The Stupid Party Strikes Again

 I was supposed to be in Boone, NC today, and out of pocket, but the plans changed.  Mrs. PolyKahr changed her mind, so I am here at Stately PolyKahr Estates and able to post to this blog.  Gentle readers will no doubt be relieved to hear that.

John Green today, at the American Thinker has a good summary of what is going on in Washington D.C. with respect to the assault weapon ban. The title of his piece, Republicans Take Another Run at Lucy's Football, says all you need to know. For those not familiar with the reference, in the cartoon comic strip, "Peanuts," every year as autumn approached, and leaves began to fall, there would be a strip in which Lucy would hold a football for Charlie Brown to kick. Lucy would assure Charlie that this year, unlike all the past years, she would hold the football down until Charlie kicked it. Yet every year she would pull the football at the last moment and laugh maniacally as Charlie kicked at air and fell backwards. It was cruel on her part, and painful to watch. Did Charlie never learn?

Green notes that the Republican trait of "negotiating" in which they surrender a portion of our liberties to the Democrats in exchange for...well...nothing, as being like Charlie Brown always being suckered by Lucy.

Well, a few minutes have passed since then and the Republicans are lining up to prove that the adage is still alive and well in Washington, D.C. After the Uvalde school shooting, the calls for sensible gun control -- from people who want total gun confiscation -- became a cacophony. But knowing that they’d probably control Congress next year, and could do anything they wished to address the problem, wasn’t enough for the RINOs. They decided to throw the Dems a lifeline now. They jumped right on the “let’s make fools of the Republicans again” bandwagon.

They negotiated a gun-safety bill with the Democrats, that was short on “negotiation” and missed the “safety” point entirely. You see, when the RINOs are involved, negotiating means deciding how much of the Democrats wish list they’ll surrender on. Somehow “compromise” never means getting something in return.

In exchange for red flag legislation, they could have demanded concealed carry reciprocity. But they didn’t even ask. In exchange for expanded background checks, they could have included criminal liability for bureaucrats who disclose confidential gun ownership data. But they didn’t. They didn’t even bother to codify disciplinary action for government employees who fail to comply with the regulations -- like failing to report criminal violations to the keepers of the background check database.

While they were having these so-called negotiations, did the RINOs even talk about the Soros prosecutors who have decided criminal charges are something that only applies to Trump supporters? Did they bother to ask if this whole forgiveness is a better deterrent than incarceration philosophy is having any effect on our “culture of gun violence”?

Green sums it all up this way:

The Dems won’t enforce our current gun laws -- which criminals won’t follow anyway. The only people who will comply with more restrictions are law-abiding citizens. They don’t tend to go around shooting each other, because it’s already against the law -- which the law-abiding follow. So, the Republicans have “negotiated” increased restrictions on the law-abiding and the creation of a bunch of tools for leftists to use while harassing gun owners -- and gotten nothing in return. They rationalized it as “common sense” gun laws -- because they didn’t have the common sense to see what this was really all about. Do you get why we call the Democrats the evil party and the Republicans the stupid party? Both titles are well earned.

You will want to read the whole thing. The Republicans have, for as long as I can remember, been a minority party. But sometimes, people who should be Democrats run as Republican for convenience. These are the kind of pols who say "Here are my principles. If you don't like them, here are some others." Maybe it is time to toss some of these people out of the Republican party on their ear?