Shocking, but, I think, necessary to say:

"Republicans are the party of child murder

Make them explicitly defend it.

Jordan Zakarin

Sep 05, 2024

Welcome to a Wednesday edition of Progress Report.

[I'm generally not inclined to share anything this blunt, especially since there have been calls for less divisiveness, but what else can I say about a party that prioritizes gun rights over human lives? Does the right to life apply only to zygotes?]

I’m writing this newsletter during our flight back to New York, sitting in the back row next to my toddler son, who will be two years old in a few weeks but has a head start on all the astonishing, delightful, and not-so-delightful things that come with the age. Right now he’s displaying the third option: yelling, kicking, performing loose approximations of hand stands, smacking my computer, rejecting the copious snacks we packed, and definitely losing his toys, all while 35,000 feet in the air.

He’s an adorable maniac.

Admittedly, this kind of all-action display in such a suboptimal environment might eventually sap my deep reservoir of patience, but right now, all I can think about tonight is the text message that a 16-year-old girl sent to her mother during an active school shooting today in Georgia: “I'm sorry I haven't been a perfect daughter. I love you.”

Thankfully, the girl who sent the text survived the attack, but two other students at the school were killed today by their 14-year-old classmate. My brain won’t even let me try to contemplate the depths of despair that their parents must feel. Survival mechanism, I guess.

Classmates have told reporters that they weren’t surprised that the 14-year-old shooter opened fire, and samples from what appear to be his social media accounts suggest that he’d fallen down some pretty dark rabbit holes online. But young Colt Gray’s browsing habits wouldn’t be more than topics for a therapy session or three if he hadn’t had such easy access to the assault weapon that he used to kill two classmates and two teachers at Apalachee High School today.

The shooting was followed by the usual calls for gun control from Democratic lawmakers, including from Vice President Kamala Harris, but they’ve become rote by now, because we’ve all but given up the hope of actually passing the kind of policy that more than 60% of Americans vehemently support. We’re beyond even symbolic votes and posturing for campaign purposes. Republicans will rush to pass law after law to bully queer kids and feed students far-right bile, but keeping them from being blown apart in their classrooms is beyond discussion.

This was the 45th school shooting of 2024, and with classes starting back up across the country, it is a grim reality that it will be far from the last. The right-wing War on Children continues to rage unabated, and it’s long since past the time that it’s become central to political campaigns. For decades, Democrats were terrified to run on abortion, and now it’s central to their message. They ought to do the same thing with gun control, forcing every single parent to contemplate the unthinkable before the cast their votes.

If Republicans want to fear-monger over it, they can explain to Americans why they continue to enable the massacre of innocent schoolchildren."

See also my Tuesday, August 06, 2019 post, American Akeidah and the linked Sunday, August 04, 2019 post, "Rituals of Childhood," by Kieran Healy.