PDA

View Full Version : Finally some common sense on the 2nd Amendment by Liberals




libertybrewcity
07-21-2010, 10:55 PM
Liberals love the Constitution.

Ask anyone on the street. They'll tell you the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a liberal organization. During the dark days of the Bush Administration, membership doubled because so many Americans feared increasing restrictions on their civil liberties. If you were to ask liberals to list their top five complaints about the Bush Administration, and they would invariably say the words "shredding" and "Constitution" in the same sentence. They might also add "Fourth Amendment" and "due process." It's possible they'll talk about "free speech zones" and "habeus corpus."

There's a good chance they will mention, probably in combination with several FCC-prohibited adjectives, former Attorney Generals John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales.

And while liberals certainly do not argue for lawlessness, and will acknowledge the necessity of certain restrictions, it is generally understood that liberals fight to broadly interpret and expand our rights and to question the necessity and wisdom of any restrictions of them.

Liberals can quote legal precedent, news reports, and exhaustive studies. They can talk about the intentions of the Founders. They can argue at length against the tyranny of the government. And they will, almost without exception, conclude the necessity of respecting, and not restricting, civil liberties.

Except for one: the right to keep and bear arms.

When it comes to discussing the Second Amendment, liberals check rational thought at the door. They dismiss approximately 40% of American households that own one or more guns, and those who fight to protect the Second Amendment, as "gun nuts." They argue for greater restrictions. And they pursue these policies at the risk of alienating voters who might otherwise vote for Democrats.

And they do so in a way that is wholly inconsistent with their approach to all of our other civil liberties.

Those who fight against Second Amendment rights cite statistics about gun violence, as if such numbers are evidence enough that our rights should be restricted. But Chicago and Washington DC, the two cities from which came the most recent Supreme Court decisions on Second Amendment rights, had some of the most restrictive laws in the nation, and also some of the highest rates of violent crime. Clearly, such restrictions do not correlate with preventing crime.

So rather than continuing to fight for greater restrictions on Second Amendment rights, it is time for liberals to defend Second Amendment rights as vigorously as they fight to protect all of our other rights. Because it is by fighting to protect each right that we protect all rights.

And this is why:



http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2010/7/4/881431/-Why-liberals-should-love-the-Second-Amendment

Obviously libs don't love the constitution, but if they support the 2nd amendment, that's okay with me!

Kludge
07-21-2010, 11:01 PM
Obviously libs don't love the constitution

Many do, implied with the blurb on the ACLU´s membership doubling during the Bush years. You´re thinking of socialists, I think.

libertybrewcity
07-21-2010, 11:09 PM
Many do, implied with the blurb on the ACLU´s membership doubling during the Bush years. You´re thinking of socialists, I think.

Liberals love sections of the constitution that apply to them like the 4th amendment.

Kludge
07-21-2010, 11:10 PM
Liberals love sections of the constitution that apply to them like the 4th amendment.

Conservatives love sections of the constitution that apply to them like the 2nd amendment.

amy31416
07-21-2010, 11:11 PM
I posted her article long ago, it's well-written and nice to see that there are a few sane liberals.

libertybrewcity
07-21-2010, 11:24 PM
Conservatives love sections of the constitution that apply to them like the 2nd amendment.

I wasn't talking about conservatives. I know there are many conservatives out there that support pieces of the constitution. Declaration of War ring a bell? I was talking a liberals.

libertybrewcity
07-21-2010, 11:25 PM
I posted her article long ago, it's well-written and nice to see that there are a few sane liberals.

ah yes, i realized that this article is quite old..

Austrian Econ Disciple
07-21-2010, 11:56 PM
This article was not done by a liberal, but by a CLASSICAL liberal. I wouldn't delude yourselves into believing American liberals want to legalize weapons. :p

amy31416
07-22-2010, 12:07 AM
This article was not done by a liberal, but by a CLASSICAL liberal. I wouldn't delude yourselves into believing American liberals want to legalize weapons. :p

They have a similar issue that we do....most "liberals" are not classical liberals, just as most "conservatives" are not true conservatives.

Good common ground there?

Austrian Econ Disciple
07-22-2010, 01:13 AM
They have a similar issue that we do....most "liberals" are not classical liberals, just as most "conservatives" are not true conservatives.

Good common ground there?

Except that classical liberal in today's terminology is basically a libertarian, the only thing that is similar is the etymology, but not philosophy.

jbuttell
07-22-2010, 08:25 AM
Liberals love sections of the constitution that apply to them like the 4th amendment.

Uhh, right. I'm sorry but thats just a joke. The only part if the bill of rights all liberals seem to agree on
is the 16th. What has the liberal congress done in recent history but strip the 4th to its core? Irs now has access to our credit card transactions, they jave more power than ever to monitor everything, now starting in 2012, they'll demand to have gold transactions reported.

charrob
07-22-2010, 10:40 AM
-really good article. Thanks for posting. I'm from the left and believe strongly that when this issue is explained in this way to other liberals, they will agree on the importance of the second amendment. I changed my view years ago when it was explained to me in this way, and i'm pretty hard-headed :p .