Obama, the left, and the bitter clingers
It’s fairly apparent that Obama’s recent push for post-Newtown gun control is not reasonably related to the facts of the case, but exploits it instead as an opportunity to use the public’s emotional reaction to it (and some children, in a photo-op) to pass some legislation (or at least issue some executive orders) that serve other ends.
There’s been a lot of speculation on what those ends might be. I think there’s a multitude—but one of them is sticking it to the bitter clingers, and letting the latte crowd know he’s with them, whether the legislation they want gets passed or not.
Remember those bitter clingers, bitterly clinging to their guns and religion? Well, that’s not all they were clinging to, according to Obama. In case you’ve forgotten, here the quote:
You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania, and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton Administration, and the Bush Administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not. And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Obama was speaking at a fundraiser in San Francisco not long after his swing through Pennsylvania during his 2008 campaign, so it’s not surprising he was talking about that state. But he was speaking less of a state than of a demography: white, blue-collar, rural, Christian. And note how he characterizes their guns and their religion: driven by negative emotions like bitterness, rather than conviction or principle, and co-existing with xenophobia and racism.
Not a pretty picture, but one that’s mild compared to the general San Franciscan attitude towards these people in PA, the Midwest, or especially their brothers and sisters in the South (or in Alaska; see Palin). Although in 2008 Obama saw fit to couch his description in a sort of condescending, seemingly-empathic patronization, that’s really no longer necessary, is it?
And so even though the bitter clingers have become ever more bitter and ever more clingy, he’s going to try to pry some of their weapons from their cold, live, hands.
I was reminded of all of this by this post by Andy at Ace’s. He writes that, in the current push for gun control:
We [gun owners] are now “The Other” who are bent on killing your kids at school by our mere existence. We buy off congressmen to do our evil bidding. We’re like the Nazis and the KKK all rolled into one.
Now, I’m more akin in my own demographics to the San Franciscans than to the bitter clingers. But somehow I never got the memo about the latter. However, I run in circles that trash them enough to make me quite familiar with the prevailing attitude, which is that they are, to put it crassly, cretins out of “Deliverance,” and terrible racists to boot.
It doesn’t escape me that a great deal of the talk on blogs on the left lately is about the heinous “gun culture,” rather than anything more rationally related to murder or mass murder. As for the Second Amendment, it’s often considered an outworn relic of another time, not necessary—and even counterproductive—in this Brave New World of ours, where government is always your friend (unless it’s a conservative government).
Great post.
And yes, unless it’s conservatives wielding the same power. How about executive orders on abortion, the tax code, the environment, and the EPA? You see, people cling bitterly to environmentalism when they’ve lost all real meaning in life….
“It’s fairly apparent that Obama’s recent push for . . . gun control is not reasonably related to the facts of the case, but exploits it instead as an opportunity to use the public’s emotional reaction to it . . . to pass some legislation . . . that serve other ends.”
So what else is new?
Can somebody just wake me up in four years? Please.
This has always been the case with respect to gun control. It has always been about consolidating power and restricting citizens, and it has always been justified with bogus arguments about safety.
The worst of the gun culture seems to be in Chicago and other big cities. But that would be raaaaacist.
My opinion on gun control is that it’s really about restricting citizens and curtailing independence and self sufficiency.
The powers that be want dependent subjects.
I don’t think it is so much about preventing rebellion or such. Sure, perhaps at the margins, but at the margins they may also think it might reduce some violence.
Furthermore, many on the left think all violence is equal, that a woman killing a would be rapist is the same as a robber killing a gas station clerk.
Back in the 90s I read some commutarian / moderate left articles that to some degree admitted that an assault weapon ban wouldn’t reduce crime but argued they were still the right thing to do since it was barbaric for people to arm themselves against “fellow citizens”. Note how the left treated Korean shop owners in the aftermath of the LA riots.
Steven Plaut’s points about the Stupid Left and the Satanic Left surely applies: There’s a stupid base that believes “gun control” would actually prevent atrocities like Sandy Hook, but the main drivers today are a satanic contingent who know full well it’s about disarming the law-abiding populace so as to gain unrestricted control over it.
Bet your bottom dollar that kuh-risis after kuh-risis won’t go to waste with those who are now brimming with triumphalism. The push to confine classic American values to those who live off-the-grid is in earnest.
While Obama likes to preen about his unique life experience that prepared him for the presidency, his real life experience has actually been rather limited. As a child he was raised as an outsider in a foreign land; then he attended a fancy school where he sought to be cool; then he BS’d his way into yet more fancy schools. He never really had normal interactions with normal family or long-time friends. He has always used his coolness to climb the social ladder, and part of that coolness is disdain for anyone who doesn’t worship at his feet. Sorry Barry, you are a superficial ignorant jerk!
I think a lot of the gun control resistance is a way of repeating my last sentence.
Obama could probably help to reduce the murder rate between inner-city young black men if he chose to do so. He does seem to own a huge influence over that demographic. The tragic irony is that he hasn’t and probably won’t.
I suspect that he probably doesn’t like “those” blacks all that much.
As a life long member of the gun culture, I flip the bird at those who call me a “clinger”. I don’t cling to my firearms, I treat them gently and with respect.
Too bad we weren’t paranoid enough to believe, then we wouldn’t have let such a person near such a seat of power, and on and on…
i said long ago once it got past a certain point, you have to ride it out to the other side.
there is really little anyone can do, as what people will try to do has already been thought of and they are counting on it.
so you can certainly be sure that as in chess, regardless of the response, the counter response was already worked out.
back when huxley was being reasonable. i could say they would come for your guns in some way, and he would say no way. others would chime in. here we are today, and he is about to show what a sovereign democracies sovereign can do (not a constitutional republic).
careful noticing of things and you may find that not one of the arguments that said no way, has actually come into play to stop anything. ie. its bypassed all those and is moving forward anyway.
i knew what the steps would be as anyone who knows detailed history of things from an experiential basis. i couldn’t tell you how, just that they have to be taken, and that guns would not be first, nor last.
the worst of it though is what other countries will do when things get to the point the administration is pushing for to change things. they are not going to sit aside, and thats obvious.
in fact. paying too much attention to whats going on in everyones face, keeps people not paying attention to the syrian chemical weapons, the chinese japan conflict, and more..
“As for the Second Amendment, it’s often considered an outworn relic of another time, not necessary–and even counterproductive–in this Brave New World of ours, where government is always your friend.”
While TV journalism was not available in 1787, one could consider that the 1st Amendment doesn’t apply, but courts say it does. Just as the SCOTUS’s decison on Heller and McDonald showed that the right to bear arms includes modern weapons. The 2nd protects the 1st and the rest of the Constitution. Remember the intent of the 2nd Amendment was that the people were to be the final protector of the Constitution if the checks and balances failed. To do that citizens would need comparatable firearms to those which would be used against the people.
}}} in this Brave New World of ours, where government is always your friend (unless it’s a conservative government).
And somehow, it NEVER occurs to these IDIOTS, that at some point a “rethuglican” government is going to be in charge, and hey, THEY might try an end-run around the proper limits of government….
No, I think The Left is far, far more likely to do that myself, but when THAT evil rears its head, I want to have the power to resist it.
These people are truly children, unable to think beyond the current moment, and eternally clueless about the world due to their inability to learn from experience (I’ve discussed that at length in the past — IMNSHO, THE key quality that makes anyone a liberal twit is an absolute inability to learn from experience. If there was a “Wisdom Quotient” test to match the IQ test, then liberals would consistently fall into the bottom 1/3rd of all humanity).
It is an unfortunate side effect of civilization that it protects fools too much from their follies, and allows their genome to propagate throughout the species.
More simply
Too Much Tiger Food
Not Enough Tigers
WE NEED MORE TIGERS!!
:-/
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III%
Molon Labe
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}}} To do that citizens would need comparatable firearms to those which would be used against the people.
Actually, I don’t think you even need to go this far. It’s a classic argument against gun ownership that “They have tanks and bazookas and fighter jets. They have The Bomb. How are you going to win against that with a rifle?”
Well, first off: “What, you figure the odds will IMPROVE if we are limited to pitchforks and kitchen knives?”
Second: you’re assuming that things have gotten so bad at that point that the military will shoot at civilians acting against their overreaching government with a righteous cause. I hope that we can do something BEFORE it gets to that state of affairs.
Third, and this one is the key — we don’t NEED to beat the military. We NEED to shoot some politicians. Take out a few dozen of them and the rest are going to say “Hey, hey hey, I’m not with THEM!! I’m with YOU!! It’s THOSE guys you need to go after!!”… and then it’s a matter of the trials of those behind the Treason attempting to subvert the Constitution, and what to do with them.
Needless to say, it’s a lot easier to shoot some politicians when you have a gun to do it with. Crossbows just don’t cut it these days.
“If there was a “Wisdom Quotient” test to match the IQ test, then liberals would consistently fall into the bottom 1/3rd of all humanity”
It is not a matter of IQ, many (so-called) liberals will test well above 100; they are, as you note, lacking wisdom. It is a matter of ‘religion’. They are brainwashed. They believe in something they do not truly understand and they deny the historical record and strongly resist accepting the complexity of human nature. Many on the left, although they do not think about left or right, are stupid. (Obamaphone woman for example.) However, many are intelligent “useful idiots”. The biggest useful idiot of all is the evil Soros. May fire ants slowly consume his fetid flesh and his screams be recorded for youtube.
when the left hand is flashing around, what is the right hand doing?
Kaspersky Uncovers ‘Red October’ Cyber Attack On Eastern Europe
http://www.mobilenapps.com/articles/6464/20130115/kaspersky-uncovers-red-october-cyber-attack-eastern-europe.htm
“That explains why the number of infected machines is so low – just over 300 machines… but every target was specifically selected. What makes this attack different from Flame and others is that every attack was planned very carefully.
“They shaped every attack attempt very carefully, and even created specific modules for targets. Not all the targets received the same binaries.
IGotBupkis, Legally Defined Cyberbully in All 57 States and Some Canadian Provinces,
You should, if you have not already done so, read Unintended Consequences by John Ross. There you will find the template for how to conduct a resistance. Think small and think quiet. One by one they can all be made to fall down.
(BTW, if some DC goon squad monitors neo’s blog I have 8 words for you….. go yuck fourselves and fold it five ways. I’m a 40+ year member of the NRA, and a 20+ member of JPFO so I know you know my address. I am not quaking in my shoes. Yuck fou. The dogs will wake me up when you come within 50 yards and I’ll be ready in the middle of the night….. it only takes seconds to be armed and dangerous. Yuck fou. All you can do is kill me.)
This issue is also an ideal distraction from the #1 issue – debt and spending. Obama wins whatever happens with his gun initiative.
Neo, you are talking about the Only Approved/Allowed Bigotry: against working-class whites, especially Southern whites.
Against them, the Leftists can unleash all their hatred, bigotry, and fury. ALL the Forbidden Emotions are in play, and directed at the Designated Target. “Poor White Trash” are the New Jews of the Left.
Ugly, vicious, horrible. But all totalitarian movements need a Scapegoat, don’t they?
/spit
By the way, the new Mark Walberg/Russell Crowe movie, “Broken City” (just saw a preview screening tonight) is as creaky a compendium of Lefty cliches as I’ve seen lately.
Eeeevil Republican mayor (they don’t come right out and say party names, but he’s a Lefty caricature of a Repub.) making dirty[but are they?] business deals; the hero is a Gay Harvard Grad from, I kid you not, Connecticut. Whose lover is assassinated by … oh, I bet you’ll never guess.
The foregoing isn’t a spoiler, as you can see this stuff coming from a mile away, it’s so clearly signposted. You know, Part of the reason Leftism plays hob with effective drama is that it’s so effin’ predictable.
Oh, and one of the right-wing characters, a white man, is cuckolded by a black man, which made the NYC audience, largely non-white, cheer. How would they feel if they sat in a largely white audience, and everyone cheered as the black left-wing guy got cuckolded by a white man? Would they think it was racist? (yeah, rhetorical question….)
“made the NYC audience cheer” This is the kind of thing that gives me a bit of a chill. On National Review Online a week or two ago I heard a liberal talk about how much he would like to see a gun-owner resisting confiscation be run over by a tank, Tiananmen-square style. Another wrote that he was keeping track of the names of people who said they’d never give up their guns, so he could turn them in to the cops when the time comes. You can only whip up these emotions for so long before they erupt into actual violence.
Parker, you peeked my interest in the John Ross book, I was sad to see it is going for over 120 dollars a copy, one on ebay just went for 167.00.
I figure once I read it I will sell it back on ebay.
I read a lot of the conservative sites, and everywhere, even at the RINO-tainted NRO, the comment level is rising regarding armed resistance.
The one caveat, which others have pointed out, is that Obama may actually be trying to provoke a confrontation in order to declare martial law and thus set himself up as dictator. One salient comment noted (and it was a good metaphor for me 🙂 ) that what is needed is a critical mass. Below that the nuclear reaction fizzles. The commenter cautioned that we must reach that critical mass or then the govenrment will hold the upper hand as the revolt fizzles.
Scary times when 40% of the population seems to be getting ready for armed conflict with its own government.
all the hate directed to non leftists just makes us cling more… since we are worried about our personal safety. They want us to give up our weapons and they hate us. Hmmm…
parker Says:
“BTW, if some DC goon squad monitors neo’s blog”
They’re probably more interested in those talking about rebellion or active resistance (re: sabotage).
Still; so many people probably ended up on that list that it gave the politicians pause….
I think armed conflict is just a fantasy that many on the right are engaged in. Things aren’t quite that dire, but they are not comfortable either.
holmes Says:
“I think armed conflict is just a fantasy that many on the right are engaged in. Things aren’t quite that dire, but they are not comfortable either.”
People are saying they won’t turn in their guns. If they mean it (and some do) there will be conflict. If others step in to defend people refusing to comply.. it will escalate. Simple as that.
In a rebellion it isn’t quite a matter of “tanks vs guns”. Yes, there might be instances of that, as it stands the domestic military is hardly in a position to engage the American people, and many of them probably wouldn’t do so anyway.
As I’ve previously stated, I don’t think the real motive is disarming us so we can’t rise up, rather I think it is an attack on our culture. They want to create a culture of dependence.
But the idea that the US military could prevent a popular uprising is false, particularly in the manner it currently exists. Mexico’s military is designed primarly to control their popularion, the US military isn’t.
DonS Says:
“In a rebellion it isn’t quite a matter of “tanks vs guns”.”
That and I’ll add the tanks vs guns thing is a CW cliché. Various people have fought tanks with guns* and improvised weapons and won / taken out tanks.
* a tracer round to the right part a German tank was an effective attack…
Wow… I’ve been watching the .223 ammo market. Before the gun talk you could buy 1000 rounds for around $250. Then it started.. It was at $1000 for awhile (you could find ammo for a $1 a round if you looked hard) and I noticed it jumping up to $1500 for 1000 today…. and selling for it / people are paying it. As of now I just saw it in stock and offered for $2000 per 1000… but I have not seen it sell for that yet…
I don’t believe I need guns now a days to apply lethal force. It’s also easier to get through metal detectors without one.
The issue is, if they think they can “disarm” certain segments of the population by just guns, they don’t quite realize some of the recent advances made in martial science and H2H combat research in America.
Just found this blog. It’s good for us to understand how leftist think. When Bloomberg said in response to suggestions that there should be guards or armed teachers: I don’t see how another gun would have helped the situation (at Sandy Hook). I wasn’t surprised. It’s like the left is gaslighting people, expecting them to believe absolutely ludicrous things.