Friday, October 24, 2014

Second Amendment Solution

Iowa Republican Senate candidate Joni Ernst — she of the pig castration fame — says she’s ready to stand her ground.

In a newly released video from a 2012 National Rifle Association event, Iowa Republican senate candidate Joni Ernst said that she would use a gun to defend herself from the government.

“I do believe in the right to carry, and I believe in the right to defend myself and my family — whether it’s from an intruder, or whether it’s from the government, should they decide that my rights are no longer important,” Ernst said at the rally, which was held about a month after James Holmes allegedly murdered 12 people in Aurora, CO.

I get the part about defending herself against an intruder, but from the government?  Does that mean she’s going to pull a gun on a cop that gives her a ticket for a busted taillight?  Draw down on the census taker or the IRS?

Paul Waldman asks the same question.

The problem with this new quote is that it borders on anti-democratic. I don’t care how many times you praise the Founding Fathers or talk about your love of the Constitution, if you think that the way to resolve policy differences or personal arguments with the government is not just by trying to get different people elected or waging a campaign to change the laws or filing suits in court, but through the use of violence against the government, you have announced that you have no commitment to democracy. In the American system, we don’t say that if the government enacts policies we don’t like, we’ll start killing people. It’s not clear that Ernst meant this, but it’s fair to ask her to explain what she did mean.

There’s a real chance she could be the next senator from Iowa.  Do the good people of Iowa really want someone who thinks the best way to protect themselves is by having gunshots flying?

2 barks and woofs on “Second Amendment Solution

  1. One wonders exactly what “should they decide that my rights are no longer important” looks like to Ernst and volk like her. Making them pay their workers equally? NOT treating women like babymakers? Telling them that they can’t treat LGBT couples like scum just because they’re going to Hell? Making them sit in the same section of the bus with [gasp] Those People™? It’s interesting that all the ammosexual shouters don’t once mention exactly what is required for inciting armed insurrection, or what amongst their litany of personal affronts is low enough on the priority list not to make them go all Cliven Bundy or Timothy McVeigh. The problem is at once highly unsettling – all those idjits brandishing firearms and calling for violence over unspecified “oppression” – and laughable because there doesn’t seem to be anything bad enough for them to actually go and shoot up a place over.

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