A sane Democratic nominee for POTUS has a real chance to earn my vote this year. To do it, the candidate must be pro gun, and have a solid plan to pay for whatever programs/promises the candidate puts forward. Local elections are coming up next week, and I won’t be voting for a single GOP candidate–most of them are running on how lovingly they fellate Trump.
Notes: Warren, Bernie, and Beto do not qualify as sane Democratic candidates. Nominate them, or others of their ilk, and I’ll vote third party again, likely libertarian.
You really couldn’t hold your nose and vote for someone who wasn’t totally “pro gun” to help get rid of Trump? Guns are great, don’t get me wrong, but they’re not everything. In any case, I think one thing is pretty certain: guns aren’t going anywhere, regardless of the position of any candidate for President.
After Beto’s idiotic “Yes, we’re coming for your AR-15s” comment, I need to see a flat out rejection of any and all forms of confiscation, gun bans, magazine limits, etc. I know it’s possible. My choice for Governor in our local elections is a lifelong Democrat and staunch supporter of the Second Amendment. Likewise my choice for Lt. Governor.
Well, the Libertarian candidate will be pro gun, and as a bonus, pro weed. They aren’t likely to have problems paying for anything they propose, because they probably are not going to propose any new programs. Sane is…somewhat less certain, but they aren’t going to win anyway. If they nominate a real nutter, I can always write myself in…I usually do that for at least one office per ballot anyway.
Not quite. Remember it isn’t the general election that determines what the Republican party looks like. It’s the primary. The calculation is that there are more racist white people who vote in Republican primaries than there are conservative minorities. This is why it is going to be so hard for the leopard to change its spots. Even if it was generally agreed that the for demographic reasons it would be better for Republicans to broaden their constituency, they won’t be able to do so unless their primary base changes, but that won’t happen until they broaden their constituency, Catch 22. Facing these facts, gerrymandering and massive voter suppression efforts is the only hope they have to avoid becoming a permanent minority.
In Heller, firearms were 1 vote away from being legislated away via new restrictions and attrition. If Clinton were elected, then the two people she would have appointed to SCOTUS would more than likely been sympathetic to her view on firearms. The flood of new cases which would then affirm new laws would be pretty much it for the state of gun culture as it stands now. I have a completely opposite view of the prognosis of where guns have the potential of going than you.
Put it this way - if you could guarantee two more Gorsuch style SCOTUS judges, that would be a pretty compelling argument in favor of Trump. Not sure if I could pull that lever, but it would be quite appealing.
As to the thread itself, I’d rather the issue be framed more about performing better with voters in general. I see very few issues that are targeted toward a particular ethnicity. I find the whole notion of white people issues, black people issues, API issues, etc. to be pretty offensive actually.
In my view almost everyone should have the right to have a gun in their own home for protection, hunting, hobby, or whatever they want. Most people should also have the right to have a concealed carry permit. Whether they can have an AR-15 is the subject of a reasonable debate, as are the specifics of background checks, red flag laws, etc. HOWEVER, if a candidate disagreed with me on these things, but was not Trump, he or she would get my vote 100% of the time over Trump or a third party (if Trump was on the ballot). In other words, I would not do anything that made a Trump victory more possible because of the gun “issue.” We can sort that out later, after Trump is gone.
The thing is my vote for POTUS is utterly irrelevant. My state will give all of its electoral votes to Trump no matter what. He’s bigger than Jesus here—and Jesus is widely believed to have been a fair skinned blondish dude with blue eyes and a Trump/Pence sticker on the donkey he purportedly rode into Jerusalem.