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Rational. Commonsense. Compromise. Really?
“We cannot negotiate with those who say, ‘What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is negotiable.'”– John F. Kennedy, Address to the American People, July 25, 1961.
Once again the anti-gun people are starting to trot out the tired and hackneyed meme of “compromise” in the national gun conversation. Hmmmm… Yes. It is true. The awesome Mrs. hoowitts (and my sometimes wonderful children of 22 and 25, and future grandchildren, G-d willing) fall into this camp. They live this out: “What’s mine is mine; and what’s Dad’s is mine”. I can handle that. My choice.
But last I looked, I’m not married to FJB, DJT, BHO, GWB, NIAID, WHO, WTO, UN, FBI, AMA…does this bureaucratic list ever end? Or any other schmuck that covets a piece of my pie.
Willing to share my blessings? Sure. Let’s talk.
Obligated through some governmental paradigm that prioritizes policy based on the extremes at the cost of the 95th+ percentile? Well “You got another thing coming”. Geez…a Judas Priest song helps makes my point. Not a shining moment.
If one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter, then it stands to reason that maybe one man’s compromise is another man’s capitulation.
In 2020 Biden ran on the term unity. Well, hot-diggity-dog! Who doesn’t want unity? Amiright? Well, let’s ask the Uyghurs. Or the Hutus. Or the Serbs. Or the Tibetans. Or Christians (anywhere other than the west). Or the European Jews in the ’30s-’40s (please, spare me Godwin’s Law…I’m just getting it out of the way early).
There has been no good faith offer of compromise…of rationality…of commonsense from this Democrat party for more than a decade. What exactly is left Oops. Sorry, the Left never compromises. Avoid that word. Let me restart. What exactly remains of the 2nd Amendment to compromise on?
One of the great analogies I came across was from a blog called “The LawDog Files“. I want to give him credit. Of course, I could just Biden my way along and say…
“I was accepted at the Naval Academy”
“I was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela”
“I really enjoyed teaching as a professor at UPenn” (paid, yes; taught, no)
“I used to drive a tractor-trailer, so I know a little about driving big trucks”
“I remember spending time at the—you know, going to the—you know, the Tree of Life Synagogue”
“I went to Law School on a full academic scholarship. The only one in my class on a full academic scholarship”
“I graduated in the top half of my class (actually 76 out of 85 at Syracuse. I graduated with three degrees”
Holy fabricator, Batman! Lies…all lies! Can we believe anything Biden says? Larry Sabato, UVA Political Science analyst (respected and presumed objective, until Nov 2020): “Joe Biden was victimized by the truth”. Mic drop.
Here’s the analogy, or dare I say history lesson, as LawDog puts it:
I hear a lot about “compromise” from the gun-control camp … except, it’s not compromise. It is capitulation. Allow me to illustrate:
Let’s say I have this cake. It is a very nice cake, with “GUN RIGHTS” written across the top in lovely floral icing. Along you come and say, “Give me that cake.” I say, “No, it’s my cake!”
You say, “Let’s compromise. Give me half.” I respond by asking what I get out of this compromise, and you reply that I get to keep half of my cake. Okay, we compromise. Let us call this compromise The National Firearms Act of 1934.
This leaves me with half of my cake and there I am, enjoying my cake when you walk back up and say, “Give me that cake.” I say — again: “No, it’s my cake!”
You say, “Let’s compromise.” What do I get out of this compromise? Why, I get to keep half of what’s left of the cake I already own. So, we compromise — let us call this one the Gun Control Act of 1968 — and this time I’m left holding what is now just a quarter of my cake.
And I’m sitting in the corner with my quarter piece of cake, and here you come again. You want my cake. Again.
This time you take several bites — we’ll call this compromise the Clinton Executive Orders — and I’m left with about a tenth of what has always been MY DAMN CAKE and you’ve got nine-tenths of it.
Let me restate that: I started out with MY CAKE and you have already ‘compromised‘ me out of ninety percent of MY CAKE …
… and here you come again. Compromise! … Lautenberg Act (nibble, nibble). Compromise! … The HUD/Smith and Wesson agreement (nibble, nibble). Compromise! … The Brady Law (NOM NOM NOM). Compromise! … The School Safety and Law Enforcement Improvement Act (sweet tap-dancing Freyja, my finger!)
After every one of these “compromises” — in which I lose rights and you lose NOTHING — I’m left holding crumbs of what was once a large and satisfying cake, and you’re standing there with most of MY CAKE, making anime eyes and whining about being “rational”, and wondering “why we won’t compromise” as you try for the rest of my cake.
In 1933 I — or any other American — could buy a fully-automatic Thompson sub-machine gun, a 20mm anti-tank gun, or shorten the barrel of any gun I owned to any length I thought fit, silence any gun I owned, and a host of other things.
Come your “compromise” in 1934, and suddenly I can’t buy a sub-machine gun, a silencer, or a Short-Barreled Firearm without .Gov permission and paying a hefty tax. What the hell did y’all lose in this “compromise”?
In 1967 I, or any other American, could buy or sell firearms anywhere we felt like it, in any State we felt like, with no restrictions. We “compromised” in 1968, and suddenly I’ve got to have a Federal Firearms License to have a business involving firearms, and there’s whole bunch of rules limiting what, where and how I buy or sell guns.
In 1968, “sporting purpose” — a term found NOT ANY DAMNED WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION, TO SAY NOTHING OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT — suddenly became a legal reason to prevent the importation of guns that had been freely imported in 1967.
Tell me, do — exactly what the hell did you lose in this 1968 “compromise”?
The Lautenberg Act was a “compromise” which suddenly deprived Americans of a Constitutional Right for being accused or convicted of a misdemeanor — a bloody MISDEMEANOR! What did your side lose in this “compromise”?
I could go on and on, but the plain and simple truth of the matter is that a genuine “compromise” means that both sides give up something. My side of the discussion has been giving, giving, and giving yet more — and your side has been taking, taking, and now wants to take more.
For you, “compromise” means you’ll take half of my cake now, and the other half of my cake next time. Always has been, always will be.
I’ve got news for you: That is not “compromise”.
I’m done with being reasonable, and I’m done with “compromise”. Nothing about gun control in this country has ever been “reasonable” nor a genuine “compromise”, and I have flat had enough.
Capitulation. Under emotional duress. Pure power at play. What exactly has improved with all this compromise? Cause and effect. What exactly has improved as we have moved forward??? under these capitulations?
Joe Biden, or whatever Geppetto is behind this administration, tosses out: RATIONAL. COMMONSENSE. COMPROMISE. Please find me 1…Not 5. Not 3. But ONE example when Democrats have been rational, commonsense, or reasonable over the last decade:
Abortion went from “Safe, legal, and rare…to “Shout your abortions”
Sexuality went from acceptance with dignity to the point now where your kindergartener, not only needs to be taught about homosexuality and transgenderism, you need to affirm it in them? And if you don’t, the government might take your child away from you. Again, you think I’m making this up. This was actually put in a memo from a branch of HHS, by the Biden administration, just about a month ago, where they literally said that if your three- to five-year-old thinks they’re the opposite sex, you need to affirm it in them. And they set it up to say that the government might come in and take your child away from you if you don’t affirm it in them.
How did we go from, believe every woman, just four years ago in the Kavanaugh hearings to what’s a woman? Just ask the newest SC Justice Ms Mrs Miss Xer Cake Unicorn Ketanji Brown Jackson. How did we go from there are women’s rights to there are no women? We don’t even know what a woman is. There are now more than 50 genders.
How did we go from gender dysphoria is a mental abnormality to anyone who thinks that it is now an abnormality, is him or herself abnormal? That you’re crazy if you don’t think transgenderism is something that ought to be celebrated, something that ought to be promoted.
How did we go from reforming the police to defund the police? What did you think would happen?
How did we go from having a dream about judging people not on their race, but on their behavior. To teaching kids the opposite? To judge people on their race regardless of their behavior? How did we go from desegregation to now resegregation?
How did we go from please be safe and flatten the curve, to universal lockdowns, including healthy individuals? Every child must be given a defective, experimental vaccine, even though children are not vulnerable to the virus. And the longer we investigate the vaccine, we’re realizing it has trouble.
There can be NO COMPROMISE on our current position, with this current Democratic party. Especially on the 2nd Amendment. No quarter shall we give. The last decade+ has proven there is nothing rational….nothing reasonable…nothing commonsense about today’s Democrats.
ANY GOPe that is willing to reach across this aisle needs to be primaried and disposed of. Yes, I’m speaking politically (but I do know I guy ;-).
Hold the line. End of story. PERIOD.
Published in General
Biden is a prevarication machine. Turn his crank and lies pop out.
It is Trump’s fault…of course. Just ask Mook…or Sussman. But you better hurry while they are still alive
The amazing thing is that he has been a congenital liar and defamer for his entire life. Not to mention a crook. And yet liberals vote for him.
Well, each of them knows enough to put Hillary in jail …
“In any compromise between food and poison, it is only death that can win. In any compromise between good and evil, it is only evil that can profit.”
Endless liberal hand-wringing and outrage over the election of Trump. But this old joke would be instructive if only liberals could learn:
Reminds of my playground years:
“It takes on to know one”.
But when it comes to lying, the Democrats take the Costanza view:
I haven’t been listening to their screams, but this is a bad case environment for gun-grabbing. Easily refuted by the failure of dozens of police to use their guns in the defense of unarmed children at the hands of one lone assailant. I think they are very stupid to be pushing for this now.
Biden is a modern-day Walter Mitty.
Well, he is President. But apparently that’s not enough.
Boy…this is some kind of existential
Pretty much everyone in the world knows enough for that. And yet she remains free.
And yet it worked for Biden, didn’t it? (Or at least the election-fraud part did.)
You say that like it’s a non sequitur or something.
Tell that to Mitch McConnell. Time for that reprobate to go.
One of the teachers I had in High School – some kind of English class I think, maybe a writing one – had a sign on her desk that said “Let’s compromise. We’ll do it my way.”
But overall my “favorite” definition is when the criminals break into your house at night and are going to kill you and your family. But you compromise that they only kill your spouse and half of your kids. (When, of course, they – the criminals – shouldn’t have been there at all.)
See, that’s why academia’s emphasis on humanities is so oppressive. A physics teacher’s sign would announce that we do it God’s way. Or at least Nature’s way.
In a contest between reality and postmodern humanities wackadoodles…nature bats last.
I tell the same joke with a pickpocket and a wallet. Each time the judge compromises, giving half the contents of the wallet to the pickpocket. It ends with the pickpocket getting the last dime, and the judge orders the wallet given to the pickpocket because he’s the only one with any money.
To his credit he did hold the line with Supreme Court justices.
This should be no different.
“I want the rest of your cake!”
BLAM BLAM BLAM . . .
Tucker Carlson points to comments by a member of Congress from New York state (backed up with video) in which the representative threatens to destroy some fairly fundamental structures of the American republic if he does not get his way.
REP, MONDAIRE JONES: You will not stop us from advancing the Protecting our Kids Act today. You will not stop us from passing it in the House next week and you will not stop us there. If the filibuster obstructs us, we will abolish it. If the Supreme Court objects, we will expand it, and we will not rest until we have taken weapons of war out of circulation in our communities. Each and every day, we will do whatever it takes to end gun violence, whatever it takes.
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-biden-spoke-need-disarm-population
These people have no intention of compromising. They are willing to destroy the republic to get their way. It is a mistake for people who ostensibly value their constitutional rights to give away any those rights in “compromise” to people who intend to abolish those rights.
[Some other member of Congress said something along the lines of, “constitutional rights are irrelevant with respect to what we are trying to do.” But of course I now can’t find that clip, and I suspect all the internet search engines are trying to suppress it and any reporting on it.]
I found it.
Rep. Cicilline of Rhode Island. Actual quote: “Spare me the bull**** about constitutional rights.”
https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2022/06/03/rep-david-cicilline-spare-me-the-bullsht-about-constitutional-rights-n2608185?utm_source=thdailypm&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nl&bcid=7d6bba9d7073135721b44d7f276b6e792d41deb88f78cf41189894d1ab5f5eac&recip=19995525
Someone who thinks the constitution should be ignored cannot be reasoned with.
That is indeed how the left operates: All claims of moderate goals are lies. All promises have an expiration date.