Convinced the U.S. government is out to get them, the extreme right-wing culture in America has more in common with the average North Korean than they do the average American. They share the same sense of self-glory intertwined with imminent doom – but in Republicanland America – life is thickly coated in a Norman Rockwell glorification of the past… with a lot more guns and ammo.
When people think of small American towns, many still have images of Norman Rockwell paintings: tree-lined streets, neighbors on the porch waving hello; not a single grumpy old man yelling “GET OFF MY LAWN!”
Certainly not an image of grandma packing heat.
Nelson, Georgia, however, has a different view of what an All American town should be: a “prepared” community, armed to the teeth in which every citizen must own a gun and ammunition. Indeed, the city council of Nelson, GA has passed a gun law that requires more guns and ammo not less… mandatory guns in every household… that changes the Norman Rockwell vision of American life, doesn’t it? Republicans and guns… can’t get any wackier when learning about pure American culture.
To justify the law, the Nelson, GA City Council requires every household to own a gun and ammunition in order to, “…provide for the emergency management of the city…”
Guns to stop a tornado? Guns to prevent floods? Guns to help fight against heat stroke? Why not get a little more explicit and detail exactly what these people are scared of?
What’s interesting is that the members of the city council have apparently forgotten that there hasn’t been any violent crime in Nelson, GA for the last 10 years. None. One wonders what emergency management these people foresee in their nightmares. It’s as if the entire town, all 1324 people, have become über-preppers and are turning their very streets into well-fortified bunkers. Over and over again the extreme right-wing manages to create fear where it doesn’t exist, and pass laws that have no other purpose than to reinforce those fears.
There’s also the typical republican litmus test symbolism inside the “everyone in this town must own a gun law”. It centers around the traditional republican paranoia that the government (if not the UN… or scientists… or college professors… or women with a mind to control their own reproduction) … sorry… in the minds of the far right, the US government will literally walk into your home and take away your guns, take your rights, and probably your children, too. No matter how many times facts show that “the government taking away your guns” is blatantly incorrect, it’s wrong, and it will never happen – the NRA has embedded this narrative into the republican DNA. We’ll never get rid of it. Extreme conservatives have a DNA marker that convinces them the government will become a dictatorship (especially if it happens to be a black president). The United States might age out of it in another 3 or 4 generations, but that pocket of American culture will likely always exist. It’s an old ghost story told around campfires in the deep woods of Republicanland.
With that in mind, it’s important that we look at North Korea (stick with me for a second). Americans easily call them “crazy” for teaching their children from a very early age that all Americans want to kill them. Most Americans think North Koreans are wacko for the level of hatred they carry against American imperialism…. so what’s the difference between what North Korea teaches their children, and what the far right conservative teaches theirs?
Both groups claim the American government will take over. Both teach children to stockpile weapons, harbor hate, and motivate by fear because the American government is just outside the door. Convinced the U.S. government is out to get them, the extreme right-wing culture in America has more in common with the average North Korean than they do the average American. They share the same sense of self-glory and the same sense of imminent doom – but in Republicanland America – life is thickly coated with a Norman Rockwell glorification of the past… with a lot more guns and ammo.
So blind to the truth of being manipulated by fear that the “must own a gun” ordinance of small-town USA Nelson, GA passed on a 5 to 0 vote.
One resident who spoke out against the ordinance told the NBC affiliate in Atlanta, “People who want a gun, they already have one probably. There’s been no violent crime in Nelson in the past 10 years. So how are you going to improve on no violent crime?”
One sane man out of 1324 people in this new, extreme conservatism vision of a Norman Rockwell town in Georgia… at least it’s a start. Where there’s one, we can find hope that others might follow.
Nelson, GA and its must own a gun law, while not the first such law ever created by republican-lead bodies, earns a nod as this weeks reflection of why extremism – on any side of the political aisle – is a sad and dangerous thing. The only thing extremism creates is more extremism.
Is there an exception to the law? Yes. Any resident of this quaint goblins-under-the-bed town can request to be except from being forced by the town to own a gun and ammunition. More paperwork to get the government out of our lives… again, I highly doubt that these particular 5 city council members see the irony in that.
At the end of the day, like a similar law that’s already on the books also in a small town in Georgia and South Dakota (as far as today’s brief research revealed, there’s probably more in similar small pockets of Republican Rockwell America) this law will likely never be enforced.
What are the police going to do, go door to door and demand to be shown the gun of the household? Isn’t that basically like being forced to register one’s gun… which is something the far right gun lovers are vehemently against?
Again… doubt these people see the irony. Such is the price of admission to Republicanland.
Published: by | Updated: 06-18-2014 10:42:08
