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Esquire's Charlie Pierce on Oregon massacre: 'One of our political parties is completely insane'

Esquire political blogger Charlie Pierce appeared on The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell to discuss the shooting massacre at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. Earlier President Obama was visibly exasperated as he discussed America's collective failure to effect better gun control.

"We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction," President Obama said. "When Americans are killed in mine disasters, we work to make mines safer. When Americans are killed in floods and hurricanes, we make communities safer. When roads are unsafe, we fix them to reduce auto fatalities. We have seat belt laws because we know it saves lives. The notion that gun violence is somehow different, that our freedom, our Constitution prohibits any modest regulation of how we use a deadly weapon, when there are law-abiding gun owners all across the country who could hunt and protect their families and do everything they do under such regulations. Doesn't make sense."

It was evident that Obama was being nostalgic in talking about regulations that have been enacted in the past. None of them would stand a chance of being passed under the current intransigent congressional regime.

Charlie Pierce made that reality abundantly clear.

"I've been doing the politics blog only since the fall of 2011," Charlie Pierce said. "This I think is the fourth one of these I had to write about. I was struck by the last bit by the president, where he talked about other things where you react to. The fact remains we only allow ourselves two political parties in this country. And one of our political parties is completely insane. [emphasis added] It's the party that when we have mine disasters, blocks mine regulations. It's the party that says when we want to fix our roads, you can't have an infrastructure bill. You can't raise the gas tax. It's the party that when some people have floods, like New Jersey, marks Chris Christie lousy because he accepted help from the federal government. And we have the same party who has somewhere between three and 600 people running for president, none of whom will do anything about the problem of mass shootings in America."

In an irony of ironies, the sheriff of the county where the massacre occurred, Douglas County, wrote a defiant letter to Vice President Biden after the Sandy Hook school massacre stating he would obey no gun control laws he deemed unconstitutional. When will Americans snap?
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/02/1426969/-Esquire-s-Charlie-Pierce-on-Oregon-massacre-One-of-our-political-parties-is-completely-insane