Andrea Junker 
Americans should name mass shootings the way they do hurricanes but after Republicans who accept payments from the NRA.
Ashwin Bihari@Strandjunker It is indeed such a sad state of affairs that this is now "routine" in this country. Disagree with a group of folks? Gun violence in the only idea. Whatever happened to the idea of the great melting pot that I was taught in grade school??
Howlin’ Hobbit@abihari @Strandjunker
the melting pot was smashed into splinter groups, mainly by democraps and the like, who spend much of their time squabbling with each other over minutiae. meanwhile, the rethuglicans stuck with their (admittedly simple minded) messaging.
this also sheds light on the dems uncanny ability to snatch defeat out of the very jaws of victory.
plus, appointing the NRA as *the* villain ignores the fact that only a very small percentage of gun owners are NRA members.
@howlinhobbit @Strandjunker Very valid points and I do agree that pointing fingers at a single group as the reason/key for all the issues is silly and useless. My concern with the state of politics right now is that it's so Us vs Them that there's no way for folks to bridge the ever growing divide. Also the amount of misinformation that's being brewed is just insane on all fronts.
@abihari
can’t disagree too strenuously here. I do think we *could* bridge the divide, but we’re going to have to make hard structural changes first.
the largest issue is the idea that politics are like sportball games, with elections treated like the superbowl (or its ilk), & the rest of the year is dedicated to pom pom shaking in your team color. nobody pays attention to independents/3rd parties, even though we outnumber the Ds and Rs (though not both together). I have a list but…