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Single Issue Voter?
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<blockquote data-quote="skyydiver" data-source="post: 1525715" data-attributes="member: 68"><p>Good read, IMHO:</p><p>From <a href="http://lneilsmith.org/" target="_blank">http://lneilsmith.org/</a></p><p></p><p>Why Did it Have to be Guns?</p><p></p><p>by L. Neil Smith</p><p><a href="mailto:lneil@lneilsmith.org">lneil@lneilsmith.org</a></p><p></p><p>Over the past 30 years, Ive been paid to write almost two million words, every one of which, sooner or later, came back to the issue of guns and gun-ownership. Naturally, Ive thought about the issue a lot, and it has always determined the way I vote.</p><p></p><p>People accuse me of being a single-issue writer, a single- issue thinker, and a single- issue voter, but it isnt true. What Ive chosen, in a world where theres never enough time and energy, is to focus on the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician or political philosophy is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center.</p><p></p><p>Make no mistake: all politicians even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because its an X-ray machine. Its a Vulcan mind-meld. Its the ultimate test to which any politician or political philosophy can be put.</p><p></p><p>If a politician isnt perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isnt your friend no matter what he tells you.</p><p></p><p>If he isnt genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybodys permission, hes a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.</p><p></p><p>What his attitude toward your ownership and use of weapons conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesnt trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?</p><p></p><p>If he doesnt want you to have the means of defending your life, do you want him in a position to control it?</p><p></p><p>If he makes excuses about obeying a law hes sworn to uphold and defend the highest law of the land, the Bill of Rights do you want to entrust him with anything?</p><p></p><p>If he ignores you, sneers at you, complains about you, or defames you, if he calls you names only he thinks are evil like Constitutionalist when you insist that he account for himself, hasnt he betrayed his oath, isnt he unfit to hold office, and doesnt he really belong in jail?</p><p></p><p>Sure, these are all leading questions. Theyre the questions that led me to the issue of guns and gun ownership as the clearest and most unmistakable demonstration of what any given politician or political philosophy is really made of.</p><p></p><p>He may lecture you about the dangerous weirdos out there who shouldnt have a gun but what does that have to do with you? Why in the name of John Moses Browning should you be made to suffer for the misdeeds of others? Didnt you lay aside the infantile notion of group punishment when you left public school or the military? Isnt it an essentially European notion, anyway Prussian, maybe and certainly not what America was supposed to be all about?</p><p></p><p>And if there are dangerous weirdos out there, does it make sense to deprive you of the means of protecting yourself from them? Forget about those other people, those dangerous weirdos, this is about you, and it has been, all along.</p><p></p><p>Try it yourself: if a politician wont trust you, why should you trust him? If hes a man and youre not what does his lack of trust tell you about his real attitude toward women? If he happens to be a woman, what makes her so perverse that shes eager to render her fellow women helpless on the mean and seedy streets her policies helped create? Should you believe her when she says she wants to help you by imposing some infantile group health care program on you at the point of the kind of gun she doesnt want you to have?</p><p></p><p>On the other hand or the other party should you believe anything politicians say who claim they stand for freedom, but drag their feet and make excuses about repealing limits on your right to own and carry weapons? What does this tell you about their real motives for ignoring voters and ramming through one infantile group trade agreement after another with other countries?</p><p></p><p>Makes voting simpler, doesnt it? You dont have to study every issue health care, international trade all you have to do is use this X-ray machine, this Vulcan mind-meld, to get beyond their empty words and find out how politicians really feel. About you. And that, of course, is why they hate it.</p><p></p><p>And thats why Im accused of being a single-issue writer, thinker, and voter.</p><p></p><p>But it isnt true, is it?</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="skyydiver, post: 1525715, member: 68"] Good read, IMHO: From [url]http://lneilsmith.org/[/url] Why Did it Have to be Guns? by L. Neil Smith [email]lneil@lneilsmith.org[/email] Over the past 30 years, Ive been paid to write almost two million words, every one of which, sooner or later, came back to the issue of guns and gun-ownership. Naturally, Ive thought about the issue a lot, and it has always determined the way I vote. People accuse me of being a single-issue writer, a single- issue thinker, and a single- issue voter, but it isnt true. What Ive chosen, in a world where theres never enough time and energy, is to focus on the one political issue which most clearly and unmistakably demonstrates what any politician or political philosophy is made of, right down to the creamy liquid center. Make no mistake: all politicians even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because its an X-ray machine. Its a Vulcan mind-meld. Its the ultimate test to which any politician or political philosophy can be put. If a politician isnt perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isnt your friend no matter what he tells you. If he isnt genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybodys permission, hes a four-flusher, no matter what he claims. What his attitude toward your ownership and use of weapons conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesnt trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him? If he doesnt want you to have the means of defending your life, do you want him in a position to control it? If he makes excuses about obeying a law hes sworn to uphold and defend the highest law of the land, the Bill of Rights do you want to entrust him with anything? If he ignores you, sneers at you, complains about you, or defames you, if he calls you names only he thinks are evil like Constitutionalist when you insist that he account for himself, hasnt he betrayed his oath, isnt he unfit to hold office, and doesnt he really belong in jail? Sure, these are all leading questions. Theyre the questions that led me to the issue of guns and gun ownership as the clearest and most unmistakable demonstration of what any given politician or political philosophy is really made of. He may lecture you about the dangerous weirdos out there who shouldnt have a gun but what does that have to do with you? Why in the name of John Moses Browning should you be made to suffer for the misdeeds of others? Didnt you lay aside the infantile notion of group punishment when you left public school or the military? Isnt it an essentially European notion, anyway Prussian, maybe and certainly not what America was supposed to be all about? And if there are dangerous weirdos out there, does it make sense to deprive you of the means of protecting yourself from them? Forget about those other people, those dangerous weirdos, this is about you, and it has been, all along. Try it yourself: if a politician wont trust you, why should you trust him? If hes a man and youre not what does his lack of trust tell you about his real attitude toward women? If he happens to be a woman, what makes her so perverse that shes eager to render her fellow women helpless on the mean and seedy streets her policies helped create? Should you believe her when she says she wants to help you by imposing some infantile group health care program on you at the point of the kind of gun she doesnt want you to have? On the other hand or the other party should you believe anything politicians say who claim they stand for freedom, but drag their feet and make excuses about repealing limits on your right to own and carry weapons? What does this tell you about their real motives for ignoring voters and ramming through one infantile group trade agreement after another with other countries? Makes voting simpler, doesnt it? You dont have to study every issue health care, international trade all you have to do is use this X-ray machine, this Vulcan mind-meld, to get beyond their empty words and find out how politicians really feel. About you. And that, of course, is why they hate it. And thats why Im accused of being a single-issue writer, thinker, and voter. But it isnt true, is it? [/QUOTE]
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