23 June 2016

Trump: The Gift That Keeps on Giving

In my previous post on Trump destroying the GOP positions, I said that "by far his boldest and scariest move was his tweet in the aftermath of Orlando shooting announcing that he will push for stricter gun control."

That was because this would force the Republicans to defend the indefensible, namely the right to bear arms for terrorists.

And it happened.

When a very timid measure introduced by a Democratic Senator was defeated in the Senate, this was the front page of Daily News.


Moreover, the USA Today, hardly a liberal paper, had this to say:
Yet in an extraordinary act of cowardice on Monday evening, 56 senators — 53 Republicans joined by three Democrats — threw away yet another opportunity to keep guns out of the hands of more felons, fugitives, the mentally ill or people prone to domestic violence.

These spineless lawmakers voted against advancing a commonsense measure to expand background checks to virtually all sales of guns, not just those sold by federally licensed dealers. The existing gap allows buyers who purchase from private sellers at gun shows, online or from newspaper ads to simply avoid the federal background check system.
And a Washington Post headline was "A week after Orlando, Republicans protect terrorists’ right to bear arms."

Ouch.

Democratic Senator Barbara Mikulski put it in terms that everyone could understand.
"Why is it we would go through such incredible scrutiny to board an airplane to protect me against terrorists, and yet we have no scrutiny of the people on the terrorist watch list to be able to buy a gun?"
Why indeed.

Then the Democrats organized a sit-in protest in Congress, led by the legendary civil rights veteran John Lewis, to force a vote on the measure. The Republicans did not allow it but the damage was done.
The BBC's Laura Bicker in Washington says the protest follows years of Democrat frustration at being unable to pass stricter gun control measures. 
She says that although 100 bills have gone before Congress in the past five years and all have failed, this is an election year and Democrats are making it clear to the electorate that if they want change, they know which way to vote in November. [my emphasis]
I simply don't understand why liberals are so upset about Donald Trump.

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