And that’s so befitting his cartoonish presidency.
Every year thousands of Americans die from gun shootings. There were a record-setting 97 at schools last year and, as The New York Times reports today, “This summer alone, 26 mass shootings left 126 people dead.” Yet President Trump is leading a GOP crusade to block Congress from banning any gun, including assault weapons that are designed solely to kill masses as quickly as possible.
By contrast, only eight people have died from vape smoking in all of US history. Yet President Trump is leading a GOP crusade to move Congress to ban vapes. (They’re threatening at the very least to impose all kinds of restrictions on vape sales; you know, restrictions like the background checks they refuse to impose on gun sales. You can’t make this stuff up, folks.)
This focus on e-cigarettes clearly makes no sense. Yet they’ve even established an anti-vaping caucus in Congress for Christ’s sake. But banning flavored e-cigarettes while ignoring flavored alcohol is about as ass backwards as banning aspirin while ignoring opioids.
Meanwhile, these same GOP politicians infamously defend the gun manufacturers who fund their campaigns by insisting that
Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.
And don’t get me started on the deadly folly of them hailing Walmart’s decision to stop selling e-cigarettes while still selling guns. (Mind you, it’s only ending sales at stores in the United States – presumably because it has no qualms about selling poison to people in other countries.) But surely, if these GOP politicians were the least bit concerned about intellectual and moral consistency, they would also be defending e-cigarette manufacturers by insisting that
Vapes don’t kill people. People kill people.
Or, to be more topical, they would also be defending big pharma by insisting that
Opioids don’t kill people. People kill people.
I fully appreciate fears that vaping is a gateway to nicotine-related deaths. It’s just that this seems harmless when compared with the gateway to alcohol-related deaths drinking represents.
In any event, the manifest absurdity of politics in this age of Trump is laughable. Of course, it’s also sad and dangerous. But, if you don’t laugh, you’ll just cry and die.
Frankly, even Orwell could not have imagined an American dystopia quite like the one Trump has wrought.
Related commentaries:
In Trump We Trust…?
gun control…
Legalize drugs…
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