The editors on the Quote & Quiz Desk had a challenge this week, what with the Republican Convention producing candidates for quote of the week on a minute by minute basis. But we finally settled on this gem from Vice Presidential candidate J.D. Vance:
“When Mamaw died shortly before I left for Iraq in 2005, and when we went through her things, we found 19 loaded handguns. The thing is, they were stashed all over her house—under her bed, in her closet, in the silverware drawer, and we wondered what was going on,” Vance continued. “It occurred to us that towards the end of her life, Mamaw couldn’t get around so well, so she was sure that no matter where she was, she was within arm’s length of whatever she needed to protect her family. That’s who we fight for. That’s the American spirit.”
- The RNC crowd in Milwaukee responded to the anecdote about a woman with 19 loaded handguns hidden around her home with:
A) Stunned silence.
B) Chants of “Mamaw! Mamaw! Mamaw!”
C) Hearty laughter and loud applause.
D) Chants of “Drill Baby Drill!” as crowd marshals’ prompts had jumped to the wrong place in Vance’s script.
2. Average, sane Americans, even most gun owners, responded to Vance’s anecdote by thinking:
A) Didn’t your Mamaw have grandkids and other little children around all the time?
B) She was that distrustful of her friends and neighbors? My gosh, that’s sad.
C) She was a relative of yours? She had that kind of judgement? You want to be a heartbeat away from the nuclear button?
D) All of the above.
3. The Founding Fathers and great Americans throughout our history have NOT defined the American Spirit as:
A) Freedom to say and believe what you want.
B) Pluralism, with no one established religion.
C) An inherent optimism that strife, conflicts and crisis’ can be overcome.
D) Paranoia so deep that you stash a loaded handgun in your silverware drawer.
4. If Vance’s and the GOP’s vision of America is fighting for a society in which it makes sense to stash loaded handguns around your house then:
A) Their vision is for a crime-ridden society where the police are so poorly funded and supported that they can’t protect you.
B) Their vision is of a dystopian society where most people are violent and amoral and the few good people must protect themselves by being equally violent.
C) They’re pretty sure that their policies will run the country into the ground to the extent that people will be forced to hoard canned goods and firearms in bunkers.
D) All of the above.
5. In the last two decades how many children, ages 0 to 5, have been accidentally killed by a gun?
A) 125
B) 257
C) 367
D) 485
6. What’s the more common use of a handgun?
A) Self-defense.
B) Suicide.
Answers
1: C
2: D
3: D
4: D
5: C
6: B
Yellow Stripes & Dead Armadillos 
If your goal is to understand where the Republicans are coming from Dave, you might want to keep working on the understanding part. You’re not as nakedly partisan as Fanlund, Nichols or Black, but you’re closer to them than not.
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Fair point, Thom. I do try to understand the economic and cultural trends that have driven so many blue collar voters to Trump. I suppose this is an example of a culture issue. But, just on the simple facts, it’s irresponsible to keep a loaded handgun in easy reach of a child, much less 19 of them. And I’m a gun owner.
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Agreed, 19 is nuts.
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