Ronald Reagan and Karl Marx on Guns

[Guest]

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

My best guess (since I am too lazy to look it up ...) is that Ronald Reagan held those views when he was a Democrat, just after his years as a Hollywood actor ... but as he grew out of that liberal "progressive" ( ... a misnomer) mindset, and got out of that cesspool of fantasy, he probably changed his views.

Donald Trump used to also hold many of the same liberal, progressive views, being immersed in New York culture, but as he matured he changed his views, also, and started "carrying". He is one of the very few people in New York to, as a private citizen, have a concealed (CCW) permit, and regularly "packs".

I was born and raised in Richmond, Virginia, former Capitol of the Confederacy, and had a "Star and Bars" above my bed headboard. Well into adulthood I thought of myself as a Rebel, and when away working, had Bands play "Dixie", at restaurants.

Mostly after I had about six beers with pizza, and was homesick and melancholy, at Shakeys Pizza, in North Hollywood/Burbank, CA., in the late 1960's.

How we were raised, and who our friends are as we grow up affects a great deal how we think ... and what we think about.

About this issue ONLY .... I would have to agree with Karl Marx's philosophy, as the right to bear arms is a natural right of all living things.

.... even a cat has retractable claws.

.... and contrary to popular legend ... only ONE life.

 

[JW Insider]

52 minutes ago, James Thomas Rook Jr. said:

About this issue ONLY .... I would have to agree with Karl Marx's philosophy, as the right to bear arms is a natural right of all living things.

I doubt seriously that this is the ONLY issue where you agree with the philosophy of Karl Marx. He was a brilliant economist who supported the theories of Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776), considered to be one of the most important capitalist economists of his time. More of Karl Marx advances on such theories have withstood the test of time and produced more predictable results.

Most anti-Marxists have never read Marx's works. (What's even worse is that most most PRO-Marxists and Marx experts have never read his works either.) People who think they are anti-Marx often merely associate him with things they have heard they shouldn't believe in.

[TrueTomHarley]

Prepare for a tweet about Groucho

[JW Insider]

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/09/the-secret-history-of-guns/308608/

Reagan's words were as Republican Governor of California in 1967. He was definitely in favor of a Republican-sponsored bill repealing gun rights.

The problem was that the framers of the U.S. constitution thought of guns not as an item that all people should have, not especially for hunting and protecting their homes/family/property from just anyone, although that would be their primary use. The constitution only addressed the right for all citizens to carry guns in order to form militias in the event that tyranny reared its ugly head, within US Government agencies.

But the real problem is that there really were forms of tyranny that had been rearing their head in America for many years against blacks, American "Indians" and poor whites who could not pay their debts. The most violent tyranny was against the native American "Indians" but the most insidious was against blacks. And then after the constitution allowed more than just land-owners to become citizens they allowed blacks to become citizens, while they were still being tyrannized by tyrants in their own government.

That created a problem for the hypocrites running the US Government. A group of black citizens began watching some of the most tyrannical agents of the US government, the white-sponsored police in economically abandoned urban centers. What they were doing was called "copwatchting." But they were watching while armed with guns and, what's even worse for some, cameras. See Mulford Act in Wikipedia, for example.

• Organized copwatching groups emerged as early as the 1960s in urban areas in the United States when the Black Panthers famously patrolled city streets with firearms and cameras, and other civil rights organizations conducted unarmed patrols in groups.

Obviously, Reagan, a rather dullard hypocrite, realized he didn't really believe in the constitution. In this situation it was easy to get both Democratic and Republican support. (Especially "Dixie Democrats" [in the Southern United States], most of whom would later become Republicans as soon as Northern Democrats began to associate the "Democratic" agenda with civil rights toward blacks.)

[JW Insider]

Another perspective that I think is worth considering is this from a couple months ago:

https://daniellazare.com/2018/05/03/americans-want-an-end-to-gun-violence-but-the-constitution-says-no/

Daniel Lazare's article for Harper's magazine was saying the same thing back in 1999:

https://harpers.org/archive/1999/10/your-constitution-is-killing-you/

[James Thomas Rook Jr.]

There comes a time in every National or religious Culture when the majority of the populace is caught up in fantasy and delusion, and goes bat crap crazy.  

The Founding Fathers of the United States were well aware that this happened throughout history, and would occur again, many, many times in their newly created Republic.

That is why they created a "Bill of Rights", so that WHEN the narcissist snowflakes  came to be in the majority, and realized they could vote themselves "bread and circuses", ( or Obamaphones, and illegal sanctaury ...) that the majority WOULD NOT RULE.

Nor, in the case of disarming law abiding, good and wholesome people ... should they rule.

History has proved this over and over and over.   And for the clueless ... it DOES repeat itself.