By now, everyone's heard and/or read Jeb's off the cuff comment about the Oregon Community College mass shooting -- the murder of college students and a professor. We who care about actual people actually losing their lives in such a manner are shocked by the apparently dismissive "Look, stuff happens..." comment. In my opinion, we need to get over our shock about the callous statement and instead concentrate on the full text of his comments -- which are, with respect to actual governance, worse.
Before dropping below the orange squiggle for discussion, I'll note that I saw the entire clip yesterday, but couldn't find it today. Instead, everything I found ended at the "stuff happens" comment. I was fortunate to find the text in an article at Gawker about Jeb signing a pool fencing law in Florida. In my opinion, Jeb's full statement shows us why we simply cannot elect Republicans if we want to get anything done.
Here's what Jeb said in explanation of his "stuff happens" line:
“Look, stuff happens. There’s always a crisis and the impulse is always to do something, and it’s not necessarily the right thing to do.”
“A child drowned in a pool and the impulse is to pass a law that puts fencing around pools,” he said, “Well it may not change it. Or you have a car accident and the impulse is to pass a law that deals with that unique event. And the cumulative effect of this is, in some cases, you don’t solve the problem by passing the law, and you’re imposing on large numbers of people burdens that make it harder for our economy to grow, make it harder to protect liberty.”
OK, so Jeb and his minions, predictably, are spinning this to try to convince us that what he really meant was, "Look, let's not over-react to this tragedy." And, frankly, if he'd said that, I'd agree with him. But, of course, he didn't say that and, importantly, none of the other GOP candidates are saying that. Neither Bush nor any other GOP elected official or candidate has said, nor will say, "Look, we must do something to try to reduce these incidents, but let's be mindful not to go too far."
No, the critical take away from the unanimous GOP reaction to the Oregon mass murder is that their knee jerk reaction is to not do anything. It is incumbent upon us to rub their noses in this. We must change the discussion from "stuff happens" to "nothing happens." That's the real story here. Ten dead Americans -- not in Benghazi, but right here in Oregon -- and the biggest concern for the GOP is that nothing should be done about it.
Do mandatory fences around swimming pools mean that no child will drown? No. It means that fewer children will drown.
Do mandatory seat belt laws mean that nobody will die in a car accident? No. It means fewer people die in car accidents.
Do some regulations go too far? Sure, some do. Does that mean we should simply eliminate all regulation? Every elected official in the GOP would almost surely answer that question with something like, "Well, that would be a good start." They are the idiot puppets for their oligarchy puppet masters.
The oligarchy has everything they need. Of course they want the government to do nothing (other than reducing taxes.)
Please, let's try to take more control of the conversation by talking about the "do nothing" Republican Party. More than 90% of Americans are in favor of strong background checks. That's something we can do.