and the fact that it has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation. No shame.

Democratic Congressman Seth Moulton is a special kind of ugly on this issue. After tweeting he would not participate in a moment of silence in Congress over the slaughtered Americans, he tweeted: “Thinking of everyone in #LasVegas, and praying Congress will have the courage to do more than stand in silence to commemorate them.” Using the word “prayer” to make a tasteless political statement while blood is still on the ground in Vegas is grotesque.

Moulton went on to say assault rifles “have no place on American streets.” Right. And they are already illegal. Machine guns, fully automatic weapons are illegal unless you have one grandfathered in from before 1986. Moulton knows this. Just egregious.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said in a statement: “…Congress refuses to act. I am more than frustrated, I am furious.” Again, empty political posturing.

The biggest bogeyman in the Democratic failure to restrict gun rights for law-abiding Americans is the National Rifle Association.

So Hillary Clinton tweeted just a few hours after the shooting: “Our grief isn’t enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again,” Clinton wrote. Later in the day, it had 172,000 likes.

It’s important to remember in all of this rush for more gun control, the killer was apparently using a weapon that is already illegal. So…what exactly are they saying?

It’s not just Democrat politicians. It’s celebrities, who are overwhelmingly Democrat and far more unhinged.

Late Night comedian Jimmy Kimmel, who has become hyper-partisan on health care and now gun control (guaranteeing his ratings will drop) smeared vast swaths of America telling his audience that Congressional Republicans “should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country because it’s so crazy.” Sure, that will result in positive change. But Jimmy feels good about himself.

Singer and noted political commentator Lady Gaga tweeted: “Prayers are important but @SpeakerRyan @realDonaldTrump blood is on the hands of those who have power to legislate. #GunControl act quickly.” Sigh.

Alyssa Milano, who gets an awful lot wrong, tweeted: “Sensible gun control NOW.” Because it would have stopped this, or Orlando or Sandy Hook?

Singer Sheryl Crow, a light thinker among light thinkers, tweeted: “Can we discuss the loss of rights of people going to a concert because of the lack of assault rifle regulations?” Again…assault rifles have been banned since 1986.

Actress Sophia Bush tweeted: “Dear Donald.

Fuck you for this.

Truly.

Sincerely,

America”

Reaching for the Clinton bogeyman, House of Cards creator Beau Willimon‏ tweeted: “Don’t bring politics into the Las Vegas shooting? Okay, we’ll stop with the politics as soon as politicians stop taking money from the @NRA”

It’s not newsworthy but requires pointing out that, of course, the mainstream media immediately went all in on gun control with their Democrat allies. Before motive, cause, gun type, legality of ownership — before any facts were established — the media hammered every Republican and White House spokesperson possible on gun control.

And of course, throughout all of these, the vitriolic Trump hatred is right at the surface. CNN’s senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny inexplicably said in his post-Trump speech “analysis:” “Something else, I think, to keep in mind — a lot of these country music supporters are likely Trump supporters.” Wow. Just wow.

The problem with this is threefold:

1) Going partisan political within hours of the massacre to play on raw emotion is repulsive behavior.

2) Seeking policy changes before any information is known on which to base policy changes inevitably results in bad policy.

3) These actions immediately polarized Americans again when there could have been a moment of unity. When there might be opportunity to reach out and make whatever changes Democrats think are good, they instead went into high dudgeon attack mode, guaranteed to turn off anyone who might have considered working with them.

And this means among the politicians anyway it was all aimed at political gain. Period.

Rod Thomson is an author, TV talking head and former journalist, and is Founder of The Revolutionary Act.