I decided to take a look in the immediate post-election era to see what we were talking about here eight years ago. I think it’s kind of a fun thing to do. Basically, I was talking people on my side down from the ledge a lot. What worries me today is I only see the madness feeding on itself. Then, I believed that madness was a distraction, and would imperil serious efforts to stop the new Administration:
Morning after election: “That is all. Get ready folks, we are in for some dark, dark times.” Actually, if you had told me then where we’d be now at the start of a new Administration, I wouldn’t have believed you. We opposed Obama when he came after us and we came out on top every time. I figured we’d win some and lose some. I think we were helped greatly by the fact that neither Obama nor Bloomberg have any understanding of the gun culture in this country.
“Barack Obama is my President.” “What I mean by that is I’m giving him a chance.” I still think he sucked, but the “Not my President” crap I see from the left now is still just as obnoxious when I was seeing it from the right eight years ago.
I largely blamed the Bushes for destroying Reagan’s coalition. Nothing I’ve seen since convinces me to change that argument. If there’s one thing I will always be eternally grateful to Trump for is sweeping aside the Bush family.
Boy is this not true anymore: “There are extremes on all sides. Part of the reason our system works is that it tends to dull extremes.” Obama was actually far more successful at transforming the country than I thought. Plus, this bit of snark: “I think it’s safe to say that the re-education camps, at best, will be a second term project.”
Initially there were bailouts. I was happy to see the Administration spending time on this because it would weaken it for fights to come. I expected the Dems to act in their own self-interest, rather than march their historic Congressional majority off a cliff, which is what they did.
Judicial minimalists were no friend to the Second Amendment then, and they still aren’t.
“Good manners are in short supply these days, and sadly that’s true of much of our side as well.” Little did I know it would only get worse. One of Obama’s tactics is to troll his political opponents to throw them off balance, and make them behave irrationally. It was very effective, but also bad for the country. Trump learned from the master.
The Dems could stand to hear this today, but then I was talking to gun owners: “There are literally hundreds of bills that get introduced in Congress, or thousands if you count the legislatures of the several states, each legislative session. Most of them aren’t going anywhere.”
Gun control supporting folks in the media were calling us crazy for thinking then President-Elect Obama wanted to do gun control, except for the fact that it was in his transition platform. He actually left us alone, for the most part, during his first term, if you recall. Even signed a few pro-gun measures (admittedly under duress, since they were attached to “must pass” bills).
This is still very relevant: “We feel a deep pleasure from realizing that we believe something in common with our friends, and different from most people. We feel an even deeper pleasure letting everyone know of this fact. This feeling is EVIL.” This feeling is what made Zuckerberg filthy rich, and we’re all about this today.
Obamacare was starting to shape up. This is exactly what happened: “Enforced through the tax system, eh? Well, at least that’s probably constitutional. Either way, there’s no word on how they plan to pay for what is bound to be an enormously expensive program. To me this is the worst of both worlds. There will be no incentive to control health care costs with a system like this, and costs will spiral out of control.”
Sarah Palin would eventually beclown herself, but the GOP response to her was a prelude to Trump, looking back now. More along those lines here.
“You know, I’ve been saying that I don’t think people have to worry about Obama shipping anyone off to concentration camps in cattle cars. I still stand by that, because I think Obama is hiring and appointing solid progressives, within our legal traditions, not murderers.” I could say the same thing about Trump’s picks today, except for the “solid progressive” part.
“Paul Ryan, who is fairly hard Right, won big in areas of his district that went hard for Obama” Of course, now Paul Ryan is an establishment sellout! (yes, I’m being sarcastic).
“Why It’s Not the 1930s Again.” Another thing Dem voters could stand to read now, only then I was saying it to GOP voters. More along those lines here.
“Obama Will Overreach” Boy, he sure as hell did, didn’t he? People who wanted to see gun control after Sandy Hook could have easily gotten some if they hadn’t overreached. Hell, we preemptively offered to reform the background check system and apply it to all transfers, and they rejected that because it wasn’t radical enough. So we took our respective sides, fought it out, and they lost.
These same people are now Trump voters.
Interesting. Trump’s approval numbers were pretty low as President-Elect. I didn’t remember this, but it looks like Obama’s were too.
We left Obama clinging to his quran and his gun control.
I agree in that, if you had told me how many states would be permit-less, or how many would be shall issue in eight years, I would have said, you’re crazy.
One accurate prediction by many was that the total number of guns sold would skyrocket. Whoever, and there were many that said this, were right on. But the whole Gun Salesman in Chief thing I didn’t imagine because I figured we’d have been rounded up by now.
Excellent post. Us pro-gun folks are the rational ones. Left wingers crying wolf about blood in the streets for every pro-gun law just diminished them more. Normal folks realize the exaggerations. More guns, less crime. Chicago being the poster child that all the anti-gun laws do not matter to a certain element. Also, the realization that most of the hate really comes from the left.
If there’s one thing I will always be eternally grateful to Trump for is sweeping aside the Bush family.
Correction: If there’s one thing I will always be eternally grateful to Trump for is sweeping aside the Bush and Clinton families.
I’m not sure we’ve seen the last of them.
Enh, I dunno. Hillary rather thoroughly blotted her copybook; and that will probably extend to any “dynasty.” (And that’s even assuming Chelsea wants to shake babies and kiss hands)
With regards to “Not my President”, I think I reached that conclusion sometime during George W. Bush’s Presidency, and I kindof like him as a President (although I’ve come to disagree with some of his policies over the years…).
Unless I’m in the military or some other organization for which he’s the head, the President of the United States is just the guy who commands the military, signs and vetoes laws, and appoints people to government positions. He has pretty much no power over my life, and it’s up to me be the President of my own life. (In some ways I’m doing fine, in others, I can probably be much better, but it’s up to me to fix those things.)
Of course, the typical “Not my President” types are saying “I don’t like/trust the guy in office, so I’m not going to recognize that guy as the President of the United States”, so your dismissal of “Not my President” isn’t entirely unjustified.
With regards to coalition building: This is likely one of the reasons why Hillary Clinton lost. She (and Obama) have squandered their own coalition.
I’ve been reading a series from “Real Clear Politics” that has been making the case that Obama has been steadily whittling away the Democrat coalition, causing Democrat votes to coalesce in the mega-cities, but leaving rural areas, small towns, and even medium-size cities in the dust.
This is one of the major reasons Republicans have been getting such a large amount of power on the State level; in this election, the Democrat votes became too concentrated in the cities, where geography limited their influence.
Dukakis established a coalition that Bill Clinton built on, but Obama squandered it, and Hillary doubled down on the squandering…
It’s not just voting blocks that are coalescing, but people themselves. The U.S. has continued down the path of Urbanization in both demographic and economic terms. As time goes on, “rural america” will see it’s slice of the population and economic pie continue to dwindle.
The long run demographic and economic picture strongly benefits the Democratic party. The Republicans will continue to have strength for a time (due to their strategic emphasis on local elections), but eventually the weight of demographics will weaken it
“…if you had told me then where we’d be now at the start of a new Administration, I wouldn’t have believed you. We opposed Obama when he came after us and we came out on top every time. I figured we’d win some and lose some. I think we were helped greatly by the fact that neither Obama nor Bloomberg have any understanding of the gun culture in this country…”
Actually, I think the bigger thing here was the massive expansion of the gun culture we experienced over the last eight years, and there were a LOT of things that contributed to that. On the whole though, I that these factors can mostly be divided into two main groups: Laws getting more permissive, and other factors pushing people towards gun ownership.
* 2004 saw the fall of the federal AWB. This was absolutely huge for us, and we are probably only just now starting to see true market saturation 12 years later.
* The continuing march of improvements in gun laws at the state level, especially with regard to carry, has very much helped the gun culture snowball.
* After Sandy Hook, the anti-rights cultists shot for the moon, and tried to use it as a means to get every single item on their list passed. They over-extended, and it pushed a LOT of people off the fence and into gun ownership. More gun owners means that we have more sway with legislators.
* The internet in general, and social media in particular, have helped us get our message out. After Sandy Hook, there were a few counter-protests that I attended, and if not for social media I probably wouldn’t have even heard of them until/unless they ended up in the news. The efficacy of those gatherings may be in question, but it certainly demonstrates the potential power of the internet.
* Various factors, from the perception of increasing crime, to the perception of increasing terrorism pushed new people in the direction of gun ownership.
* The generally down economy pushed many towards gun ownership. This largely worked in concert with the point directly above — crime may not have gone up, but the perceived cost of for many did: Living close to the edge makes people place significantly more value on what they have; If you’re pulling down six figures, getting mugged for the five hundred bucks in your wallet is a violation and an inconvenience, but it probably won’t put you out in the cold. For those subsisting on minimum wage, that kind of hit might just mean going hungry, losing utilities, or worse.
That all is just barely scratching the surface. The simple point though is that we got very lucky in a lot of ways, and the government’s general sabotage of our economic recovery was a huge factor.