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Statistics
May
22
Voting Your Pocketbook? Watch Out For Your Guns!
May 22, 2008 | Tagged economy, Elections, gun rights, Second Amendment, War on Terror |
Let me begin by saying that I tend to be a perceptualist, when it comes to psychology. I believe we are all trying to understand how the world works to the best of our abilities. We do not agree on issues, because we are raised in different traditions, we get our information from different sources, and we often do not trust sources of information that do not agree with our perceptions. I not in serious disagreement with the Democrat Party on some of their social issues, but as you will see below, we differ significantly in meaningful ways.
I recently met three individuals at gun shows who indicated that they planned to vote Democrat in the upcoming election. The first one said he was “going to vote for someone who will get me a job.” My parting comment was, “The President can’t get you a job.”
The second man was a union member who said, “I vote my pocketbook.” The third claimed he was in real estate and exclaimed,”The economy is always better under the Democrats.” Guns aside, lets look at Democrat policies and how they might benefit the economy and individual citizens.
The Democrats pushed an increase in the minimum wage. I have worked in employment programs. The minimum wage is basically a training wage. If you can do the job, you will get a raise, usually within 90 days. As far as I can tell, a hike in the minimum wage only boosts inflation. Did you notice how after the last raise, prices went up? There were probably other factors in the price hike, but inflation means that the money of people on the lower end of the wage scale is worth less than it was before. How does this help the working person?
The War on Poverty could as well be called the War on the Family. Look at the number of single parent households on welfare. President Clinton and his wife claim credit for “welfare reform.” He was dragged into it kicking and screaming by a Republican Congress. Welfare breeds dependency on government handouts. Welfare without employment requirements only creates a paid constituency for Democrat politcal machines.
More government programs create more bureaucracy, more red tape, and less freedom for everyone. Higher taxes stifle small businesses, which provide most of the jobs in this country.
Unions are not the only cause of the flight of American industry to other countries (corporate greed certainly plays a role), but union involvement with organizaed crime and left wing globalist enterprises is not helping U.S. workers, in my estimation.
Democrats oppose additional oil exploration, new refinery construction, and nuclear power. Then they complain about high gasoline prices. I’m totally in favor of alternative sources of energy, such as wind and solar power, but we are not going to be able to meet our needs with only these sources for years to come.
While I’m venting, let me discuss for a moment the Democrat position on national security. They complain about U.S. intelligence estimates regarding the invasion of Iraq. For years, Democrats cut military budgets, including intelligence. They said it was not nice to use human intelligence resources (spies). It takes years to build up humint programs. Most other countries torture and kill foreign intelligence operatives, if they can catch them. It’s not a game when your body parts are in the vise.
One commentator, it may have been Hugh Hewitt, said of the Dems intel cuts, “I made you blind. Now I fault you for being blind!” (By the way, Saddam did have Al Qaida connections. Google Ansar al Islam and Salman Pak. Saddam also offered Bin Laden safe refuge, after the U.S. led invasion of Afghanistan. If that’s not support…)
Other issues aside, let’s get to guns. Look at the “blue” states controlled by Democrats: Illinois, New York, California, etc. Virtually all of them have strict gun control and serious crime problems. See the Chicago gang post under the category “Gun Law Failures,” for an example of a dangerous city controlled by a liberal political machine.
Even if you plan to get rich by having the Democrats give you somebody else’s money, and you don’t care about national security and crime, I’m going to encourage you to vote your gun rights. If you don’t get involved and support pro-gun candidates, you will lose your legal right to own a gun. But don’t worry. As Bill Clinton said regarding owners of semi-autos around the time of the first “Assault Weapons” Ban, “You can read a book.” If you don’t vote your gun rights, I would suggest something by Karl Marx. He’s going to be in fashion.
Def Mech
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