Posted on 06/22/2015 6:41:10 AM PDT by Kaslin
My first article for Townhall.com targeted left-wing online magazine Slate for dressing up Election 2014 Republican wins as subtle left-wing victories. While the column claimed that Republicans had adopted liberal views on key issues, the fact is that many Republicans, whether winning federal or state office, pointed out (effectively) that liberal, Democratic, “progressive” politicians and their policies were not just creating, but exacerbating, the problems of wage inequality, overregulation for the benefit of the few at the expense of the rest of us, and the prosperity of Big Labor, Business, and other special interests against the General Welfare, Main Street, and the Little Guy.
This past week, Slate Magazine published another intriguing attack, but this time against the left-wing Grandfather wowing crowds and wooing Hillary supporters: Democratic socialist Bernie Sanders. An anti-capital populist who decries the Koch Brothers, hates big money in politics (even though he raised $1 million in the first twenty-four hours of his campaign), Sanders wants Social Security and Medicare for everyone. He wants to break up Big Banks and end business as usual in Washington aiding Big Business. And he is a staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. This revelation triggered my interest. A left-wing candidate with a right-wing voting record?
Slate contributor Mark Joseph Stern reports:
Sanders, an economic populist and middle-class pugilist, doesn’t talk much about guns on the campaign trail. But his voting record paints the picture of a legislator who is both skeptical of gun control and invested in the interests of gun owners—and manufacturers.
Sanders opposes gun control? He respects gun owners and their makers? Bang. “Feel the Bern” has now turned into in the flaming wounds of gunshot victims.
Sterns’ article then details that as Independent Congress from Vermont, Sanders voted against the 1993 Brady Act. As US Senator, he voted to allow Amtrak passengers to pack heat in their carry-on language (have concealed-carry, will travel). He also voted to block funding for any foreign organization which registers or taxes gun owners. Sanders campaign may play out very well (better than Hillary) in gun-grabbing Connecticut, where 300,000 gun owners faced felony charges for failure to register their firearms, or in Clinton’s deep-blue New York, where Governor Andrew Cuomo attempted to impose a gun registry.
OnTheIssues.org lists Sanders’ numerous pro-gun ownership votes, including a successful tort reform measure to block lawsuits against gun manufactures, i. e. the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act. Strangely enough, Sanders received an “F” rating from the National Rifle Association. Liberal elements are still asking about that one.
How has the Vermont Senator’s gun stance affected his campaign so far?
CNN and Politico indicate that Senator Sanders is gun shy about discussing the Second Amendment. The Boston Globe claims that Sanders has a “lighter touch” on gun control.
Following the Charleston, South Carolina atrocity, Sanders issued the following press release:
"This senseless violence fills me with outrage, disgust and a deep, deep sadness," Sanders tweeted. In a longer statement, the Democratic presidential contender said the killings, which were blamed on a white suspect whose victims included state Sen. Clementa Pinckney (D), showed that the U.S. had a long way to go in escaping its history of racial violence.
"The hateful killing of nine people praying inside a church is a horrific reminder that, while we have made significant progress in advancing civil rights in this country, we are far from eradicating racism," he said.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and their congregation," Sanders added.
Discussions against race and racial violence, but not one statement about gun control. Then he held a large rally near a Charleston prayer vigil. Ouch!
What can we derive from this debate within the Democratic Party and throughout the country?
Already divided on trade, and to a lesser extent on marriage, the gun issue is shooting up the Democratic Party rank-and-file. Even in liberal Rhode Island, the most Democratic state in the Union, the firearms community commands considerable influence, and pushes back against gun-grabbing and gun control legislation year after year.
Furthermore, the National Rifle Association remains not just informative but influential, and with the rising crime rates in Democratic, despotic urban communities, more citizens recognize that Wayne LaPierre was on target when he fired back at Second Amendment critics: “The best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun”.
With this gun element exposed about Sanders (The New Republicpooh-poohed his illicit-explicit rants from 1972), left-wing activists are taking shots at Senator and Presidential contender Sanders. For Stern, the sorest pro-gun vote aims at PLCAA, a Republican and conservative (aka right-wing) talking point not just on gun ownership, but tort reform. Stern goads the US Senator on this issue, while trying to bolster Hillary Clinton’s now-flagging campaign:
Several liberal congressional representatives have recently spoken out against the PLCAA, and if Democrats retake both houses of Congress, they may make repealing the law a priority. Hillary Clinton, who voted against the act as a senator, would almost certainly sign a repeal bill. Would a President Bernie Sanders? Until he says otherwise, we have every reason to believe the ostensible progressive hero would stand behind the vile legislation he championed just a decade ago.
Hillary would repeal PLCAA, Stern claims. Really? With the might of the NRA derailing Obama’s repeated gun control measures and exposing his unconstitutional executive orders, will any Democratic candidate dare take on the NRA?
Not even Sanders dares shoot back at the firearms community. Weekend at Bernie’s has turned into another circular firing squad within the Democratic Party, and left-leaning elements are targeting Sanders for his staunch stance in favor of firearms. Will his record on gun rights blow a big hole in his campaign? Not just Sanders’ run for the White House, but the entire slate of prospective Democratic contenders will be shooting at each other to augment their credentials on gun control, only to shoot themselves in the foot for the general election in 2016.
That's balance. On the one hand... on the other hand...
I think the gun issue is starting to wear on the American public. Many left-leaning social media sites such as Imgur and Reddit are eschewing the idea that gun control would’ve stopped the incident in Charleston. I think the youth are starting to wake up and realize that leftist policies are failing across the board.
Better than Hillary, I guess.
GOA lifetime grade for Bernie Sanders: F
Pro-Gun but Socialist Economics could definitely get you elected here in Pennsylvania.
“I think the youth are starting to wake up and realize that leftist policies are failing across the board”.
Last night, I briefly watched a report on “60 Minutes” which discussed the economic and jobs situation in Italy, as part of a feature on the restoration of ancient structures such as the Coliseum in Rome. The report mentioned Italy’s youth unemployment rate at a eye-opening figure of 40%. The number for that category is just as bad or even worse in other places like France, Greece, or Spain. The youth really do take it on the chin big time for socialism and its failures.
Sometimes one has to give the devil his due. Bernie Sanders’ political views seem to have been independently formulated & are not just the usual laundry-list leftie lockstep, and his position on gun rights may be evidence of that.
Checked out his net worth; at age 73 he’s worth about $400,000. Doesn’t rise to the level of wealthy liberal hypocrisy like Hillary & Liz Warren (although he has moneygrubbed for filthy capitalist dollars here & there).
Yet Bernie’s a socialist and socialism is an imposed ideology wherever applied and an armed populace is therefore anathema to socialists. Does he envision a new populist guerilla force advancing the revolution with no more than small arms?
To answer that question, get Bernie’s views on the 1979 Sandinista takeover in Nicaragua. Pictures of the time show guerilleros armed with shotguns and .22 rifles.
Yet the vast majority of gun owners in the U.S. are politically to the right and increasingly aware that gun ownership & gun rights are bulwarks against tyrannical governments.
How does Bernie Sanders square his socialism with gun rights? It’s more than just fear of gun owning Vermonters.
I mentioned this on another thread a while back, but I believe I can accurately recall not long ago, Howard Dean ending up on the Demommunists’ sh*t list because he publicly stated that stricter gun control was not necessarily the best solution to crime and violence in America. I have to chuckle that now two lefty politicians from Vermont, where the firearms laws are among the most casual accompanied by very little or no violent crime there, are really disappointing these Slate types over this issue.
A left winger with a gun is a dangerous combo................
Gee a little bit of sanity mixed with his insanity. That does make him a look a little more insane doesn’t it.
Anyone buying the notion that Sanders, freed from the necessity to win electoral approval from the gun-loving voters in VT, would support gun rights is ... is ... I don’t know what anymore.
On the other hand, one of my co-workers went into a screaming rant when I quietly suggested the South Carolina church murders would have been fewer had some of the church members been armed.
Funny thing about “liberals”;so many of them scream and try to win by volume not merit of their argument.
Prayers? Does Sanders claim to be a believer? Or is he just mouthing platitudes?
They LOVE to scream and use strawmen for their arguments. They are the modern-day equivalent of sophists. They are incapable of having an honest conversation or debate, and when you bring facts to the fight, they clam up and don’t want to talk about it anymore.
Sanders is Jewish. Hillary has taken some not-so-subtle shots at him in this regard.
He’s better than Jeb on guns.
It’s interesting that an avowed socialist is a 2nd Amendment supporter. Of course, Vermont has Constitutional Carry, and has since the founding of the Republic.
Vermont has the most liberal gun laws in the country. Any citizen of the US or legal alien may buy and carry (concealed or open) a handgun without permit.
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