The gun issue is a little different. And I’ve had some disagreements with elected officials recently.
Every shred of evidence I’ve seen is that, at the national level, it doesn’t make sense for Democrats to run on passing gun safety laws. Laws I defend, laws most sane countries have. Because what seems to happen is, it doesn’t bring out anyone new to support you, and it can really work to generate donations for the opposition and to bring out voters that are coming out specifically to vote to prevent some of those laws from passing.
So I think even though you asked about it as applied to abortion, I think when it comes to gun safety, I’ve not seen evidence that it makes sense to include that in a serious manner in national political platforms which I find regrettable on a personal level, but strategically accurate.
Q: Do you think that it presents any conflict of principles? Because there’s sort of a level to this where you want to say, okay, let’s be strategic. You know, we want gun reform, but it’s not gonna get us elected, so let’s not run on that and, sort of, problem solved. There’s another sense in which you say, like, you know, people are dying and our gun laws are in need of desperate reform, but to get elected, we kind of need to not focus on that. Do you think that a decision like that, a kind of strategic thinking on issues that are as morally charged as abortion and gun control, are something that we should do? …
…Number one, there’s a difference between not campaigning on something and abandoning it as a principle. First and foremost. In order to pass legislation, you have to be in power. In order to be in power, you have to win elections. So why would you run a campaign likely to prevent winning an election, getting in power and being able to pass legislation?
Now this is not theoretical. Joe Biden did not really run on gun safety regulations, Democrats in 2020 did not really run on that either. But, when Joe Biden became president, there were some strengthenings of gun safety regulations that were passed at the federal level and they included the ability to take guns from people in certain legal or medical situations, red flag laws, etc. It’s a perfect example of how, we know the principles that these folks believe. They didn’t campaign on them, but as soon as they got power, they did do something about it. I wish more could have been done.
The counterpoint is, you look after the Sandy Hook shooting that happened in Connecticut in the United States, I believe it was in 2012. After that happened, something like 88 or 90 percent of the country said, we want universal background checks — not to make this all about background checks — but, there are sort of loopholes at the state level and federally that interact in a way where, if I sell you a firearm personally, we can circumvent the need for a background check.
Anyway, overwhelming support for this. And nothing was done legislatively at a time where there was arguably, kind of, more political will than ever, because Republicans were able to stand in the way because Democrats simply didn’t have the numbers. So I think, if we look pragmatically and impirically at this, not campaigning on something is not abandoning it as a principle and you won’t be able to achieve anything unless you actually get yourself elected. So I have no moral issue with saying, don’t campaign on it.
Q: Do you think there is sort of an element of deception involved in intentionally suppressing something that you care about, not abandoning it as a principle, but intentionally sort of, ‘Well, we’re not gonna mention that until we get in power, and then we’re going to see what we can do about it’ knowing full well that if you had campaigned on that, you might not have gotten elected. It sounds, if you describe it in those terms, it sounds a little bit morally suspicious if you know what I mean.
No. I mean, listen, of course, on some superficial level you’re correct. Which is, if I believed 15 thing, and I only talk about 12 of them on the campaign, there’s a degree to which I’m hiding certain aspects of myself. I would everyone who goes for a job interview does the exact same thing. Everyone who goes on a first date does the exact same thing. Everyone who’s parenting chooses to downplay certain traits in front of their kids. I think, for me, I’m not sure this is about some general principle.
The counter to what you’re saying is…what? Everything you believe should be given proportional public display in every campaign, and anything short of that is dishonest. I think the more interesting question would be to ask voters and say, ‘Hey, here are the 15 views of this candidate. We’ve identified that these three are disadvantageous to play up. Do you have a problem with just focusing on the other twelve?’ I think most voters would say no, it actually think it makes a lot of sense.
I think the point you’re bringing up is a great one, but in practice, this is not the sort of moral quandary that maybe it would seem to be.
Deceptive and immoral?
That’s politics. Always has been always will be.
People are still out there pretending this isn’t the case?
Bill Clinton promised to liberate the gaes. He got elected and proceeded to tell them to just stay in the closet.
George W. ran his campaign on no more nation building. (oops)
In 2008, Obama ran as an economic populist who was going to secure the border. He practically sounded like Trump.
Trump has tried to implement the agendas he ran on more than any other president of my lifetime. He has also been the most accessible president in the history of this country.
“But, when Joe Biden became president, there were some strengthenings of gun safety regulations that were passed at the federal level and they included the ability to take guns from people in certain legal or medical situations, red flag laws, etc.”
This guy is delusional and gives ‘revisionist’ tactics. For example, his Joe Biden “gun safety regulations that were passed at the federal level and they included the ability to take guns from people in certain legal or medical situations, red flag laws, etc.” were not that in practice or intent. Biden specifically weaponized the government, and the ATF and DOJ and FBI, against the American people to go way beyond that into soviet era/hitler’esque tyranny and those “gun safety regulations that were passed at the federal level” were used as cover for the illegal and unconstitutional horror show of tyranny enacted by Joe Biden and even included murder of an innocent man and the Gestapo Nazi’esque terrorizing at gun point of hundreds including children, and included a veiled threat of use of the military against millions, and usurping of constitutional congressional authority by creation of ‘defacto law’ with rule by edict.
Hitler did the same exact thing, used the law as cover and create ‘defacto law’ by edict and sent his Gestapo out and he disarmed jews and other disfavored classes then murdered millions of them – the old soviet union did the same thing – Mao did the same thing – Stalin did the same thing – Karl Marx even did the same thing – its almost like the democrats had these as their personal instructors.
You want to see what evil and one form of the left wing mental illness looks like? See the guy in the video spouting this support for this kind of stuff.
“Hitler did the same exact thing, used the law as cover and create ‘defacto law’ by edict and sent his Gestapo out and he disarmed jews and other disfavored classes then murdered millions of them – the old soviet union did the same thing – Mao did the same thing – Stalin did the same thing – Karl Marx even did the same thing – its almost like the democrats had these as their personal instructors.”
.40 (and everyone else), you must must must watch this Babylon Bee video, it’s perhaps their best ever.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ly1cPYSqgR4
That’s lol funny, and it does that while making valid points.
And it doesn’t really matter if the democrats campaign on gun control – those same people who rejected them this recent election will be rejecting them come the next election and overall gun control was only actually the smaller part of their decision. These, and now many more, are not going to forget the disclosures of the democrats seditious conspiracy and traitors in russia-gate, how the ‘classified material’ justification for the raid at mara-largo the material wasn’t actually classified after all and had been declassified and how they hyped it up and lied about it, how the democrats ignored actual theft of actual classified information by Joe Biden (as VP) stored in his garage that he was not authorized to have, how the democrats pushed an illegally and unconstitutionally convened J6 commission complete with secret meetings and star chamber like proceeding and hiding exculpatory evidence, how they funded the physical and chemical mutilation of healthy children with bogus pseudo science and injured them for life, how they laundered tax payer money through USAID using falsified documents and descriptions, how the democrats lied about the economy and inflation and job numbers and increased the national debt, how the democrats lost almost a half million children trafficked into the country illegally and made no effort to find them, how the democrats imported (collectively) thousands of illegal alien violent criminals and rapists and murderers and pedophiles and cartel members and terrorists who did what they do and raped and murdered and preyed on and raped children and distributed drugs and enacted acts of violence and terror in the United States and how the democrats protected them by ‘sanctuary policy’ and even gave them tax payer dollars to support them, how the democrats stood up in public and screamed for civil war and violence and death while basically pledging allegiance to foreign powers with their rhetoric and actions, how the democrats claimed the illegal aliens were here to pick crops and do labor at lower wages thus exploit them to create a new slave class (wage slavery), how the democrats tried to enact a marxist socialist overthrow of the country and attacked the Constitution, and don’t forget the lawfare based on nothing at all in the end, and Kamala wanting to raise takes by 15% minimum if she were elected so she could build homes for illegal aliens and then wanting to price fix companies thus seize means of production in true marxist socialism style, and so much more…
We saw what the democrats had become these last four and half years – anyone who help vote them into office is a fool.
Nah, the democrats problems are not with a campaign on gun control – the democrats problem is they are democrats and the democrats have been committing or facilitating or enabling the most heinous acts of lawlessness and unconstitutional and violence and hate and racism actions – and people are not going to forget it.
correction for : “…Kamala wanting to raise takes…”
should have been …
…Kamala wanting to raise taxes…
Nor will we forget being told what to do for several years because of a flu that only killed the nearly dead. I for one will never, ever trust a Democrat. I think that was how I felt in 1980 to ’84 when Reagan raised the drinking age and went after people’s student aid for getting caught with a joint. I hated and would never trust the GOP. And it took me until 2016, from 1980 to change my registration. I am one of millions who did so. It takes a long time to poison someone’s trust well, and the Dems did a dandy job with me.
A half truth is still a lie.
Oh, they love the half-truths. They will try to deceive in any way they can.
Speaking of half-truths and outright lies, I’m glad they haven’t forgotten about the Russiagate scandal. Obama and the deep state were attempting to take down a political opponent and orchestrate a soft coup against a duly elected president. It was a criminal conspiracy. The bigwigs are never held accountable, so I won’t get my hopes up, but at least they’re trying.
The silence of the left wing hypocrisy: Silence after Levi’s drops American Eagle inspired ad.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWpxuspdFI0
Sydney Sweeney back in the spotlight: ‘Going to melt liberal minds’.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syvKJzuB-aI
This is fine –
Even though they (correctly) realize it’s costing them valuable votes, the rabid, Fascist Leftists running the party will NOT stop harping on gun control, and that WILL cost them crucial votes.
Votes that will be even harder for them to get come the 2030 national census re-drawing the electoral map in OUR favor by 28 electoral collage effective votes (they losing 14 electoral seats, we gaining those14 seats in secure Red states)…
It bothers me so much that people like him make statements that refer to gun control laws as ‘laws most sane countries have’. What does ‘sane’ mean, in his mind? He never defines it. He just states it as a supposed fact. Well if MOST but not ALL ‘sane’ countries have them, that means that gun control is neither a prerequisite OR an indicator of sanity. So what is his point? Simply that the United States is somehow ‘insane’ for not having strict gun control. But he has yet to make that argument, he simply states it as a fact and extrapolates. Arguably, the proportion of ‘insane’, anarchic, and despotic countries have far more gun restrictions on the books than the U.S. But you’ll never hear him admit it. Because it punctures his ill-deserved view of himself as a sane and reasonable person.
Changing definitions: Per the Brady Law, background checks are performed for most “stranger sales.” But the law proposed by Schumer, Feinstein et al had background checks where the pedigree information of the seller and buyer are stored forever. That’s a national gun registry. If you want to propose background checks which are universal and which are scrubbed after 72 hours or a week, that’s what people support. Just as people support, the “right to choose” but not the right to decide a 7 month pregnancy will be bad because she broke up with the guy. English is complex and easy to manipulate, and the left never says what it means.
Liar 0bama campaigned in 2008 on marriage btwn one woman one man so that suburban sunday school grannies would still have plausible deniability when voting for affirmative action for the poor little polite cute black boy. Then after he won, he changed, somehow?!? OMG!
But, he11, Trump campaigned on releasing the Epstein Client List.
A pox ‘pon both their houses!
Yes because the Trump administration is continuing a coverup started by the Biden administration and James Comey’s daughter because they’re on the same page. The Trump admin wants to protect Bill Clinton and the Biden admin wanted to protect Trump. The U.S. attorneys wanted to protect clear evidence of pedo. Always listen to and follow Democrat politicians and look at me influencers that totally never take advantage of their ignorant followers. Lack of evidence is always clear evidence of a conspiracy. There’s a sucker born every minute.