Arthur Schaper: Guns, Prizes, and the Dems’ Wedge Issues

Friday, October 11, 2013

Arthur Christopher Schaper, GoLocalProv MINDSETTER™

 

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Is all the talk about guns distracting from the real issues the Democrats face in the coming election cycle?

The mainstream media has become vain and screaming with uptight taunts about deep fissures in the Rhode Island Republican Party.

The fact is, as Columnist George Will and Assembly Minority Leader Brian Newberry (R-North Smithfield) asserted, the Republican Party welcomes these divisions, whereas statist groups like the anti-Democratic hypermajority impose in back-room affront style, who will lead, and everyone else will like it, or else.

About guns

The Rhode Island Republican Party hosted a gun raffle. The Providence Journal jumped up and down.

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Didn’t notice? Not really. The mainstream media is shooting blanks at conservatives, Republicans, and the RIGOP.

Contrary to the slanted commentary of (Dem) Russell Moore, if anyone is getting shot in the foot over the gun issue, it would be the anti-Democratic hypermajority in Providence. The General Assembly tried to pass an assault weapons ban. It failed before Governor Chafee could veto or sign it. Rhode Islanders are keeping a strong hold on their guns.  Here in California, well, not so much (so far).

Yes, there were disagreements about the matter. Michael Napolitano did suggest that the GOP could have raffled off a different firearm. Perhaps a cannon would have been better, one that would blow a hole wide through Providence corruption, and maybe large enough to create another swimming pool, too? The voters in Rhode Island want leadership, not squabbles. They want people to protect their rights, secure their borders, and recognize and respect their capacity to take care of everything else.

Dr. Dan, pick up your rifle (or ruffle) at the raffle

Dr. Dan Harrop claimed in the Providence Journal that the whole fundraiser was inappropriate.

Then he shared:

A Second Amendment gun rally is fine (note I am a lifetime member of the NRA and have owned and used guns in the past — no problems with this). Most of the raffle prizes are fine (restaurants, etc.), but not guns and ammos.”

By the way, if the raffle was such a ruffle to Dr. Dan, that they should not have offered a rifle, why did he shuffle off with a huffle and forget to pilfer the prizes that he won? If he opposed the raffle, then why did he buy tickets to the event in the first place?

Forget the fundraisers. Time to shoot at the “Democratic in Name Only” hypermajority, which represents politicians instead of people, self-interest instead of the public interest.

The Democratic Party wedges

Last time I checked, the media has attempted to widen the wedges among the Republican Party, whether in New England or just about anywhere else.

Let’s review the past year, and let’s talk about the Party Wedges dividing the Democrats

(This will be bang-bang fun, so let's start shooting)

Let’s talk about Obamacare.

Democrats (more of them) are voting against this law in the House of Representatives. In the US Senate, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin declared that the President should support a one-year delay of the individual mandate. The President gave employers and special interests a fair break. Why not the rest of us? As for the blue senators from red states (Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and Kay Hagan of North Carolina), they will have a harder time explaining to their red-state-gone-redder constituents why they favored a law killing the health care industry, forcing employees into part-time work.

Then there’s the environment.

Keystone has been locking up Democrats from different parts of the country. Mountain-types, the rugged business-connected representatives, and even Democratic conservatives have regarded the new pipeline as a means of funneling more fuel into the United States, away from enemy competitors like China, and to bring down the cost of gas while increasing production and creating jobs.

And about unions...

“An injury to one is an injury to all!” shouts the International Longshore and Warehouse Union.  Yet their power is in decline, and workers will be the better for it. The ILWU, the more radical, of the national unions (Founder, Harry Bridges was a, card-carrying communist) has broken with the AFL-CIO for not pushing a full single-payer system. The United Food and Commercial Workers, which forces shop-keepers and retail clerks into a collective, was forced to downsize their offices in Los Angeles (I know, I am a forced member) Non-union shops are thriving in California, and demonstrations against them have not worked. Farmer workers in Central Valley, California are resisting union encroachment (migrant workers like to move, you know!) And Rhode Island taxpayers are resisting day care collective bargaining. Let’s not forget Wisconsin. Unions are no longer the unifying Democratic power.

And about guns (behold the Democratic circular firing squad)...

Red state Democratic senators crippled President Obama’s hopes of expansive government, with or without constitutional approval. The Second Amendment is the Achilles’ heel of progressives, who want to make government the end-all-and-be-all. The research, the history, the culture, and reality all testify that gun bans are bad ideas. Two state senators in Colorado were fired (recalled) for their gun control stance (with a third on the way)

Perhaps RIGOP should roll out another raffle: Ruffle the Dems with a Rifle or a Riff.

The Prize? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in Rhode Island.

 

Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance. Follow him on Twitter @ArthurCSchaper, reach him at [email protected], and read more at Schaper's Corner and As He Is, So Are We Ministries.

 

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