Gun Rights Could be Affected by Socialist Ideals
These European-style socialists believe in a complete redistribution of wealth and government control of major components of the U.S. economy, such as our health care system. And they fawn over socialized medicine, higher taxes on most Americans to pay for more government welfare programs, government-paid college tuition and more.
Bernie Sanders, who was arguably cheated out of the Democratic nomination in the last presidential election, is a self-avowed socialist—and proud of it.
“I’m not afraid of the word,” Sanders said in an interview with The Nation published in 2015. “When I ran for the Senate the first time, I ran against the wealthiest guy in the state of Vermont. … He kept attacking me as a liberal. He didn’t use the word ‘socialist’ at all, because everybody in the state knows that I am that.”
Others are socialist at heart, they just haven’t yet worked up the nerve to say as much in public—far-left political elites like U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, California Gov. Jerry Brown, U.S. Sens. Chris Murphy and Chuck Schumer, Democratic National Committee Deputy Chairman Keith Ellison, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, and many more.
Two others—U.S. Sens. Kamala Harrisand Elizabeth Warren—are even being mentioned as front-runners in the 2020 presidential election. It’s more than obvious that this socialist wave is rapidly mounting, backed by nearly unlimited funding from socialist billionaires like George Soros, Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer.
Sure, CNN, The New York Times and left-leaning bloggers will see this and start their usual mocking and derision. “Wayne’s gone crazy, again,” they’ll say with a smirk. They do it every time, and likely always will.
Yet that doesn’t bother me, because they aren’t impartial reporters like they are supposed to be. They no longer report the facts and let their readers and viewers make up their minds on an issue, as they did in the past. They are actually a big part of the problem.
Fact is, so-called “mainstream” media, academia and hard-left elitist politicians have formed a kind of unholy trinity, working together to usher in an era of socialism while derailing the freedoms we hold so dear.
Democrats Or Socialists?
I entered the political world as a Democrat, and let me tell you, things were very different then.
There was a time when many Democrat politicians at the national level supported the constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms right alongside Republican and Libertarian lawmakers. They believed in the Constitution and the rule of law. They had the best interest of Americans in mind, and worked to protect our nation’s sovereignty and freedom.
Well, in case you haven’t noticed, that time is past.
The change began decades ago, but has greatly accelerated in recent years.
These closet socialists (and some who admit it outright) might say, “But Wayne, we haven’t changed our stance on important issues over the years.” They want you to believe the Democrat party of today is the Democrat party of 40 years ago.
But they’re lying.
Former president Barack Obama as much as admitted his socialist bent when pledging to “fundamentally transform” America—not-so-secret code for changing our American way of life forever. He wasn’t able to accomplish all his goals, but he did change the conversation to the point that socialist norms became everyday principles and part of the Democratic talking points. And his success in some areas—including immigration and health care—did fundamentally affect freedom’s future.
Don’t believe me? Just look at the immigration issue as an example. Obama basically gutted our immigration process by instructing his administration to ignore the laws that have been on the books for years and throwing open our southern border. Yet only three years before being elected to his first term, he claimed to have much different ideas.
“We all agree on the need to better secure the border and to punish employers who choose to hire illegal immigrants,” Obama said in a 2005 c-span interview. “We are a generous and welcoming people here in the United States, but those who enter the country illegally, and those who employ them, disrespect the rule of law, and they are showing disregard for those who are following the law.
“We simply cannot allow people to pour into the United States undetected, undocumented, unchecked and circumventing the line of people who are waiting patiently, diligently and lawfully to become immigrants in this country.”
Now, Obama and others on the far left decry any mention of securing the border, much less deportation of illegal aliens—even criminals. Many don’t even accept the word “illegal” as a correct description of someone entering our country illegally.
Media Matters
This dramatic left turn toward socialism has been aided, abetted and even lead in some instances by big national media interests that have gone so far overboard that they can’t be considered anything but socialists.
Who can possibly argue that The New York Times hasn’t made that leap from ultra-far left to outright socialism? How about CNN? Or The Washington Post, CBS or USA Today?
Big media are so enthralled with European socialism that they can hardly contain their glee when attacking anyone who still speaks up for American liberty. Consider their hatred of President Donald Trump, and how they have united to collectively skew their coverage and push their fake news, and fake determination of what news is, to try and discredit him.
A recent analysis from the Media Research Center revealed that ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts covered the Trump presidency for one out of every three minutes of their evening news airtime. Not surprisingly, the tone of coverage was incessantly hostile, especially considering that first-year presidents typically get a pass from the media. A full 90 percent of the network coverage was negative, compared to only 10 percent positive.
Additionally, more than two-fifths of the coverage (some 43 percent) focused on controversies rather than policy, with the bogus Russia investigation alone accounting for one-fifth of all the coverage.
The media coverage on Trump has been so bad and so overwhelmingly negative that, according tonewsbusters.com, the American public has become increasingly polarized over the coverage. The report stated that in September, Gallup discovered that record numbers of Democrats are reporting “trust and confidence in the mass media to report the news ‘fully, accurately and fairly,’” with 72 percent of Democrats saying they trusted the press in 2017, compared to just 51 percent who said that a year ago. Conversely, a Politico/Morning Consult poll just a month later revealed that 76 percent of Republicans “think the news media invent stories about Trump and his administration.”
Meanwhile, the media constantly fawn over the disastrous socialist policies that we see destroying the lives of citizens not only in parts of Europe, but Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries around the world.
Academic Dishonesty
Now, look at American college campuses. These educational institutions were once bastions of free speech—places where people could discuss important issues in a “free and open exchange of ideas.”
What a difference a few decades make!
Now academia, with a few exceptions, is simply a place where a whole generation of young people is being taught to despise capitalism. These former homes to an “open exchange of ideas” are throttling conservative thought and speech, silencing and turning away anyone who doesn’t believe and preach their socialist ideals.
Consider that chapters of Young Democratic Socialists of America, the American affiliate of the International Union of Socialist Youth, jumped from 12 at the end of 2016 to 47 by June 2017, then to nearly 100 by year’s end. According to thecollegefix.com, college students can even earn academic credit for promoting socialist causes on their campuses through a program operated by the group.
Such activities are applauded and enabled by socialist professors who have a tremendous amount of influence over their students.
Econ Journal Watch published a study that looked at faculty voter registration at 40 leading universities. The results are staggering.
Out of 7,243 professors, Democrats outnumber Republicans 3,623 to 314, or by a ratio of 11.5-to-1. In history classes—vastly important to students learning the truth about our American freedoms—liberals outnumber conservatives by a 33.5-1 ratio.
Is it any wonder, then, that in 2016 MarketWatch reported that The Communist Manifesto still ranks among the three most frequently assigned texts at American universities? And that Karl Marx is the most assigned economist on U.S. college campuses, according to data from the Open Syllabus Project?
The end result is college students—America’s future leaders—embracing socialism at an unprecedented rate.
A survey by Reason-Rupe revealed that 53 percent of respondents in the 18- to 29-year age range view socialism favorably, while only a quarter of Americans over 55 do so. Since then, a YouGov survey found that 43 percent of respondents younger than 30 viewed socialism favorably, compared to 32 percent thinking favorably of capitalism.
And according to a survey conducted in late 2017 by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, 44 percent of Millennials would prefer to live under a socialist system than a capitalist one.
Socialism And The Second Amendment
If these socialists win majorities in Congress and the U.S. Senate, all of our freedoms could be lost—especially our rights protected by the Second Amendment.
History proves it. Name a socialist country where citizens have a true right to keep and bear arms. You can’t do it.
Every time, in every nation in which the scourge of socialism rises to power, its citizens are repressed and their firearms are not just banned—their guns are taken away.
Venezuela is but one example, its resources stolen by the socialist ruling class. At the same time, children are starving in the streets and good, lawful citizens are left defenseless against violent criminals, who don’t follow any gun laws.
Don’t think the same couldn’t happen here. Gun-hating politicians are already chomping at the bit to tear apart America’s so-called “gun culture” one step at a time. They claim on one hand they don’t want to take anyone’s guns, while at the same time calling for a ban on entire classes of firearms. Once they’re banned, it’s only logical that they’ll need to “buy back” or otherwise somehow confiscate the ones still in private ownership.
Of course, once they accomplish this, there will still be people who are armed—namely criminals who prey on the disarmed law-abiding Americans. Those politicians who are pushing to usher in a new era of a gun-free America won’t be giving up their protection anytime soon. They already call for you and me to give up our guns—making such statements at press events where they are surrounded by armed private bodyguards that they can afford, but that the average American cannot.
Once they get our guns, the rest is easy. Then they could dismantle the rest of our freedoms piece by piece, all the while moving closer to the European-type of socialism they believe our country should embrace.
Fortunately, after eight years of a rabidly anti-gun administration, we beat back the tide in 2016—but just barely. We shunned socialist Bernie Sanders and far-left Hillary Clinton, and put Donald Trump in the White House.
As a result, the socialist movement in the U.S. has shifted into overdrive. And this new acceleration is what threatens to greatly, and irreparably, harm our nation.
The Trump Connection
How do they get us from where we are now to where they want us to be in the next decade or so? The answer is simple, and you can see it happening all day, every day, by simply turning on your television.
With their main goal being what they consider a socialist “paradise,” their chosen pathway to get there is easy to determine—utterly destroying Trump and the rest of his presidency.
They hate that Trump is appointing dozens of judges who will uphold our constitutional rights, including those protected by our Second Amendment. They hate that he is working diligently to stop the flow of illegals from all over the world who are coming across our southern border.
They hate Trump’s tax cuts putting more of Americans’ money into their own pockets.
They hate that Trump’s policies have spurred the economy so successfully, resulting in record-low unemployment and a record-high stock market.
And with their constant battering of the president, they’re looking to ride this wave right into the 2018 midterm election, where they hope to cut Trump off at his knees and completely turn the tide. Or as Obama would put it, “fundamentally transform the nation.”
That’s something we simply cannot let happen.
As you well know, the NRA is no stranger to fighting for freedom. And we’re determined to battle this new socialist wave with the same tenacity and fury we’ve battled threats to American liberty in the past.
We’re “Freedom’s Safest Place.” And we’ll prove it once again.
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Wayne LaPierre is the NRA's Executive Vice President.
Tags: Wayne LaPierre, NRA Executive Vice President, Gun Rights, 2nd Amendment, Could be Affected, Socialist Ideals, media coverage, gun hating politicians To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and "Like" Facebook Page - Thanks!
Posted by Bill Smith at 9:00 AM - Post Link
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