Right Wing Watch documents the malignant nonsense of right wing extremists -- for example, the American Family Association’s Sandy Rios attacking the President for not being sufficiently loving of our country. But when she bases this foolishness on a perceived lack of offense at Americans being killed, this raises an unusual objection based on some grim mathematics.
After all, if Obama's patriotism and love of country can be called into doubt by a few casualties in Afghanistan, what about the thousands that have died in this country from gun violence, just since Newtown? A casualty count that has outstripped the total lost in the Afghanistan conflict? And what of the conservatives now running from a vote, and from a debate on the subject -- even refusing invitations to talk about it on television?
So, let's begin with Sandy Rios, a name I am somewhat familiar with from Right Wing Watch, but I don't know much about her story...
Sandy Rios (born 1949)[citation needed] is the president of Culture Campaign[citation needed], a Fox News Channel contributor[1] and a talk radio host.
Rios has been the president of Culture Campaign since 2004 and was president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative religious organization, from 2001 to 2004.[citation needed]
Her radio show, Sandy Rios in the Morning, is on American Family Radio (AFR) and clips from her show frequently appear on Right Wing Watch.
This one, for example:
Sandy Rios, you do not know whereof you speak
Rios: People that didn’t grow up here don’t have the same kind of love for the country. I’m sorry, I think that includes our President, I don’t think he loves the country like people who were born and did grow up here. Now I’m not saying he wasn’t born here, I’m not even going to get into that, I think that’s certainly a question we can ask. But we do know that he spent a lot of his earlier years in Indonesia, in Hawaii, you know, it’s not the mainland, it’s very different.
I have always said from the time he was running that he doesn’t love this country enough to be its president. I stand by that, I said it a very long time ago, I stand by that statement. He’s not that offended when Americans are killed. He doesn’t have the same sense of protection and anger over it.
Although 'going birther' was more the focus at RWW I found the notion of offense at Americans being killed interesting. After all, birtherism is a bit of a litmus test on the right, in spite of its intellectual bankruptcy, or perhaps because of it. Consider what it means in this country to be offended at the deaths of Americans. To feel a sense of anger about it, to want to protect Americans from being killed. Does this typify conservatives at all? And yet, Sandy Rios will go there in this foolish birther rant. Because it's
so different in Hawaii. Nice place to vacation, but not to live, is it? Really?
Anyway. As the context according to Right Wing Watch is in our foreign misadventures like Afghanistan, the total number of American casualties from the war there appears to be about 2109, including about 32 so far this year -- a significant drop from previous years, as they peaked in 2010. It's early yet, though, and the summer tends to be more...active. All right, so more than 2000 Americans killed from the war effort there. More than twice that in Iraq, but still.
And yet, a quick check at the running tally of @GunDeaths at Slate is up to 3,333. Their crowdsourced, likely incomplete total of Americans killed from gun violence just since last December is already well over 3000. Where is the offense here? Where is the anger, the desire to protect Americans from this violence and death?
Well, it's not found among many conservatives, that much is clear. ThinkProgress reports on that today.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-GA) joined the growing chorus of lawmakers calling for conservative to allow a vote on gun safety legislation, telling CBS’ This Morning on Tuesday, “we have not seen the final draft of the legislation that was produced…I think it deserves an vote up or down.”
But 14 Republicans — including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (KY) — have pledged to filibuster any comprehensive gun safety legislation, though all refused to appear on CBS to discuss their opposition, Norah O’Donnell reported. Gun advocates are running online campaigns calling on lawmakers to prevent the package from ever being considered, though a vote on the motion to proceed to the legislation could occur on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The first citation from the
National Association for Gun Rights comes back to a right wing fringe organization; Dudley Brown, their executive vice president, is on record for his recent
"time to hunt Democrats" statement. And the other is of course the NRA, doing the same thing as the NAGR, right in line with the other fringe gun advocacy organizations.
And it's not as if CBS News is a paragon of the "liberal media" except perhaps in the minds of right wingers, but there's CBS News reporting that all the protective, angry, offended conservatives are bravely running away from CBS' invitation to talk about their opposition to stronger gun laws. Meanwhile, it's President Obama, supposedly the unpatriotic, uncaring one, who is smacking conservatives around.
“They’re not just saying they’ll vote no on ideas that almost all Americans support,” Obama said Monday of the filibuster threat during a speech in Connecticut. “They’re saying they’ll do everything they can to even prevent any votes on these provisions. They’re saying your opinion doesn’t matter, and that’s not right.” Some pundits are making a similar case, arguing that the party is undermining its rebranding effort and siding with “rapists” and criminals in the gun debate.
Pundits like me included I suppose, heh. But Sandy Rios, right-wing radio talker, makes the case for me. If the standard for patriotism and love of country shows in how one cares for the deaths of Americans, and shows in how we get angry about the violence and want to protect Americans from it, her own spiteful rhetoric indicts the right wing itself. For their lack of empathy for people over guns. For their opposition to passing laws to protect people from gun violence. They are running scared now, even from a debate, much less a vote. They will no doubt try to portray their coming filibuster as courageous, but we already know from
Gabrielle Giffords what courage in this debate looks like.
"OK," she began, steeling herself before a packed yet hushed committee room.
"Speaking is difficult," she continued, pronouncing each syllable with deliberation.
This former congresswoman, once blessed with a politician's easy gift of gab, spoke in a high pitch, her voice almost childlike.
"I need to say something important. Violence is a big problem. Too many children are dying. Too many children. We must do something.
"It will be hard, but the time is now. You must act. Be bold, be courageous, Americans are counting on you."