Comment by wrycoder
4 years ago
It’s what I call the Democratic wobble.
We’ve been trending left for fifty years. Maybe it’s time to go the other way for awhile. And hand some power back to the states, where it belongs.
4 years ago
It’s what I call the Democratic wobble.
We’ve been trending left for fifty years. Maybe it’s time to go the other way for awhile. And hand some power back to the states, where it belongs.
"We’ve been trending left for fifty years."
Depends on the topic. Gun rights, for example, have gone decidedly to the right. Few people now remember that Ronald Reagan signed some significant gun control legislation without losing support of his voters.
Not really. In the late '50s, when I was a teenager, I lived in a rural area. I had my own rifle, and so did my friends. I also bought a 22 revolver and carried it around the country in the early '60s and never thought twice about doing that.
In the '60s, high school students carried rifles on the NYC subway while going to target practice. Try doing that today.
So, I'd say there has been a lot of pressure to move the window on gun regulation to more restrictive over the last fifty years. I don't think it's done any good at all relative to reducing crime committed with guns. Law abiding gun owners have always had low incidence of gun infractions compared to, say, the police.
The real problem is not enforcing the gun laws we have had for years. Chicago is a prime example: very restrictive laws, but very few convictions for gun offenses, which are frequent. Why is that?
In the 60s, most Southern states were no-issue when it comes to concealed carry, and most of the rest were may-issue.
Even before the recent ruling, there were 8 states that were may-issue; the rest were shall-issue or no permit required.
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With all respect, the late '50s and early '60s are a long time ago. I was thinking about more recent developments.
As of today, there is almost half a billion of guns in civilian possession in the US, and the # of open carry and concealed carry jurisdictions has grown massively.
I would say that the lowest point for gun rights US-wide was around the Columbine school shootings, and that the trend changed quite decisively since them. Legislation like that has no chance of passing today.
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Gun rights/control didnt used to be a "right-wing" topic.
Democratic wobble is about shifting political demographics. In other words, the majority of the country wobbles between center right and center left. This isn't that.
Sure it is, just in a longer time scale.
i can understand not wanting power to be centralized in the hands of a faraway federal govt. but i dont understand the fetish of states rights. why not city rights or county rights. or heaven forbid maybe even individual rights
It's a balancing act between individual rights and ability of the society to govern itself without disintegrating (at which point nobody would have any rights).
But, yes, states are just as artificial as US as a whole. Municipalities feel like they're the lowest level organization that is actually somewhat organic and interconnected.
Individual rights are far more likely to be recognized at a Federal level than at the State level. The whole "states rights" non-sense is about the ability to restrict what or how other folks live.
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