Illustration by Siena Laws
Not even 24 hours after I had heard about the mass shooting in Las Vegas, I began to hear talk of the second amendment. Politicians had begun to make statements about what the shooting meant for gun control in our country, and then the accusations began: that these people were politicizing the tragedy. No one should be talking politics after the largest mass shooting in US history, right? Isn’t that heartless?
No. National tragedies leave our country asking how such things could’ve happened, and how can we prevent them from happening again? Political discourse is the only way to find those answers, and to ensure that those solutions are applied to further prevent harm. So, yes, we should be politicizing national tragedies.
To say that a tragedy has been politicized is a bit confusing; in theory, it is bringing politics into the equation after a tragedy in an attempt to pass preventative measures and keep the public safe.
Politicizing tragedies, in this sense, is immensely impactful. In the midst of national talks of gun control, terrorism, whatever the issue may be, Washington has the opportunity to listen to what the country has to say. It’s an opportunity to debate the root causes of the issue. and to write policy to fix the issues. It’s the opportunity to keep the public safe.
However, the term “politicizing a tragedy” has been turned on its head. It is now synonymous with politicians exploiting public turmoil in order to push their party’s agenda. This was obvious in the days following the Las Vegas shooting.
Hillary Clinton stated that the Las Vegas shooting was evidence of the need for stricter gun control. Republican politicians, who are pro-gun, condemned her for “politicizing” the shooting. They made her out to be heartless, trying to use the tragedy to build the Democratic anti-gun stance. To accuse someone of “politicizing” a tragedy has become a more nuanced way of saying “I don’t like what you’re saying, so I’m going to try and discredit you.”
This behavior needs to change, because it builds the idea that politicizing tragedies gets lost in the bigger fight in the political hemisphere. The conversations just turn into name calling, and nothing will get done, when it’s so necessary.
So that’s why we need to politicize tragedies. Becuase without doing so, we don’t start conversations. There is no discussion. And without the discussion, we can’t take action.