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Why Republicans Are Poised To Lose The Second Amendment Battle (Hurl Alert)
Townhall.com ^ | January 27, 2013 | Derek Hunter

Posted on 01/27/2013 2:49:43 AM PST by Kaslin

You have to give progressives credit. They’re nothing if not thorough. When an opportunity to limit the Second Amendment presented itself in the Sandy Hook massacre, regardless how tasteless it was to exploit that opportunity, they went full bore toward their goal.

Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., introduced sweeping so-called “assault weapons” ban legislation this week that would place unprecedented restrictions on individuals’ rights to own, use, sell and even pass along already owned firearms to family members. But given where things stand now in the polls and political atmosphere, that legislation will go nowhere.

But the Constitution and the will of the people matter little to a progressive with an opportunity.

If they were at all interested in the democracy they routinely claim to champion, they would accept the will of voters and engage in an effort to change minds and the Constitution to reflect their wishes. But much like a three-card Monte street hustler, they pursue the debate over this proposed legislation merely to draw our attention away from what they really seek to do.

While the media focused on Sen. Feinstein’s legislation and President Obama’s dog-and-pony show – complete with children for props and “executive initiatives” that amount to no more than a to-do list for himself –, the real progressive attack on the Second Amendment churns on beneath the radar.

Progressive politicians across the country are attempting to launch a stealth war against gun manufacturers, trying to harm them financially because they can’t legislatively.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter has the city moving to divest its pension fund from weapons and ammunitions companies in an attempt to pressure them to agree to more controls on their businesses. But Nutter isn’t alone, a growing list of progressive politicians from across the country are using their workers’ pensions, their retirement savings, like chips in a game of high-stakes poker.

By pulling, or threatening to pull, hundreds of millions of dollars in investments from manufacturers, it threatens to take stock prices artificially low. They’re willing to play politics with the retirement of their workers in order to advance their agenda. But the full-frontal assault on their stock price isn’t the only stealth avenue they’re seeking.

Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel, mayor of the murder capital of the world, is taking a second line of attack by putting pressure on banks to stop their financial involvement with weapons manufactures until they capitulate to the progressive will.

Emanuel, the president’s former chief of staff, wouldn’t dare make such a move if he didn’t have the blessing of the White House.

Time will tell how well this will work, but the tactic of ignoring the will of the people to advance their agenda is nothing new to progressives. When they can’t get what they want through the electoral process, progressives have no qualms about circumventing the express will of their constituents through lawsuits, activist judges or flat-out harassment.

For years, liberals have sought to silence Rush Limbaugh, to remove him from the radio. They tried offering competing programming, but that proved as fruitful as Betamax every time it’s been tried. They’ve toyed with the idea of reinstating the ironically named “fairness doctrine” to force him off the air, but that idea went nowhere. So they’ve adopted the tactic of harassing companies that advertise on his show, trying to chase them away in the hopes of silencing him through threats and intimidation.

The only step missing from the progressive playbook is the court – almost always the last place they turn when the people flatly refuse to give them their way. Expect an attempt to subvert this soon.

Progressives are never content to win an argument, election or debate, nor would they even be capable if they were honest about their agenda. Instead they focus on the long war, small pieces and coordinated, seemingly disparate actions on different tracks and never stop until they reach their goal. Meanwhile, Republicans are busy contradicting one another, capitulating and/or fighting to be the Democratic Media Complex’s flavor of the week.

In coming weeks and months, we will see still more back-channel tactics, arm-twisting and varying degrees of blackmail and threats employed as more and more progressive groups with more and more liberal money behind them fall in line to do their part to attempt to chisel away at the Second Amendment.

All the while Republicans will go on TV, take abuse while making their case, find support for their principles in the polls…and lose.

President Reagan kept a plaque on the wall in the Oval Office that read, “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he does not mind who gets the credit.” It’s a lesson Republicans have forgotten, and a lesson progressives have learned all too well.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: barackobama; diannefeinstein; guncontrol; guns; rahmemanuel; secondamendment

1 posted on 01/27/2013 2:50:08 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
 photo Obamaagrees_zpsb897c34c.jpg
2 posted on 01/27/2013 3:38:01 AM PST by preacher (Communism has only killed 100 million people: Let's give it another chance!)
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To: Kaslin
"Why Republicans are poised to lose the gun control...
It should say "Republicans will help the Democrats lose the gun control..." They are afraid of the media and will compromise even on a Constitutional amendment. Does Anyone actually belive Republicans are going to do anything? My bet is Democrats will stop this one because they are smarter than Republicans and know they will get voted out if they try.
3 posted on 01/27/2013 5:15:22 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag (...and to the Republic for which it STOOD...)
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To: Kaslin
"Why Republicans are poised to lose the gun control...
It should say "Republicans will help the Democrats lose the gun control..." They are afraid of the media and will compromise even on a Constitutional amendment. Does Anyone actually belive Republicans are going to do anything? My bet is Democrats will stop this one because they are smarter than Republicans and know they will get voted out if they try.
4 posted on 01/27/2013 5:15:22 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag (...and to the Republic for which it STOOD...)
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To: Kaslin
"Why Republicans are poised to lose the gun control...
It should say "Republicans will help the Democrats lose the gun control..." They are afraid of the media and will compromise even on a Constitutional amendment. Does Anyone actually belive Republicans are going to do anything? My bet is Democrats will stop this one because they are smarter than Republicans and know they will get voted out if they try.
5 posted on 01/27/2013 5:15:29 AM PST by ThePatriotsFlag (...and to the Republic for which it STOOD...)
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To: Kaslin

The other thread was locked, but I agree with your post to me. I see the same thing over and over again, the same people too. Of course the over and over is also going to end also.

The fight now is more important than any of the others except health care. And we know how that worked out.

People need to hold firm and allow no compromise of any kind on RKBA.


6 posted on 01/27/2013 5:15:34 AM PST by dforest
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To: Kaslin

Democrats and RINOS
GOD DENIERS AND CONGENITAL LIARS
SAY YOU MUST REDISTRIBUTE WEALTH
LEAVE FIRST YOUR MONEY THEN YOUR GUNS
BE DEFENSELESS WHEN CROOKS COME


7 posted on 01/27/2013 5:21:21 AM PST by mosesdapoet (Should the "Chicago Mechanic" come out of retirement ?)
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To: Kaslin

Progressives will never stop.

Our side believes in individual liberty and the success of the individual.

Liberals believe their agenda is more important than the individual.....that is why individual failure among their own is ignored.

Feinstein’s bill was not written after Sandy Hook. This legislation was already written and waiting for the right moment to be revealed.


8 posted on 01/27/2013 5:25:57 AM PST by Erik Latranyi (When religions have to beg the gov't for a waiver, we are already under socialism.)
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To: Kaslin; sickoflibs

good read on the root of the campaigns of both sides...

http://cliffsofinsanity2010.blogspot.com/2013/01/information-ideology.html


9 posted on 01/27/2013 5:47:38 AM PST by Gilbo_3 (Gov is not reason; not eloquent; its force.Like fire,a dangerous servant & master. George Washington)
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To: Kaslin

This person assumes that Republicans will allow rigged courts and illegal EOs rule the issue. I think many understand that a line has been drawn...


10 posted on 01/27/2013 5:50:33 AM PST by trebb (Allies no longer trust us. Enemies no longer fear us.)
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To: Kaslin

Correct me if I’m wrong, but if a pension plan divests itself of gun stock, they would have to sell it, right? Which means there’s a buyer. So when they do this, how would this be harmful? Seems to me it’s an even-Steven.

All show I guess...


11 posted on 01/27/2013 6:07:01 AM PST by Magnatron
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To: All
While the title of this opinion piece seems a bit off the salient point is that "these people" (I don't even know what to call them any more) will never play by the rules. If they loose in the public arena they will immediately look for ways to go around or circumvent the will of the people.

The point is they are working to pressure banks, insurance companies etc. to make gun manufacturers and gun owners "persona non grata".

So my questions is, are there not business and financial entities who are not anti-gun and anti-2nd Amendment who can take up the slack? After all, it's about money in the end.

If my bank and insurance companies are "Anti" there must be others who'd be willing to take my money after a lack of prejudice is demonstrated.

12 posted on 01/27/2013 6:11:28 AM PST by BattleFlag (The right to self defense, one without which none others matter)
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To: trebb

Evidently the author thinks so


13 posted on 01/27/2013 6:25:54 AM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

Important to communicate with Rep. Boehner and Sen. McConnell as well as your own state’s Representatives and Senators in the Congress and in the state capital.


14 posted on 01/27/2013 6:28:06 AM PST by First_Salute (May God save our democratic-republican government, from a government by judiciary.)
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To: Kaslin

The author’s central premise is flawed. Gun ownership is not the province of one political party. Many Democrats own guns as well as Republicans, especially in the South and the West. They are unlikely to support any new gun control measures, much less the blanket restrictions proposed by Ms. (I’ve got my own bodyguards for life, screw the rest of you) Feinstein.


15 posted on 01/27/2013 6:37:40 AM PST by andy58-in-nh (Cogito, ergo armatum sum.)
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To: Kaslin

Makers of firearms and ammo are among the strongest performers in the market. So divestment would be stupid on the part of the liberals. In addition, it would create a really sweet buying opportunity for other players in the market.

Not to mention that the gun & ammo makers are working 24 hours to keep up with demand anyway and would probably not notice.


16 posted on 01/27/2013 6:38:17 AM PST by lurk
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To: Erik Latranyi

“Feinstein’s bill was not written after Sandy Hook. This legislation was already written and waiting for the right moment to be revealed.”

Just so!

Likewise, Obamacare had been gestating for almost 50 years, awaiting for the right moment.

These LIEberal/Socialist/Marxist/Fascist bastards wake up every day and ask themselves how they can advance their evil agenda.

Conservatives must come to understand that we are in a war to the death, and begin to plan accordingly.


17 posted on 01/27/2013 6:59:34 AM PST by Taxman (So that the beautiful pressure does not diminish!)
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To: preacher

18 posted on 01/27/2013 7:39:11 AM PST by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Kaslin

When Injustice becomes Law, Resistance becomes Duty - Thomas Jefferson

I have only one thing to say:

MOLON LABE


19 posted on 01/27/2013 7:47:29 AM PST by EXCH54FE (Hurricane 416)
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