It's Not About the Guns (This Time)

I've not written about Obama and the gun issue. That is because, for me, it is a non-issue this time.
Yes, I think Obama is nowhere near close to my view on gun ownership. McCain is also to the left of my opinion. But it is a non-issue for two reasons.

First, I suspect that a lot of Democrats, especially those who defeated GOP incumbents in `06 and those who take GOP seats this year, know that it was the Brady Bill's passage in 1993 that brought the GOP to power in the House. A lot of states with Democratic congressmen are gun-friendly and they know it.

Second, and more importantly, the biggest threat to our freedom in recent years has come from those same conservative politicians who beat their breasts in their defense of the Second Amendment. Never forget that the Bush Administration claimed the power to designate anyone on the face of the planet as an "enemy combatant" and to then lock that person up, without charges, without trial, without judicial review, forever. One simple declaration, unreviewable, unappealable, and you (yes, you) could be disappeared into the American Gulag.

The Bush Administration sought the power to do "sneak and peek" searches, searches that are directly on contravention of the Fourth Amendment. Then they would use the evidence found to get real search warrants. The Bush Administration claimed the power to wiretap everyone, everywhere, at any time. Never forget that they are vacuuming everything that goes across the Internet, including your emails. The Bush Administration grabbed the power to issue "national security letters" so that the FBI and yes, the Army, can snoop through the records of anyone they want. And true to form, the power to issue NSLs began being abused as soon as they had it.

In all of this, the Right was silent. All of the GOP politicians in the Congress, including those who are so vociferous about the Second Amendment have been actively complicit (and yes, so have been a lot of Democrats) in winking at the abuses of the Bush Administration. They defend the Second Amendment and ignore the attacks on the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments. The logic seems to be that "as long as we can keep our guns, we will let all of the other freedoms go away without a struggle."

That is completely at odds with the core reason for the Second Amendment. The reason we have the right to own guns is so that if a government attempted to take away our freedoms, we could resist. The Founding Fathers never suspected that we would be confronted with a government that would say "OK, keep your guns, but give up everything else."

But we have been faced with that government in the Bush Administration. And many of those who claim to love freedom and such have been actively collaborating with the Bush Administration's assault on American freedoms. Under George Bush, we have been coming closer and closer to being the first nation in history that has been both fascist and has permitted the wide ownership of weapons. One might even argue that because of what has happened under the Bush Administration, the Second Amendment has proven to be a paper tiger in the defense of liberty and freedom.

What we need to do is have a presidency which stands a chance to make a clean break of the constitutional depredations of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney, That presidency cannot be one of John McCain and his running mate, Sarah "hasn't yet had time to read the Constitution" Palin. We need to take back our freedoms and liberties. We won't do so by electing another angry fascist presidency.

So this time around, it is not about the guns. It is about our freedom and our liberty. If we don't get rid of this group of goons and get back to having a president and vice-president who have read the Constitution, who understand the Constitution and will take seriously their duty to protect and defend the Constitution, then we might as well close the book on the United States of America as a free nation.