VICTORY IS NOT AN OPTION

Adam Serwer on the Supreme Court's McDonald v. Chicago ruling:

The gun wars are pretty much over, and the gun rights side won. One wonders when they'll will figure it out.

Well, if by "figure it out" he means "acknowledge it," the answer is "never." And that's not just because they won't consider America to be anything less than a fascist dictatorship until it's as easy for virtually anyone to buy a gun in D.C., Chicago, or New York City as it is in, say, rural Mississippi. Even if the day comes when we have gun laws everywhere that are as loose as the loosest ones now (and I think that's far more likely over the next couple of decades than ever passing any laws anywhere that actually tighten gun access), the gunners still won't admit they've won.

They can't. As I say here all the time, the belief that right-wingers are the perpetual victims of liberal fascism is a core element of their self-image. What's more, believing this is what opens up wingers' wallets and keeps groups like the NRA and Gun Owners of America -- as well as every other right-wing organization that seeks small contributions -- well funded and healthy.

Right-wingers thought they were under siege in 2003 when the GOP controlled all three branches of government and George W. Bush had absurdly high approval ratings; scruffy protesters whose demands were scoffed at were the all-powerful enemy; no, Hans Blix was; no, it was Ward Churchill, or Michael Moore, or Phil Donahue on MSNBC. Right-wingers arenever in charge. They're always guerrilla warriors and members of the underground resistance. Victory is always an infinite number of fund-raising appeals and wave elections away.