The Dems are not going to stop until they start another Civil War. The next thing they will try is to have a background check for ammunition purchases.
The law enforcement in the communist anti second amendment states are already doing the dirty work. I have to shake my head when I hear * no local LE will ever enforce a unconditional law*. How many LE walked off the job and gave up their careers in Cali, New York, Mass, Illinois...etc?? I’m not bashing just looking at what is already happening and quickly spreading.
If you want to see the direction America is heading look at Europe. Venezuela is an extreme example but the one thing they have in common is the citizens were disarmed first. This leftist political agenda is slowly leaching it's way into America's culture. They control education, entertainment, and the media. Brainwashing takes time and requires generations to die off. Unless there is a hard reset to the right it will continue. The political pendulum keeps creeping left. If JFK were alive today I bet the democratic party would minimize him. He was white. He was heterosexual. He was Catholic, He was male. And he comes from privilege. All the things the left despise. My personal opinion is the left suffer from a cult like brain disorder.
If you want to see the direction America is heading look at Europe. Venezuela is an extreme example but the one thing they have in common is the citizens were disarmed first. This leftist political agenda is slowly leaching it's way into America's culture. They control education, entertainment, and the media. Brainwashing takes time and requires generations to die off. Unless there is a hard reset to the right it will continue. The political pendulum keeps creeping left. If JFK were alive today I bet the democratic party would minimize him. He was white. He was heterosexual. He was Catholic, He was male. And he comes from privilege. All the things the left despise. My personal opinion is the left suffer from a cult like brain disorder.
RaleighReloader]The left has indeed moved further to the left, but the right has also moved a lot further to the right.
This is patently false. The Overton window of American politics has shifted universally left. Please allow me time to find the graphs I am currently looking for. American politics AS A WHOLE have shifted left. This includes the politics of those who have consistently considered themselves conservative. While the EXTREMES of those on the right have indeed shifted right, the baseline Democrat/Progressive/Left political spectrum has shifted massively left. So much so that the two sides share almost no common positions. The amount of polarization currently present in American politics is both deeper and broader of spectrum than those which led to the American civil war.
America on the whole has moved leftward away from values and ideals traditionally held to be American. I don't wish to get into a discussion for the reasons why at this particular moment, as it will almost assuredly turn into a flame war or other net-negative event and will wind up with no one will listening to anyone else. But if the trend isn't reversed, it's only a matter of time before NY style gun control comes to LA or TX. Or any of the other states I like to think of as "America."
We're violently agreeing, and your Pew graph illustrates that nicely. I wasn't arguing about the Overton window in general; rather, that in the past few years both sides have moved further apart.
And you're right that the Overton window has moved to the left on many issues. We don't have slavery anymore (at least, not like we did in the Antebellum era). Women can enter into legal contracts and own property and vote now. The Civil Rights movement protects the same rights for visible minorities. Homosexuality isn't stigmatized nearly as much as it used to be, and we're making progress for transgendered people. In other words: people that aren't white Christian males are getting closer to having the same protections of the law. Some things are indeed marching left, and will likely continue to do so regardless of who is in power.
Keep in mind that all of these things used to be "values and ideals traditionally held to be American." Not everything from the past is good and worth hanging onto.
I appreciate not wanting to start a flame war. I'm happy to discuss this in a civilized manner.
That said ... I think it's a fallacy to assume that because we aren't returning to the social politics that existed in the 19th century (or the Jim Crow era, or the postwar era, etc.), that our gun rights will somehow magically vaporize.
I think the reason is much simpler: somehow gun rights have gotten yoked to other "conservative" issues such as the anti-gay and anti-abortion movements. This actually has nothing to do with being "conservative" (which, IMHO, should have more to do with smaller government and fiscal restraint), and more to do with people trying to legislate their specific brand of morality under the auspices of things having been "better" in some fictitious earlier era. That was the genesis of the whole MAGA movement; the mythology that we (as a country) reached our cultural zenith in the 1950's and have since regressed.
My goal is for people to have freedom. IMHO, owning a gun is a personal decision that the government doesn't need to be involved in, and you shouldn't need a permission slip from the FBI or the local sheriff to exercise that right. Ditto for whether you choose to marry a woman or a man; as long as you're both consenting adults, that's your business and not mine or the government's. So on, and so forth.
This is why I can't in good conscience belong to either of the major parties. They both want to use the government's monopoly on violence to force us into their particular brand of morality. And it's also why I hate the terms "left" and "right," since politics is a lot more multidimensional.
Mike
Mike you have wondered off and you are conflating social and moral issues. You cannot compare the civil rights movement with the trans/poly/sis/confused-gender movement it’s not the same. And remember it was the Republican Party that pushed and made the sacrifices so that all racial makeups could be treated fairly under the law.
The truth about the fight for morality is the left doesn’t care about those social issues either they just want the nation to rely on the government for its morality. Instead of making sure people are free to believe what that want they want the people to trust the government to tell them what’s right. How did that work out for Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany? Our founders understood that only a moral people would be able to remain free.
I’m very much a live and let live kind of guy but the the civil rights movement and our first amendment have been coopped and used as weapons to create chaos and discourse, and have been turned around and used against those it was meant to protect. Bakers and ministers have been told they are required to violate their beliefs to comply with the governments idea of morality. Employees and employers have been told they can’t exercise the first amendment rights with threat of eeoc or civil consequences. What’s free about that?
I’ll remind you the first amendment offers protection of religions not from religions. It was written that way to protect the Quakers and other faith groups who were often looked upon as wierd.
As you are undoubtedly aware, the Republican Party of yore is entirely different than the Republican Party of present. Ditto for the Democratic Party. And the Civil Rights movement is absolutely comparable to the LGBTQIA and gender identity movements. You may not like these movements, but they are about giving people equal protections under the law. There are limits to this (I'll discuss this more below), but I simply don't see the morality of, for instance, denying a gay couple the right to marry (insomuch as marriage is a civil institution).
Actually, I agree with you. 100%. That's part of why I hate how "democratic socialism" has gotten yoked to other issues on the "left," just like gun rights has gotten yoked to other issues on the "right." I don't want to be yoked to the government any more than you do ... I just want people to be afforded the equal protection of the law.
Again, we agree. I'm arguing that gay people should be able to marry, just as straight people are allowed to, or that someone born with XY chromosomes should be able to self-identify as a female.
I'm not arguing that a baker should forced to bake a cake against his/her will. A private business has every right to choose its customers. It may be bad for business, but that's the business owner's decision to make.
I'm well aware of the history behind the First Amendment, and the protections for religious groups that it was meant to offer. I'm not sure why you're bringing it up, but I was never in disagreement with this.
Mike
I will respect your right to your opinions. I have some very strong beliefs about the LBGTQ... movement. None of which have anything to do with denying homosexuals some type of union.
The big dirty secret is the people used and exploited in these movements are the useful idiots Saul Alinsky talks about. They are often mixed up individuals and are rarely well adjusted functioning members of society. That’s not a knock a homosexuals. That’s a knock at people who intentionally make spectacles of themselves. Like the mixed up college kid who professed she was 20+ genders all at the same time. Gender isn’t fluid it’s biological that’s science. Sexual preference and preferring pantys to boxers has nothing to do with gender. I do not believe a man can be a woman trapped in a mans body. I do believe a man can feel that way. But when I get really hammered sometimes I feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and I pray someone with good sense doesn’t let me test that theory.
Additionally regardless of sexual orientation race or religion, we all have the same rights in theory, but now we have taken it a step further. We have given more rights to a select few groups. They have the right not to be offended and we have the responsibility to make sure they are never offended. That’s not freedom.
The big dirty secret is the people used and exploited in these movements are the useful idiots Saul Alinsky talks about. They are often mixed up individuals and are rarely well adjusted functioning members of society. That’s not a knock a homosexuals. That’s a knock at people who intentionally make spectacles of themselves.
Gender isn’t fluid it’s biological that’s science.
Sexual preference and preferring pantys to boxers has nothing to do with gender.
I do not believe a man can be a woman trapped in a mans body. I do believe a man can feel that way. But when I get really hammered sometimes I feel 10 feet tall and bulletproof, and I pray someone with good sense doesn’t let me test that theory.
Additionally regardless of sexual orientation race or religion, we all have the same rights in theory, but now we have taken it a step further. We have given more rights to a select few groups. They have the right not to be offended and we have the responsibility to make sure they are never offended. That’s not freedom.
RalieghReloader you stated the Republican party and Democratic party has changed (not exact quote ) one thing the Democrats have not Vered away from is holding black people hostage ,the Democrats "Negro population control " started my the woman Hilary admired so , is still going strong under name Planned parenthood .
LBJ started the second plantation era with welfare , government housing for minorities and the Democrats are still trying to keep them on the plantation . People can make all the claims they want but the voting records show the Democrats want to strip our rights away from us . Anyone who believes this socialism loving gun grabbing Democratic party is something new and not the same as yore need only to look at FDRs r cord .