After the horrific school shooting in Florida there may some be glimmers of hope. When bright, media-savvy high schoolers become politically active en masse, there is reason to hope. The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are making an incredible impact on the media landscape, let’s hope they have a similar impact on legislation.
The odds are incredibly long, given the fact that right wing Republicans control the federal government these days— but there is potential for action at the state level and electoral change. Throw the bums out, that is, if those bums are helping children be murdered.
ProPublica’s Alec MacGillis has done some great writing about the dangers of “liberal fatalism,” of which I have at times been guilty. The short version is: don’t be so damn terrified of the NRA, they’re not as strong as they want you to think. The old “things will never change” attitude is a cancer on all kinds of political activism. It only makes sense that if politicians contribute to murdering their constituents they can be voted out, right? Here’s hoping anyway.