Legalize Guns on the Subway!

What kind of dumb, potentially deadly ideas can we expect from the GOP if they win on Tuesday?

There’s nothing Republicans like more than having a dumb idea, seeing it fail, then sticking with it anyway.

Reaganomics—the idea that tax breaks for the rich will cause the wealth to “trickle-down”—has failed for 40 years, creating a debt crisis and causing America to have the kind of income inequality that caused the French Revolution?

“Just give it a few more years!” say Republicans.

Daily mass shootings that cause the unique “American carnage” that other countries have avoided through sensible gun laws?

“More guns!” say Republicans. “We don’t have quite enough yet to keep every child safe in school and every shopper safe at the mall.”

So what kind of dumb, life-ruining and potentially deadly ideas can we expect from the GOP if they win on Tuesday?

As Ronald Brownstein writes in The Atlantic today:

If Republicans win control of one or both congressional chambers this week, they will likely begin a project that could reshape the nation’s political and legal landscape: imposing on blue states the rollback of civil rights and liberties that has rapidly advanced through red states since 2021.

Brownstein notes:

GOP-controlled states have passed laws imposing new restrictions on voting, banning or limiting access to abortion, retrenching LGBTQ rights, removing licensing and training requirements for concealed carry of firearms, and censoring how public-school teachers (and in some cases university professors and even private employers) can talk about race, gender, and sexual orientation.

With much less attention, Republicans in the U.S. House and Senate have introduced legislation to write each of these red-state initiatives into federal law.

Here are some examples of the Red state policies that radical MAGA Republicans hope to take national:

The End of Reproductive Freedom

Going beyond Senator Lindsey Graham’s proposal for a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks, 167 House Republicans have already co-sponsored the “Life Begins at Conception Act” which would ban abortion nationwide.

Increased Voter Suppression

Senator Rick Scott of Florida wants to make all the worst and most racially biased voter suppression laws proliferating in Red States the new model for all federal elections, too.

Whitewashing History

Senators Tom Cotton and Josh Hawley support the idea of teaching only the parts of American history that white supremacists are comfortable with their children hearing. Hawley also wants to write a “Parents Bill of Rights” that would (effectively) put Steve Bannon and Moms for Liberty in charge of your child’s education.

Erasing LGBTQ Identities

Rep Mike Johnson of Louisiana wants to take the DeSantis “Don’t Say Gay” bill national. His plan would mean discussion of “gayness” would no longer be allowed “any program funded by the federal government, including through public libraries, hospitals, and national parks.”

Concealed Carry on the NYC Subway!

Not to be outdone, Senator Steve Daines and Representative Richard Hudson of North Carolina have introduced legislation to override states’ rights (remember them?) to regulate guns—and require concealed carry permits from any state to be recognized everywhere.

Peter Ambler, the executive director of Giffords, a group that advocates for stricter gun control, tells Brownstein that:

The NRA and congressional Republicans will eventually seek not only to preempt blue states and city limits on who can carry guns, but also to invalidate their restrictions on where they can do so, such as the New York State law, now facing legal challenge, barring guns from the subway.

So, after all those scary crime ads we’ve been seeing, the GOP’s genius plan for New York City is more guns on the subway.

Brownstein also spoke to Alvin Tillery, the director of the Center for the Study of Diversity and Democracy at Northwestern University, who explained to him that “Republicans and social conservatives feel enormous urgency to write their cultural priorities into law before liberal-leaning Millennials and Generation Z become the electorate’s dominant force later this decade.”

Of course, Millennials and Generation Z who oppose both fascism and Idiocracy already have the power to put a stop all this nonsense by showing up tomorrow.

So don’t believe the shitpolls. Vote.