If you thought the NRA was made up mostly of old white men clinging to their guns, religion, racism, privilege, and piles of Reader’s Digests from 1972, South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem is here to disabuse you of that notion. It’s not just a bunch of old white dudes. Look, she’s a member, too! And she is neither old nor a dude!
Noem appeared at the NRA’s annual convention on Friday to fetishize guns and reassure her audience that it’s okay for them to do likewise. And then this happened.
NOEM: “Now, I probably don’t look like a traditional NRA member. The media would have us believe that the NRA is only made up of old white guys. And all you old white guys can be proud and raise your hands. [Applause] But there’s a lot of other people, a lot of diversity within the NRA. Well, let me tell you something. I may be a mom and a grandma, but I am the NRA.”
Cut to 4:30 p.m. at a Green Bay Denny’s.
And just in case you don’t do Twitter, here’s the gist: C-SPAN cut to the audience just as Noem made her point about “diversity” and revealed an entirely white audience, the vast majority of whom were male and still have Pat Buchanan for President bumper stickers on their Oldsmobiles.
Then Noem, a member of a party that’s super concerned about the “grooming” of impressionable young children (i.e., letting them know that gay people exist), said this about her grandkids:
NOEM: “Little Miss Addie, who is almost 2, and Branch, who’s just a few months old, they have brought us so much joy. They’ve brought us purpose. Now Addie, who, you know, soon will need them, I wanna reassure you, she already has a shotgun and she already has a rifle. And she’s got a little pony named Sparkles too, so the girl is set up.”
My working theory is that was supposed to be a joke, but I’m still waiting for the results from my Mike Huckabee-led focus group of “Gutfeld!” viewers.
The truth is, whether the subject is gun control, reproductive freedom, police reform, economic justice, or any other number of real issues (i.e., anything other than Mr. Potato Head’s starchy gonads), Republicans are hopelessly out of step with the American public. And when they make “jokes” like this, it becomes clear that they’re actually stepping in directions that will lead far too many Americans off a cliff.
But hey, at least Kristi Noem’s grandkids will have shotguns. Some traditions are just too precious to abandon.
RELATED STORY: Republican candidates to address NRA convention after shootings
Check out Aldous J. Pennyfarthing’s four-volume Trump-trashing compendium, including the finale, Goodbye, Asshat: 101 Farewell Letters to Donald Trump, at this link. Or, if you prefer a test drive, you can download the epilogue to Goodbye, Asshat for the low, low price of FREE.