by Stephanie Gerber Wilson, PhD
MAGA and the NRA are waging war on Americans 12,613 gun deaths this year and counting.
Last weekend, Indianapolis played host to the NRA convention, and Indiana MAGA legislators hosted NRA leaders on the floor of the Indiana State House. Indiana’s elected democrats largely remained silent.
At the convention, featured speakers IN Governor Eric Holcomb, former Vice President Mike Pence, and US Senator/IN Gubernatorial Candidate Mike Braun, all called for fighters to continue to demand and defend unfettered firearm access despite the mass shootings occurring daily across the country.*
We need to stop pretending that MAGA and the NRA don’t understand the relationship between guns and shooting. We need to stop merely calling out their hypocrisy (though we DO need to keep doing it).
We need to stop believing that MAGA politicians are in thrall to the NRA. They aren't in thrall. They're partners and promoters of the NRA. They share an agenda.
The truth is far simpler, and far more terrifying. MAGA is deliberately waging war on Americans in order to build power and institute a White Christian Fascist Theocracy in the United States. They don’t regret the deaths of children killed in mass shootings, because the kids are collateral damage in a war they have vowed to fight, with a White Supremacist army they’ve armed with weapons of war, in order to replace our (imperfect) pluralistic democracy with a White Supremacist Fascist regime. They have never hidden their goal. And their White Supremacy and racism has been on nationwide display.
They’ve told us what they’re doing, and it’s time to believe them. And it’s time to FIGHT BACK. Not with guns. No…we know the guns are the problem. We know guns are the NUMBER ONE killer of kids and teenagers in this country. We need to fight back as the Tennessee Three did, and Indiana Democrats most notably did not.
We can’t be polite any more. We have to walk to the well and take up the bullhorn. We need to speak out of turn. We need to seize every opportunity to create moments that go viral and pull back the curtain on this MAGA war.
Because make no mistake…this MAGA war is a war on freedom. OUR freedom is at stake. OUR freedom to give OUR kids an education based in fact, science, and yes, empathy. OUR freedom to control OUR own bodies. OUR freedom for OUR kids (and yes, they’re OUR kids) to live as their authentic selves. OUR freedom to take care of our neighbors, our water, our land, and our health. OUR freedom to LIVE and thrive.
We’ve grown used to the words “Good Trouble,” and we’ve whitewashed them as we’ve whitewashed the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King. Good Trouble means making a scene. It means breaking the rules of decorum. It means forcing MAGA to show its ugly face to the country in a way that cannot be denied. It means we need to stop being polite, stop whispering about gun safety, and start shouting with a bullhorn everywhere we can.
We need to follow GenZ’s lead. They’ve had enough of being the targets of White Supremacist rage fueled by AR-15s, and we need to crank up the volume as they have in Tennessee, in Michigan, in all the places where they’ve walked out of school, protested at the State House, or voted for Democracy in large enough numbers to win elections.
So, my friends: We’re fighting a war. They’re fighting with AR-15s. We must fight with votes, with screams, with songs, and with every tool at our disposal.
Hoosier Victory Alliance is working to build the infrastructure to contest more elections, reach more voters, support more candidates, and wage a war of inches against the MAGA fascists who rule in too many places in the United States.
Please help fight our war for freedom and democracy by subscribing to this newsletter, by signing this petition to kick the NRA out of Indiana, by running for office, by supporting more candidates, by talking to your neighbors, by making a stink. Because FREEDOM is on our side. And guns are on theirs.
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