Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., waded into a right-wing culture war over the weekend and was forced into an embarrassing retreat.
Paul posted — and then deleted — a tweet with a photo of the senator standing next to a child. In the tweet, Paul asked if people could believe the child “was disciplined for wearing this shirt” in Utah. The shirt shows guns that have been arranged to look like an American flag.
Let’s start with a fundamental truth about the Republican Party: We can’t assume anything its members say is true. The party of election denialism has lost any benefit of the doubt. So I’m really doing Paul a service in even treating this as a real story.
But that’s only because the way it played out was so hilarious.
Of course, I can see why such a shirt would spur concern. And, what’s more, when people began to search for images of the shirt, they found that it was advertised for sale on multiple websites with a name that … referred to a sex position.
So, to rehash Paul’s question: Is it conceivable to me that a student was disciplined for wearing a shirt that depicts deadly weapons — often used to murder schoolchildren — seemingly engaged in sex?
Yes, I can believe that. Rand Paul belongs to a Republican Party that claims to abhor “groomers,” yet here he is getting worked up over someone’s aversion to a child wearing sexually suggestive gun paraphernalia.
As can the throngs of people on social media who mocked Paul over his tweet. The senator, after all, does belong to a Republican Party that claims to abhor “groomers,” yet here he is getting worked up over someone’s aversion to a child wearing sexually suggestive gun paraphernalia. The liberals want your kids to trifle with nonsense in school, like treating one another kindly and making everyone feel safe and welcomed. Meanwhile, conservatives like Rand Paul are focused on the important stuff — like how X-rated your child’s T-shirt can be.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. Recommended
