The Florida House Legislated Porn While Ignoring Guns, Providing the Perfect Example of Republican Values

You know the story by now. A man (or a boy) walked into a school with a weapon of war. He murdered countless children, and our politicians threw up their hands and said there’s nothing that we can do to stop gun murders in a country with no equal on this subject. The Republican-controlled Florida House had an opportunity to make real changes and stop this cycle of bloodshed that we willingly choose to perpetuate, and they did what every other elected Republican in this country does: avoid doing anything to stop the slaughter of our most vulnerable.

Florida House votes down motion to consider ban on assault weapons as Douglas students look on from gallery https://t.co/on3CpbksV8pic.twitter.com/neXximHAvd

— WPLG Local 10 News (@WPLGLocal10) February 20, 2018

Know what the Florida House did do though? Treated porn as a more serious threat than guns. Per the Tampa Bay Times:

Pornography is being declared a health risk by the Florida Legislature.

The state’s House of Representatives approved the resolution by a voice vote Tuesday, despite some members asking why the topic is being taken up at this time. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Ross Spano, who is running for attorney general.

Spano said there’s research showing a connection between pornography use and mental and physical illnesses, forming and maintaining intimate relationships and deviant sexual behavior. The resolution states a need for education, research and policy changes to protect Floridians, especially teenagers, from pornography.

I can’t think of a better contrast in the values of the modern Republican Party than this. Something that actually kills people (but fills their campaign coffers with cash) is apparently too complex to legislate, but when it comes to the most intimate parts of our bodies, the GOP is more than happy to tell us—no, order us—how live our lives. Republicans love “small government” until it precludes them from telling men and women what we can consensually do in the privacy of our own homes. Guns don’t kill people, porn apparently does.

The Republican Party is a morally bankrupt institution that is America’s largest impediment to modernity. It exists solely to whip up racist votes in order to elect politicians who enact hyper-corporatist policies that would never win an election on their own merits. It sits on its hands while our children literally get murdered every week, but will jump at the first chance it gets to legislate our genitals. On top of it, Republicans never hold themselves to the standards they hold the rest of us to—as exemplified by Rep. Ross Spano liking a porn tweet on Twitter.

If you’re still a Republican who is turned off by the Trumpian racism and hypocritical moralizing of the GOP, why? What is it about this party that still holds your attention? They are complicit in the murder of children and have accelerated the downfall of America. This is undeniable in the Age of Trump. You may think that this is the party of (rose-tinted glasses) Reagan in your mind, but out in the real world, it’s the party of George W. Bush and Donald Trump. In effect, the GOP is America’s version of the Taliban, and we must do everything we can at the polls to relegate them to the dustbin of history before they put America in there first.

Jacob Weindling is a staff writer for Paste politics. Follow him on Twitter at @Jakeweindling.