Latest Twist to Health Care Reform Protests: Guns

I've already said a couple of times on the blog that the current mood of the Republicans and conservatives is strange and hard to define. It probably boils down to the scene from Blazing Saddles, where Gabby Johnson spies Sheriff Bart and says, "The sheriff is a n(gong!)er!" But you won't get them to admit it. Instead, they've resorted to becoming "birthers" or "deathers" or "tea baggers."

All of these things have a fuzzy goal, I guess. But they all have splinters and factions, and it pretty much seems to be a generic "we hate Obama" message. They're throwing everything they've got at him, and they're bringing up every conservative bogeyman there is. Case in point, the sudden proliferation of guns to President Obama's public events, and to other political gatherings. As far as I know, there haven't been any major mentions of gun control from Obama, but that doesn't matter. Half the stuff (at least) that they've been hurling at him aren't true either.

I'm personally not an anti-gun activist. I was raised around them, and taught how to use them. But I've also been around alot of gun aficionados (mostly harmless) and some hard-boiled gun nuts (substantially creepier). It would seem to be the nuts showing up at town halls with guns. Throw in some scary imagery, and a conservative media throwing gasoline on the fire, and it isn't hard to imagine this all turning considerably uglier.