Matt Gaetz Flirted With Getting It (Strategically Side-Stepped Getting It), Too.

AFRICOM Chief to Congress: We Share “Core Values” With Coup Leaders (theintercept.com)

Gaetz appeared to be close to saying that we shouldn't train militaries that then overthrow civilian governments.  And there was mention in this article of how many African militaries that then overthrew civilian governments we trained.  It seemed like extremely simple arithmetic to do -- if we train militaries that increasingly overthrow civilian governments, then we shouldn't train those militaries -- and I agree completely with Gaetz: If you do something that has an increasingly bad effect, then stop doing it.  Or, as the saying goes, "when you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging."  Got it, Matt.  We are in full agreement.

The problem for Gaetz is that if he continues along that line of extremely reasonable reasoning (or perhaps if he saw this "checkmate" coming), he'd have to come to the exact same conclusion about guns in civilian hands: If we don't want people killing each other, and more guns in American hands results in more Americans killing each other, then the answer is to have fewer (or no) guns in civilian American hands.  But it would take very little conversation with Gaetz to find out that he would never go in that direction.  He gets it about trained African militaries, but he doesn't get it about armed American civilians.  Even though the issue is identical.

And maybe Gaetz realized into what corner he was painting himself.  I don't know what was the entire conversation.  I only know what part of it (assuming it was only part of it) was quoted in this article.  It's made to sound as if Gaetz started out making a clear and direct, if somewhat wiseass (Matt Gaetz?  Wiseass?!) point, and then suddenly dropped out of the conversation.  Was he just being a wiseass, and had he finished making his wiseass point, or did he consciously or unconsciously realize where this line of reasoning would very naturally flow?

It's been interesting over a period of time now to see, for example, the former Trump supporters who now call Trump a liar, a thief, and an idiot.  And I have to admit that I'd love to talk to those people, and ask them why they were so completely unaware of what was so obvious to me and most voters, but now, they see it, too.  What "woke" them up?  And likewise, how is a matter like the inadvisability -- fool heartedness! -- of training African militaries that then overthrow the civilian governments they claim to aim to uphold such an obvious conclusion for Matt Gaetz, but he cannot even begin to find his way to advocating for the thing that would lead to law and order, and reduced mass murders, in this country?

Oh, Matt...  Are you a lost cause?