No issue better illuminates the way Democrats patronize the electorate as an unthinking herd in need of stern direction than gun control. It is an area that exposes their controlling nature and the real motivation behind all the emotive language. Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) is the latest Dem to unwittingly pull back the curtain and show his true intentions, and he is so buzzed on the sugar high that comes from his preening that he undoubtedly doesn't even understand how much he has revealed.
Swalwell, in a remarkable Twitter outburst, hailed a coming Dem legislative push in the House for gun control by boldly declaring that "[a] new Congress is putting your right to be safe over any other rights." Yes, Swalwell is openly admitting that Democrats feel they can throw your rights out the window in order to better take care of you as a good Big Daddy should.
Safety From Freedom
"Your life matters," Swalwell continued. "Your child's freedom to learn without fear matters. Your ability to go to church without going through a metal detector matters. And young black men, who we lose every day in our cities to gun violence, matter."
One gets the rather horrifying mental image of a Democratic politician leading citizens around by the hand as they conduct their everyday affairs. Swalwell’s proposal is not far off that absurd mark. He is saying that Americans cannot be entrusted to live out their Constitutional rights without doing harm to themselves and others. Employing fuzzy-blanket terms like "safe" is a tranquilizing tactic meant to justify denying citizens the rights handed down to them by the Founders of this nation.
Unfortunately for leftists, the right to bear arms was so valued by the men who wrote our Constitution that it was listed immediately after freedom of speech on the list of priorities when devising what has become known as the Bill of Rights. Those Americans who value this foundational freedom feel no need to apologize for it in any way. So leftists must chip away at it among the public at large by resorting to weasel words like "safety" and "common sense."
Buzzwords of Oppression
New York State is in a current thrall of leftist madness. The Empire State has passed the most shockingly libertine abortion law in American history and followed that up with a focus on even more gun restrictions than are already on the books in that solidly blue enclave.
The state Senate crowed about the passage of the new gun control package of legislation with a list of quotes from various Dems that sounded Orwellian in their uniformity. "Following years of inaction on common sense gun safety legislation, we are finally going to lead the way and serve as an example to the nation on smart gun laws,” Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins said. Keep an eye on that term "common sense." You're going to be seeing it a lot.
"Common sense gun safety reform will save lives, period," gushed Senate Deputy Leader Michael Gianaris. "The gun-safety legislation we passed today is a comprehensive set of common sense bills designed to get dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people," Sen. Todd Kaminsky cooed. "These are all common sense reforms that New Yorkers want," Sen. Anna Kaplan warbled. “The common-sense gun reforms proposed by New York Democrats are a strong step toward protecting our communities from the scourge of gun violence," Sen. Luis Sepulveda trilled.
You get the idea. The use of this smarmy party-line group-speak is an unspoken acknowledgment that citizens' rights are being infringed upon by gun control legislation. One does not go out of one's way to repeatedly hammer home the "common sense" purpose behind laws proscribing murder or burglary, for example. The inherent value of those laws speaks for itself. But when one is taking something away from a free people, there is a need to instill and constantly reinforce a notion in the subject citizenry's minds that what is being removed from their possession is a "sensible" restraint meant to promote personal "safety."
Tyrannies have been using this soft vocabulary to enslave people since the beginning of time. For Democrats, manipulating emotions is the pathway to controlling the actions of the regular Americans who they truly believe are unable to govern their own lives.
