February 6, 2017
The issue liberals need to stop pressing
Sam Smith
One reason liberals don't do better in elections is because they insist on pressing an issue which easily annoys 55 million Americans - those who own guns. This is roughly the size of America's liberal population and either constituency constitutes about a quarter of America's adults.
The sad fact is that liberals in recent decades have done little to reach out to constituencies not naturally their own, particularly working class whites and, in fact, in this election they tended to dis' them, even using terms like "deplorable." And 41% of whites say they have a gun in their home (as opposed to 19% of blacks).
The liberal retreat from economic programs is their big problem, but the anti-gun approach hasn't helped things.
After all homicides are at a half century low, and those responsible for them represent about two one-hundredth of a percent of all gun owners.
Further, gun ownership doesn't tell you as much about the murder rate as liberals think. For example, Mississippi has approximately the same rate of gun ownership as New Hampshire yet has five times as many murders per capita. And there are five times as many murders per capita in Louisiana than in Maine despite roughly the same rate of gun ownership.
Those of us who live in low murder Maine found ourselves cursed with another term for right-wing Governor Paul LePage in 2014. He won a three way race by 29,000 votes thanks at least in part to a referendum on an "Act To Prohibit the Use of Dogs, Bait or Traps When Hunting Bears Except under Certain Circumstances." While you can only guess how many hunters were pulled to the polls by this measure, it lost by 41,000.
Over half of gun owners, unlike liberals, live in rural areas. They overwhelmingly use weapons to kill animals not people. This was one constituency that liberals bombed on in this election.
If liberals would take their failed efforts against guns and apply it to economic improvements that help people of all genders and ethnicities they would do much better in future elections.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Follow the money, the elites want and support divide and rule poltics.
Old socialism was replaced by new divide and rule socialism.
The socialism of today has no relation to what was in the past. As this trend continues
Via elite support, the mainstream political movements of the left will destroy themselves as they are dispised by the majority, so the same for acceptable to the elites republicans.
In essence the western republics are going to become more third world like in terms of
Activities of controlling elites, the poltics and economic conditions. It will be a shocking experience for everyone....
Lies of acceptable intellectuals will have no path forward out of the mess, as it stands now only more future lucky flukes of political forces and economy may save us for a time.
The the key of now is the titanic WAR of information control that is being waged these days. outcome unknown.
Gotta call bullshit on this. Most people aren't against guns so mach as the ease of getting them, as well as the easy access to weapons meant to kill lots of people (with zero hunting or other legal applications). So this is absolutely a straw man. Do you see any liberals in the US saying we should get rid of all guns? Then who are you actually trying to persuade here? Maybe the gun fetishists should be asked to understand the liberals, and not the other way around. Either way, this whole it's all liberals' fault for wanting a sane and just world is just fucking ludicrous.
Sam,
I am inclined to agree with you.
While I understand the historical basis for the Second Amendment to be grounded in states' being able to maintain militias specifically and solely in order to deter (a euphemism, I admit) slave revolts, "our" long-term stance on an issue that is of, at best, tertiary importance compared with, for instance, (at the top of my list) global warming and human population-density.
Thanks for your post.
Bill
The right to self-defense and firearms is about POWER, nothing less.
Who has the ability to defend themselves and who is left powerless.
The very first gun control laws in this country were enacted to keep the newly freed slaves from having guns. FACT.
That's why you have these hypocrites like Dianne Feinstein, who want to take the right to own guns away from citizens while they have all the proetection in the world. She even had a concealed carry permit for herself!
It's all about power.
U.S. defense and intelligence officials said that
although they closely monitor the Chinese buildup, they
believe China remains at least a decade behind America.
Post a Comment