The president(s) who cried wolf

But after nearly a dozen years of this kind of governance-as-crisis-response, Americans seem to be in on, and weary of, the con. A Reason-Rupe Poll from January found 52 percent believing that elected officials were exploiting Sandy Hook for political gain. Other polls have shown public opinion on guns staying relatively stable in the wake of the deadly shooting and its subsequent high-profile politics. When Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) attempted to wave away Sen. Rand Paul’s epic filibuster by scolding his colleagues for “no longer apparently think[ing] we’re at war,” an entire nation pointed and laughed. It’s hard to imagine this act of foreign-born violence leading to no-really-I’m-serious defenses of nationality-based internment.

This sense of increasing national sanity could well evaporate if it turns out that the West, Texas tragedy was intentional. But my admittedly anecdotal impression is that after 11+ years of pretty damned crappy results, Americans have become deservedly skeptical of government claims that we MUST DO SOMETHING RIGHT NOW. It’s a shame, though no surprise, that a president who came into office campaigning against the excesses of post-9/11 freakouts would simply graft his predecessor’s M.O. of constant panic—down to the “if we can save just one life” trope—onto any number of suspicious legislative packages.