- Messages
- 5,069
- Reactions
- 11,352
I really don't think you're understanding here - guns are not the primary driving force for over half of American, and likely more like 70% of Oregonian voters.
I am not saying entitlememts are *good*, I am pointing out that entitlements, jobs, and infrasteucture spending rank above guns for most Americans. Trump was electee not for being "a gun guy" - he was elected for the promise to spark job growth. Most of the people who voted for him could give a rats bubblegum about guns if they were worried about their job, or out of a job. This is a gun forum, so maybe our group is myopic about this, but guns are simply not *that* important to a big chunk of adults eligible to vote. Some want them gone, some only want government to have them, most are fence sitters or middle roaders, then theres the no compromise crowd dreaming of rolling back GCA '68, NFA '34, and making all 50 states constitutional carry.
The Free $#!7 Army, pensioners, and Joe Sixpack care less about their gun rights than their other "rights" - and so we wind up with politicians that pander to that group, vs pandering to a bunch of "gun nuts" like us. Its how you get liberal republicans like McCain, Beulher, Ryan, McConnell etc.
And THAT is why party line voting is flat out retarded, and everyone that keeps punching "R" because they think its going to save them or steer the ship from that iceberg is deluding themselves. Same with the BS argument about 3rd party votes being a vote for a democrat. I am f'ing tired of that worn out line, and the mentality behind it. The two parties are both bad, both broken, and if yoy want change you *must* stop voting the same idiots into office. If your choices are a Democrat turd sandwhich, a Republican bowl of crap soup, or a third party PBJ - vote for what won't give you e-Coli, instead if saying that the poop soup is better than the turd sandwhich because its in a more palatable package.
Until people stop following the herd mentality of circling D or R exclusively, nothing changes, and we may as well give up the damned guns, because if you cannot bring yourself to revolt against the bastards at the ballot box, you will never pick that gun up if the time came to revolt in the streets. Insanity is doing the same task repeatedly and expecting different results. Voting for one party exclusively because they claim to be for gun rights, while stealing those rights from you, is insanity. It matters not if a person is a democrat, republican, whig, constitutionalist, libertarian, anarchist, or independent - vote for the CANDIDATE best for the job, not the party. A vote for the party is a vote for continuing the same broken system. It is a vote to continue to be stolen from, trampled on, and enslaved.
This is how the other side wins, BTW. We look for a hero, a shining beacon of virtue, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Payne rolled into one. They vote in candidates that align generally with what they want and play the incremental game. While we argue among ourselves about this crap, they move in the background. They put up wackaloons that occasionally get in power, but more of them are more subtle, more low key until they can make a grab. Then they pressure the weak other "team" and chip away at our precious rights. 21 & over laws, enhanced protection orders, bump stock vans, feature bans, registration schemes, UBC laws, gun free zones, semi auto bans, magazine restrictions, storage requirements, purchase limits, purchase permits, ID cards, ammunition restrictions, etc.
Enjoy 4 more years of Brown, because Knute may as well be Kate Brown with a penis. He is NO friend of ours. Unless Carpenter, Woolridge or anyone else really gets on it with a campaign statewide and becomes a known name, and projects a likeable, down to earth figure that can draw contrast to Kate, Knute will get the republican nomination, and the party line voters will ensure Kate or Kate 2.0 is reelected. Guarantee that if Knute is on the ballot, it will turn away some Republican voters who won't bother. Thats assuming he's not hit with a big MeToo sex scandal, or incriminating evidence is aired just before the election to torpedo him.
Personally I hope Carpenter or Woolridge get the warchest built up, and make a media blitz getting their face and name known in everyhousehold. Even better if they come out and campaign against IP43 & 44, and urge and remind people to vote, but thats a dream, too.
