Rachel Maddow Shoots down the Right’s Myth of the Gun Hating Liberal

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Last updated on February 8th, 2013 at 11:41 am

The right is always trying to portray the entire left and especially Rachel Maddow as wimpy and anti-gun, but a new video shows the MSNBC anchor hanging out at the gun range.

Here is the video from Rolling Stone:

The Rolling Stone profile points out that both Maddow and her partner like to shoot firearms, “Maddow and Mikula met in 1999. On their first date, they went to an NRA event, which was only partly ironic: They both like to shoot firearms. (“Susan has the hand-eye coordination,” Maddow says. “But I can’t control my movements.”) Shortly thereafter, they went for a stroll in a cemetery in western Massachusetts where they were both living, and at a moment of nearly transcendent silence and beauty, while they were looking serenely at 19th-century gravestones, Maddow took a gigantic pratfall. Mikula says that was the moment when she fell in love with Maddow.”

When Maddow recently told Nick Gillespie during a debate on Real Time with Bill Maher that he didn’t know anything about her, man, was she right. Of course, this was small potatoes compared to the Alex Castellanos incident on Meet The Press. The right is always trying to fit Maddow into their liberal stereotype, but just like they do to President Obama, the real person doesn’t match up with the imaginary demon that they have created.

Rolling Stone’s excellent profile shows that Maddow isn’t the stereotypical liberal/progressive. Just like Obama isn’t really out to take away our guns, Rachel Maddow isn’t what the right and in some cases the left make her out to be.

There is a message in Maddow’s story about the danger of generalizations. In this hyperpartisan political time that we live in, it is easy to generalize. Not all liberals hate guns. Not all conservatives want to destroy the earth by ignoring climate change. Not all people who go to church are Republicans, or looking to impose their beliefs on others.

It is easy to paint with too broad of brush. Politics and people can both be intricate and complicated. Just as every political situation isn’t the same, how every person interprets the world around them is also unique.

There are many liberals and progressives who don’t want to ban guns. Lots of people who consider themselves progressive own or have guns in their homes. Organizations like the NRA spend their time whipping up fear and dealing in lies in order to advance their Republican causes, but the myths don’t match the facts.

Rachel Maddow is an outsider who specializes in breaking down stereotypes and shattering conventional wisdom, and she has done again by showing the world that yes, some liberals/progressives enjoy firearms too.

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Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association

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