THE CRUCIFIXION AND RESURRECTION OF WAYNE LaPIERRE, MESSIAH


The NRA has released a new video attacking President Obama (and, yes, his daughters) in the wake of his gun policy announcement. The headline of the Media Matters post on the video is accurate as far as it goes: "New NRA Video Doubles Down On Politicization Of Obama's Daughters, Lashes Out At Media." But I'm struck by the way the narrative arc of the video concerns the persecution and (according to the video) ultimate triumph of Wayne LaPierre. The video is less about guns than about LaPierre himself -- how he spoke truth to power in his much-reviled news conference last month, how the horrible elite media crucified him for what he said that day, and how he symbolically rose on the third day, to save gunkind.





The video addresses none of the policy proposals Obama announced today. It's all about LaPierre's proposal for armed school personnel. He went out into the wilderness and preached it, he was attacked by the media, and then, according the video, we rolled away the stone and found his idea was not dead, as America embraced LaPierre-ism and cheered what LaPierre proposed.

I'm not sure what the NRA's game is here. I know feelings of persecution are exquisitely pleasurable to right-wingers, as are fantasies of heroic triumph over evil, so I guess LaPierre-as-Jesus is a really appealing message to the base.