Gun Control and American Politics in 2016

Obama’s gun control speech today was, for whatever it’s worth, excellent. Substantively, the proposed policies probably won’t move the needle much, which isn’t Obama’s fault but that’s the situation we’re in. The preemptive declarations from Republicans that whatever Obama was proposing to do it must be unconstitutional are revealing:

Obama’s proposals are, in terms of gun control policy and executive branch authority, ultimately of minor importance. They’re more important for what they reveal about the Republican party in 2016 than for their substantive content.

First, the ludicrously overwrought Republican reaction to Obama’s statement shows that the party continues to refuse the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency: in that environment, utterly ordinary and plainly legal presidential actions can and will be cited as examples of a tyranny. Maybe next Republicans will start arguing that Obama is violating the US constitution and the will of the people by delivering the State of the Union address rather than letting Paul Ryan do it.

And second, it illustrates that gun control is an issue – like upper-class tax cuts and countless others – where Republican policy can be boiled down to a radical one-note ideological slogan. The effectiveness of a given policy, cost/benefit analysis and so on are all beside the point: if a proposal places any restriction on the sale or possession of guns, Republicans can know in advance that the policies are not merely bad policy but illegal. They can confidently make these assertions without even knowing what the proposed policies are.

But in 1991, former president Ronald Reagan wrote an op-ed endorsing federal gun control legislation; in 2016, Obama proposed to do less on gun control than even Reagan wanted is seen by Reagan-worshipping Republicans as unconscionable tyranny. The Republican race to get far to Reagan’s right makes the prospect of the GOP obtaining unified control of the government a frightening one indeed.

In related news, Mike Huckabee uses the occasion to advocate making abortion first degree murder in all 50 states:

.@BarackObama You say if we can save one life we should. Well, apply 5th & 14th amendments to the unborn & save 4,000 lives a day. #ProLife

— Gov. Mike Huckabee (@GovMikeHuckabee) January 5, 2016

Republicans are Very Serious.