Well, we waited four long years for Dean Grose’s much anticipated encore to his now infamous e-mail gaffe distributing a cartoon depicting the White House lawn as a watermelon patch on the heels of electing our country’s first African-American President in 2008. And Grose, recently re-elected after four years of exile from that fiasco didn’t disappoint. Although this time, Grose didn’t lift someone else’s misguided humor and mass email it. Nope. This time, Grose took his one man act to the social media stage to debut his own original material for the world to see. But this time, there was nothing funny about it.
As reported in last week’s News Enterprise, Tea Party activist and a Finance Commissioner for the City of Irvine, Allan Bartlett posted on his Facebook page regarding the large turnout at a recent gun show in Costa Mesa. Grose seized the opportunity to implode once again, a mere 40 days into his latest stint on city council. “Uniting America against Obama’s regieme [sic] one AK47 at a time!” is the comment Grose left on Barlett’s page. Yes, “regime” was misspelled. Other than the spelling faux pas, I don’t know where to begin. As one resident noted, “You can’t fix stupid”.
Now nobody’s disputing Grose’s right to comment on gun control as he claims he was doing when sought for comment by the News Enterprise. But was it really about gun control or about this evil regime he thinks is currently in power? Grose’s characterization of the current administration as a “regime” is comical, uninformed, and based on, well, I don’t what the heck it’s based on. The 2012 Presidential election was decided the old fashioned way, democratically and by the Electoral College. There was no coup, bloodless or otherwise. There was no sinister seizing of power by a dictator whose American citizenship could never be verified. Do you remember when we took basic arithmetic in school and learned what that sideways carrot meant, either greater than or less than? Well, Grose must have missed that day because not only did President Obama win enough electoral votes to be re-elected to a second term, he won 51% of the popular vote or nearly 5 million more votes than the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney. Greater than.
But putting that aside for a minute, we can’t ignore the seriousness of the councilman’s statement. The mere suggestion by a so-called “leader” to unite America against our current administration by arming people with AK47s is a direct threat to the sovereignty of the United States. An opinion of that caliber has the potential of inciting domestic terrorism. Imagine walking through security at LAX and repeating that to the TSA agent as he screened your bags. Think you’re boarding that plane or maybe having a little chat with Homeland Security in a secure room somewhere in airport security?
Meanwhile, we added 160,000 new jobs last month (that means less freeloaders receiving unemployment benefits), the Dow is above 14,000 for the first time in five years, and the real estate market has not only stabilized, but is showing signs of growth. Oh, and let’s not forget this administration accomplished something the previous one failed to do. It got bin Laden. Now I assume Mr. Grose supports programs that fuel our economic recovery and promote solid economic growth. So what exactly is your problem with the Obama administration, Mr. Grose? What fuels your opposition so greatly that it compels you to call Americans to arms against our own government?
What Mr. Grose represents is the blatant obstinate nature of some elected officials to defy our progress merely for the sake of defying. What Mr. Grose represents is the toxicity that is becoming more pervasive in our society, resulting in the erosion of civility. What Mr. Grose represents is the growing dissention within the Republican party that prevents it from advancing its platform and ideals peacefully and diplomatically, working in a bi-partisan manner with rather than against the other side of the aisle.
Just saying.
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