Barry Smitherman: Doing his best to drag the gun control debate to a new low

A Texas regulator, who has been appointed to several positions in the state government by Governor Rick Perry, recently tweeted a message accusing 16 Republicans who had voted for cloture on the Senate gun violence prevention bill of treason, and displaying their names next to a picture of a noose. Barry Smitherman currently serves as the Chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, a position he gained after Perry appointed him to the board…. The original message that Smitherman retweeted originates with The Psychotic Scrivener, which has also posted messages like “…we have communists in control of Congress, and also a communist President, all just barking their heads off, snarling and foaming at the their mouths like rabid dogs - wanting to rip into our Bill of Rights and tear them to shreds.”

I’ve become almost inured to gun nuts doing everything short of foaming at the mouth in their collective effort to quash any rational debate over gun control. Gun nuts spouting conspiracy theories, NRA talking points, and all manner of inhuman, pro-gun madness is barely even newsworthy anymore. When Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK) can insult and disregard that families of the Newtown victims, you know the gun nuts don’t give a damn about human life. Far more precious to them is their inflexible interpretation of the 2nd Amendment as immutable and sacrosanct.

Then along comes Barry Smitherman, who manages to drag the debate even lower- no mean feat when you consider that I’d assumed it had already long ago hit bottom. There’s certainly nothing wrong with an elected official having strong opinions. But when said elected official resorts to violent imagery designed to threaten other elected officials for exercising their democratic rights in the service of their constituents, a line has irreversibly been crossed. Their ought to be a very special place in Hell for ignorant zealots like Smitherman.

Call it poor judgment, bad taste, or whatever appellation you may choose, what Smitherman did is beyond wrong. In most states, Smitherman’s immediate resignation would be demanded and received. This being Texas that we’re talking about, Gov. Rick Perry may cluck disapprovingly, but no consequence of substance is likely to befall Smitherman. Truth be told, more than a few Texas Conservatives, in and out of state government, agree with Smitherman. They probably don’t understand what all the fuss is about.

In Smitherman’s defense, it’s not as if he poisoned the gun control debate. Wayne LaPierre and his merry band of inhuman gun nuts accomplished that long ago. That said, Smitherman has a responsibility to the people- ALL people- of Texas to carry out the responsibilities of his job in a dignified and rational manner. Instead, he revealed himself to be just another barely coherent gun nut.

Nice work, eh?