The Republican primary for Kay Hagan’s Senate seat in North Carolina has turned into a civil war between the three main factions of the state GOP. State house speaker Thom Tillis is running as a typical Southern corporate Republican, Baptist pastor Mark Harris is the darling of the Christianist/social conservative wing, and OB/GYN Greg Brannon is the standard bearer of North Carolina’s tea party. It should surprise no one that this has become race to see who can out-conservative the others.
The latest entry in that race surfaced yesterday, when Buzzfeed’s Andrew Kaczynski stumbled on a radio interview Brannon granted a week after Sandy Hook in which Brannon attacked Hagan for calling for a debate on gun control. In Brannon’s mind, this and any other debate on gun control amounts to socialism. No, this isn’t snark:
Senator Hagan says we got to have a nice debate and discussion about what to do. See, that’s called a democracy, which is actually socialism, which is called majority rules. No, no, no. We have to go back to the written rule, called the Constitution, and see what the written rule of law says. We don’t need men and women’s opinions. We need men and women who are actually gonna be honorable to their oath and understand what the rule says, and that’s crucial. Now if they want to get rid of the Second Amendment, do what they did with the 18th, with Prohibition–they had the 21st. Let’s have a convention, get three-quarters of the states, get two-thirds of Congress, get the president sign that you cannot own guns. Fine! But if we’re going to do this, let’s not do this on just opinion or decision or vote. Let’s eat, as two wolves and a sheep like Franklin talked about. Let’s do it constitutional-wise.
At first blush, this sounds like the usual conservative meme about those evil libruls wanting to gut the Second Amendment through the back door and take our guns. But I really hope I’m misunderstanding what Brannon meant when he said that democracy and majority rule amount to socialism. I really do. So wanting to actually debate things and come to an agreement on what to do about important issues makes you a pinko? Sounds like the logical end of the tea party credo that compromise is the eighth deadly sin.
But wait a minute. Last I checked, it’s an article of faith among most of Brannon’s fellow tea partiers that Obama is leading this country on a double-time march to socialism, and that only electing the most conservative Republicans could save our precious democracy. But now here is Brannon saying that the idea of democracy itself is a stalking horse for those evil, evil socialists. Which is it, Greg? Thus far, Brannon’s been silent about this on his Facebook and Twitter feeds.
Edited/Published by: SB
Darrell Lucus is a radical lefty Jesus-lover with several passions–the Lord, the Tar Heels, the Blue Devils and fighting for lasting change. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus.
