Free Republic

My background is probably atypical for a somewhat high-profile supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. I am black and grew up in Manhattan’s East Harlem, far removed from the great American gun culture of rural, white America. Although my voting patterns have become somewhat more conservative in recent years, I remain in my heart of hearts a 1960s Humphrey Democrat concerned with the plight of those most vulnerable in American society—minorities, the poor, the elderly, and single women—groups whose day-to-day realities are often overlooked in our public policy debates, people whose lives too often go unnoticed by...

The genesis for this column came from an article, “Liberals Ready to Abandon U.S. Right to Abortion,” published on July 3 in the British newspaper, THE OBSERVER. The journalist, Gaby Wood, asserted that “Abortion may still be the most divisive issue in the [United States], but in a move indicative of creeping conservatism, Democrats now seem happy to amend – even relinquish – their position on it.” Wood cited several liberals who argued that Democrats would need to abandon their nearly religious abhorrance of the Right’s view of abortion to win the 2008 Presidential Election and Congressional seats. Wood quoted...