Presidential town hall and gun show

[prog]

Boy do I have a bad feeling about this.

This is probably the first time I really have to ask what usually strikes me as a lame question: can you imagine what would have happened if anyone pulled this shit around our previous president?

Comments

[hahathor.livejournal.com]

It wouldn't have been an issue with W, because the guns, along with anyone who dared to disagree with him, would be in the Free Speech zone.

[cnoocy]

Interestingly, this post appears directly below http://maradydd.livejournal.com/472224.html (progressive arguing that armed progressives need to start showing up to town halls) on my friends page.

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

Fascinating.

But it's this ambiguously worded sentence that distracted me:

At Obama's town hall there, one man was arrested for having a gun hidden in his car after the Secret Service found him at Portsmouth High School hours before Obama arrived carrying a pocketknife.

Based on context I assume the it was the man who had a gun hidden in his car, not Obama, who was carrying the pocketknife. But that's not what it says, so it gave me a "sheesh, *giggle*" moment.

Guns don't vote

[taskboy3000.livejournal.com]

This is amazing. Yet another bunch of yahoos who think that there guns give them liberty. They probably don't even vote. Completely stupid.

I have to say that it is because Obama draws fire from the extreme Left and Right that I like him.

[radtea.livejournal.com]

The comments are an interesting read, particularly the discussion of whether or not this is consistent with Alinsky's "Rules For Radicals".

The thing I find interesting about the discussion is that the presumed "liberal" who is claiming that carrying guns is inconsistent with Alinski's position has apparently suffered the exact same kind of failure in his or her ability to use abstractions that we've seen so much of in right-wing nutjobs in the past eight years: they are arguing that because Alinski doesn't say, "Carry guns" that carrying guns is inconsistent with their position, even though Alinski does say, "Whenever possible, go outside the experience of an opponent. Here you want to cause confusion, fear, and retreat."

To anyone who still has a rudimentary capacity for dealing effectively with abstractions, the concrete tactic of carrying guns in this way is clearly consistent with Alinski's position, as they are clearly an intimidation tactic by the right wing of the Party to try to regain ascendancy in the public eye and mind.

The right wing of the Party is made entirely of cowards who run scared or lash out psychotically when the threat of violence looms, so it is natural that if they wished "to cause confusion, fear, retreat" they would use implicit threats of violence to achieve that end (part of the right wingnut mythology is that everyone else is a bigger coward than they are, so of course they can't imagine psychotic lashing out as a response.)

[pseudomanitou.livejournal.com]

You couldn't make it near Bush wearing a t-shirt that opposed his administration's goals.

But let's be honest -- no one let the armed protesters near Obama either. I doubt he was even within range of those rifles.

Still -- it's disturbing that the right-wing feels they needed them at all. We're debating healthcare for fuck's sake. They're the ones making it sound like everyone is going to die if anymore legislation passes. Overreaction is a key sign of a coward.

[keimel.livejournal.com]

I'm willing to bet that the people carrying are less "right wingers" than they are libertarians, which I see as more right, but somewhere outside the sphere of Left and Right and more in their own camp. The most libertarian of all seem to dislike all our politicians equally (except Ron Paul) and think they're all doing a terrible job.

Kostric (NH Carry person) is a Free Stater, who are most frequently Libertarian, if they associate with a party at all.

I'd be willing to bet that the AZ people carrying would most likely associate as libertarian or independent before they associated republican.

Personally, I like Kostric's interview with Matthews where he essentially dodged Matthews repeated question of "Why did you bring a gun" by deflecting it as a "I was there to have my voice heard... oh, I had a gun? Yeah, that's my right" (not a quote, even though I put quotation marks around it).

Seeing it as a non-issue would be the way to deal with it. Sadly, like some of the commenters in the article you link to might be right, it could mobilize the anti-2nd-amendment people to ban more instances of gun rights in more locations.

Me? I'm waiting to see what the presence of our new chief of police from LA does to open carry in Portland. Should be interesting, once it is tested.