HOPE AND CHANGE…FOR GUN OWNERS’ CIVIL RIGHTS?

We need to get guns out of politics. Anybody who wants to make money off of guns should sell, fix or design them, in the United States.

Depressed. Ideological politicians (in it for their party, not the people in their district) keep telling every available TV camera that incumbents who survived or weren’t yet up for re-election should “listen to the American people” — as if there were one single unified body of people who all agreed on ANYTHING. Winners in each successive election just keep swinging further and further from side to side, with nobody left in the middle where the the majority of THE PEOPLE actually reside, politically, with real problems for serious office-holders to solve. Instead of solutions (oh, no, that’d be a COMPROMISE, and it’d give other party leverage, musn’t do that!), we get fiery rhetoric and yet another two years without real solutions. Decade after decade of the same old sh*t by both parties….to h*ll with both of em, and especially to the latest radicals on the scene to twist American history out of shape so as to be unrecognizable — the “Tea Party”. A pox on ’em all.

This old world, and the problems most of us face, are very real, and very complex, and require real work to figure out means to actually solve, let alone ameliorate. We need problem solving, NOT POLITICS!

Draft a House of Representatives from those who DO NOT want to hold public office. Pay ’em, but draft ’em. Get some folk willing to work together with all the other office-holders to solve problems and then go home, back to their real lives after two years, instead of trying from moment they arrive to stack deck for next two years’ election. They get the jobs, then NEVER DO THEM! Fire the whole stinkin’ lot, including those who just got “elected”. Our electoral system for House just doesn’t work anymore, it just keeps generating extremism on “both sides” as if any of our probl3ems were so simple as to have only two “sides”. Treat the House like Jury Duty, but cut out all those exceptions. You get drafted, you go and serve. Maybe then we’d get away from this freakin’ pendulum that’s really in danger of tipping the whole system over and bringing on TEOTWAWKI and a REAL new dark age.

What we are seeing is conservatism on an ascendancy! We have just witnessed what liberalism will do if left unchecked over the last 18 months. Most people couldn’t believe how fast this country was thrust towards it’s own destruction at the hands of far left liberals.

Liberalism was rejected this past Tuesday and it is heartening. Not only did republican’s regain a solid majority in the house, and picked up six seats, closing the gap in the senate, but republican’s won 640 state legislature seats this go around. Look at Michigan, Ohio & Pennsylvania. When Obama campaigns for re-election in 2012 he well be stepping off the plane in states with republican governors and republican controlled legislatures.

Marco Rubio is entering the Senate as not only a republican, but a staunch tea party conservative! The democrats are freaking out and worried about that. After all, they are supposed to have a lock on minority politicians, right? LTC Allan West, also from Florida, also a minority is also a very conservative republican. The liberals are really beside themselves over him as well. Along with the others, we have elected the most minority congressmen and women who are conservative republican’s in history.

Make no mistake about it, the liberals and socialists are worried. They really overreached and they were soundly rejected.

The onslaught from the mainstream media has already begun and will get worse. But conservatism is on the rise and there will be more liberals and RINO’s kicked out of office in 2012.

For the first time, more people have a vested interest in paying attention to politics. We finally realized we can’t just elect people and then go about our everyday lives without a wit of concern as to what they are doing once elected. The American people have their eye on the politicians now, and aren’t about to shut their eyes again after the vote. We are going to be keeping a close eye on all of them for a long time to come.

I just can’t help but be suspicious of the whole election process. Why don’t other Americans see it?. if someone is willing to spend tens of millions of dollars to get elected that should be our first clue that something is not right. To much unregulated power, privilege and money is given to these people. Otherwise why would people fight so hard to retain the position of elected leader? it’s certainly not to serve the public.

The system is broken, the proof is in the amount of money that is needed to simply serve in the public’s best interest.

@ Cantankerous Jim

I understand where you are coming from, and even share some of the exact same frustrations. The HUGE difference is, I do not want the government to solve my problems, but rather leave me alone so that I may solve them in a manner better suited to me and mine.

I ask nothing of my government except to be left alone.

Biker

@ BikerRN

I understand that. I don’t want (usually) anything either. But I know what happens to a poor family that’s saved and scrimped and prepped and still lost everything through no fault of their own, and despite all they could do. And then what? Are you really saying that you never, under any circumstances, want anything spent on helping such a family (with one or both parents severely disabled and unable to work of years, if not decades, to get absolutely no help from their representative government? That’s lunacy. You can’t control for everything, you can’t prep for every possible contingency and never rely on anyone else ever, unless you’re willing to die. And, frankly, it’s morally WRONG and utterly reprehensible to say that “the devil take the hindmost”…at least in every church to which I’ve belonged.

We must find ways to both minimize government intervention in families lives, yet still keep sufficient regulators looking over business’ shoulders to defend us all, yeah, WE THE PEOPLE. Profit-driven businesses (and they all are) have NO INCENTIVE AT ALL to keep from harming us, their neighbors and workers. I don’t want the banks and financial institutions to have open season on home buyers and everyone who ever needs credit or savings accounts or other financial services. Their profit motive, as we’ve seen so amply demonstrated in past 3 years, is useless in keeping them from harming the rest of us.

Nothing is as simple as saying never spend a single penny on anything but DoD budgets. This universe simply doesn’t work that way.

If you want to reject the spirit of helping out those less fortunate when they need your help (or they’ll die), then I disagree strongly. But I don’t think that’s really what you want or mean. But I may be wrong. It’s certainly happened before.

Must massive reforms of broken failed social programs happen? Of course!

But throw the baby out with the bath water? NO! Not in America. We’ve fought too hard for too many decades and centuries now to turn America into “the law of the jungle”.

Civilization is about doing enough to protect each other from the predations of others, out of enlightened self-interest. Otherwise, it’s all just a shoot out with everyone and everything winding up dead on a burnt cinder of a planet.

The point is to stay away from both extremes, neither of which work. A totally “Safe World” is impossible. A totally “Wild Kingdom” world of devil take the hindmost is also impossible, given the forces and power we humans now control. The answers lie in the middle, in between these two forces (the Left and the Right). We don’t live on a one-dimensional line with only Left or Right as our choices and binary solution set. We live in a complex multi-dimensional universe where all the interesting stuff is in the complexity in the middle, not in the dead and dying extremes.

IMHO literally asking “nothing of my government except to be left alone” is not survivable, no matter how great your gun collection and preps may be. (For one thing, are you saying you want DoD budget zeroed out?) You are not an island. And you can’t survive EVERY POSSIBLE THING on your own. More importantly, if you go down, it harms the rest of us too. Really. Additionally, you shouldn’t have to live that way in America. That’s not what our Vets have fought for over the centuries since the founding of America. But that’s NOT saying you can retire to a life of leisure while the rest of us support you! Both extremes kill.

Stick with our Constitution! It was created by a group of brave people who recognized that sometimes you need help from others, and other times you have to help others. Admittedly, in 1700s they didn’t have the advantages we have now to help achieve their underlying objectives, nor the vast wealth we now have created.

Look at history of our way of voting…it’s based on world without easy worldwide communications, where travel was hard. It’s a relic, but the principles of representative government that underly it, must be upheld. But the way those principles are realized and implemented need to be updated from 18th century constraints to 21st century capabilities, so we can remove some of the worst unintended and unimagined consequences from trying to run our country as if still in pre-telegraph and pre-Interstate highway system days.

Just fighting over Blue vs Red keeps all of us ignoring the actual problems. Solve problems, don’t just jump from one extreme to the other. And don’t just condemn our children and grandchildren to a system where the BEST anyone can every hope for is DEADLOCK. If that’s really all we think congress-critters are worth using for, then abolish the system and create some other alternative. But I don’t think that’s the answer. We’ve already done that once, in the American Revolution. We don’t need (and I sure won’t support) anyone trying to throw out everything we’ve worked to achieve as citizens since that time. Is deadlock really the best y’all think we can hope for? Have we descended so far from the hopes and dreams of our forefathers? Shame.

We’re all citizens (well, many of us, but don’t get me started on that absurd situation) here, regardless of whatever “Political Party” we’ve been forced to sign up for when we registered to vote. Get beyond all they hype leading everyone to believe there’s two sides to every question. There’s thousands of sides to most questions.

And politicians who claim to speak for “The American People” are idiots…at best they speak for those who voted for them in their district…but they’re RESPONSIBLE to ALL of us, including those with whom they disagree. They’re there to SERVE, not to proselytize and build up freakin’ war chests for next campaign. They’re supposed to be at their damned desks doing work, not running around they day after they arrive starting their next campaign for election in two years.

I can’t believe the insane rhetoric about “personal responsibility” from people who take no responsibility for not having done their jobs. Incredibly arrogant. Sorry, another hot-button issue for me when suits who’ve never worked and never suffered and had their world fall apart on them, been injured through no fault of their own, and had all their plans and preps destroyed or lost or stolen by their “kindly neighbors” and church lay-people (Oh, he’ll never need that tool again, given how badly he’s injured, and I can use that in my work, so I’m taking it now)….. Aaarrrrgggghhhhh! So much for good buddy conservative neighbors.

Oh well, please THINK about the real problems and how broken our current systems really are. Look around you. Do you even realize how many homeless people we’ve failed? If you think all you need to survive is your preps, weps, family, best friends, and church, guess again. You simply wouldn’t believe how fast it can disappear on you. Oh, by the way, how’s your 401K doing, eh?

@ Cantankerous Jim

Quite the long worded reply. I must’ve struck a chord. 🙂 I’m going to keep this short, as it’s late and I need to go to sleep.

I’m not saying I want to abolish the entire federal government, but I do believe that they, “the government” has too much power. The power should be with the states, and not Washington, D.C.. Each state is more attuned to it’s people, and their needs, and should be free to govern as the people see fit.

The death of America started with the Whiskey Tax Rebellion, with the final deadly blow being the War of Northern Aggression. After that the country was on a respirator. It coded during WWII, when we lost our agricultural based economy, and coded numerous times after that, only to be brought back from the edge once again.

I do not believe that everyone at or above the age of majority should be allowed to vote. That should be a right reserved for property owners, or those that pay taxes in the form of filing a tax return every year.

I realize that one cannot prepare for every eventuality, but the powers that be should not be expected to step in and rescue those that would otherwise perish. Because we as a society have interfered with Darwinism for so long, the unable and uncomprhending are leading us in to oblivion.

I do not expect anyone else to share my views, and truth be told I don’t think I’d even want to live in a world where things are like I say I would like them to be. What I ask you to keep in mind is that to reach a middle you need to have two ends. I have taken one end in hopes of pulling this country in a direction more in tune with my political philosphy.

Biker

At Cantakerous Jim:
I understand where you are coming from. I even agree to a certain degree. I do fundamentally disagree on 2 points however.
Businesses have 2 very major reasons to respect their customers, banks and industry alike. The first is that if you piss off your customer base, your purchasing base goes down as they seek other providers. Second, as concerns the banks and other companies, profit without responsibility leads to failed companies. I firmly believe we would be better off as a country if we had let AIG, Meril, Countrywide, and the auto makers go under rather than exempting them from market forces.
Their resources would be redistributed to those companies who acted more responsibly and those who did wrong would be out of a job.
Second, I would rather see the care and support of my fellow man left to the states and local communities rather than the feds.
A big part of our current system is predicated upon everyone in every state throwing money at the feds, and the federal government then deciding who is worthy of support or who is most needy. To my mind that’s trash, and simply institutionalizes and insolates a national sense of obliviousness when it comes to social and financial issues.
The people most concerned with and paying to fix problems should be the ones who are in the areas where those problems are most present.
If we hold local polititions responsible for their state’s issues and make people in their own state pay for issues (rather than subsidizing those states with funds from people who aren’t directly involved through federal redistribution) then people will start having to give a damn and caring at some level who is being put in office. See California’s recent budget woes as an example.
If its your problem you should own it. I care about my fellow man to the degree that I don’t want them to die of hunger or such issues.
That said, the federal government should exist to give people the chance to persue happiness, states and local organizations should have to carry out the will of local communities and aid their fellow man directly if that’s what they want.
My buck and a quarter;)

On a national level, I am pleased with the election results. The Republicans retook the House in a move that I see more as a restraining order on Washington than anything else. Their gains in the Senate will also ensure that anything that passes that chamber will require some degree of compromise between the parties. I realize that for now we will have to be content with merely stopping bad legislation rather than actually passing some good legislation. The trick for Republicans over the next two years will be to avoid the traps that the Democrats will set for them. They must not allow Obama and his colleagues to blame them for everything that goes wrong. Just as the Democrat-controlled congress from 2006-2008 made every failure in Washington Bush’s, the Republicans must now make sure that Obama holds the blame for all of his failures between now and 2012.

As for Reid, I prefer him as Senate leader over Schumer, but still see his victory as a defeat for Americans. I believe that his re-election, as well os those of Pelosi, Frank, Boxer, etc. have given them a feeling of political invincibility, which is very bad for America. At least they were forced to actually fight for their political survival this time.

I am most enthusiastic about the gains Republicans made in state legislatures. That is where most of the gun control debates will be fought.

Despite my approval of the results nationawide, I am thoroughly disappointed in the results here in New York. Over the last two years our state leadership has been nothing short of a complete embarrassment. Nevertheless, most of them easily won re-election. Our governor-elect, Cuomo, is no friend to gun rights and tromped his opponent. Depsite having both senators up for re-election in an anti-incumbent year, and both running against strong opponents, Schumer and Gillibrand easily won re-election, even Upstate. I regret that I only had one vote to cast against each of them.

We’re still waiting for the results of the election for NY’s 25th congressional district, which was the most important for me. Dan Maffei has voted with Nancy Pelosi on every important issue. It was widely believed that his seat was safe. But his opponent, TEA party endorsed Anne-Marie Buerkle, ran a strong campaign and forced him to campaign hard. The morning after the election it looked like Maffei had won by a smil margin, but late results from Wayne county put Buerkle in the lead by a razor thin margin of about 600 votes out of roughly 200,000 total votes cast. So it wil be at least a couple of weeks before the absentee ballots determine the winner and with it, my overall feelings of the 2010 election results.

Here in the People’s Republic of Maryland, the Dems again swept into office riding the votes of the public service unions. Not as bad as California yet, but it’s not likely to improve since we re-elected a governor who upped the sales tax by 20% while still leaving us in a multi-billion-dollar hole.

And as Governor, he presides over the gerrymandering that will ensure that no Republican will ever get into office. You should see some of these electoral districts – it’s an amazing thing, even if totally rotten and corrupt.

Still, I don’t think all that highly of either party. Ever since folks realised that they could arrange to get a free piece of the tax pie, the kleptocracy that pretends it’s a democracy has become ever weaker, feeding on itself.

It might be better to go back to a means test, or perhaps only permitting property owners the vote; there’s a better chance that things will be run in a fashion that will benefit the whole community if the voters have a true economic stake in community survival, rather than total self-interest.

Frankly I don’t hold too much hope for the country, with the general decline in good sense, in education that truly teaches how things are and how they work, with the rise of political correctness and its attendant stupidities.

Well, the barbarians are at the gates, and we’ll be handing the reins of the state over to them as a gesture of good faith and as an example of multicultural piety. But by the time they take over, there won’t be much left of what they came here for.

BTW, our new (and old) governor likes to call the illegals he invites here “new Americans”. Our ballots are in two languages now, but it’s only a matter of time before we become far more polyglot.

Enough of this. It’s pretty obvious I wasn’t all that thrilled by the recent elections. I’d like to hope for a change for the better, but I doubt I’ll see it.

cantankerous jim is probably the sanest among you, 75% of the federal budget is military expendature or intrest on military spending. All yall bitchin about your taxes werent at the peace rally. If we were so fing concerned about wmds we woulnt have supplied them to saddam. Piplineastan, Don’t even get me started the “Official Story” was we were warned and dropped the ball The head of the physics Dept at Fing BYU confirmined the presence of the most technologically advanced form of thermite in wtc dust and the buildings including tower seven (1 paragraph in 911 report) not struck by plane fell at freefall. If obama was a commie he extridite bush to face war crimes charges. He not he is a DLC democrat which is almost what the republicans where before the neocon coup. But can I expect a bunch of reactionary retards who don’t believe in evolution, to understand shit. Relativity is a theroy too and the Fing bomb works, and we are currently fucking with a lot of soverign nations who have it or will soon. I love guns In fact one saved my life. I have shot down a charging moose with a pistol. Had the great bear get up in my grill on multiple occasions, one time charging my speeding car, puncturing the right front quarter panel 2 feet from me. But for my opinions right wingers think I am a pussy because I hope we can still aviod civil and nuclear war in which we will almost all lose are lives, and any pretense of freedom. If money and guns are all we care about, they will be all we have, when we die in your gay survivilist fantasy. If you have ever gotten in a real shit sitituation far from roads, food, shelter, help, trails and realized you have entered the food chain, maby not on top, I would hope you would realise that man is a herd animal and you are not an exception. Dont fuck with wounded dangerous predators that arent currently trying to kill you (the russian empire, the great bear, the Iranians, dimwitted rednecks with the subconcious knowlage that the american system of capitol is specifically set up so that they fuck themselves, and that maby the king james isnt the only word of god, ect. Cats dont go back in bags, and unless you are a Indian you should bitch less about the serfs tha flee our 3rd word empire to work at IBP.

Two years ago folks were saying the same things about a change in national mood, except that the party names were reversed. Voters wanted a change, just like they did two years ago. It doesn’t mean that they love Republicans.