If We Don’t Hang Together

(photos: Gary Jones/AP. caption for photo 2: Kentucky U.S. Senate Republican candidate Rand Paul, left, talks to a man carrying a rifle after speaking at a second amendment rally on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, Ky. , Saturday, Mar. 27, 2010. Firearms were plentiful outside the Capitol as a few hundred rallied in a show of strength meant to send a message to politicians to protect gun rights.)

In this HuffPo-style triptych, these photos — coming by way of a Second Amendment rally at the Kentucky State Capitol on Saturday — present us: a.) more flaunting of firearms in public and in front of the media in the name of, yes, more firearm rights, and b.) more evidence of how we can expect to be inundated by the Tea Party show until Congress returns to work two weeks from now.

The second photo is notable for juxtaposing a Republican candidate for Senate with a good American citizen wearing cammo and brandishing a rifle. I’m interested in your take on this shot, in particular. From where I sit, it speaks to the kind of intimidation all GOP pols and candidates are feeling from the far right these days. Here’s a larger version of photo 1, by the way. The shirt reads: If We Don’t Hang Together, We All Hang Separately.