Gun Control and Climate Change Arguments Taking Same Tack As 2009 Health Care Fight

[eridani]

http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/gun-control-and-climate-change-arguments-ta

If we want any part of President Obama's initiatives described in his inaugural speech to become reality in the next four years, we'd better gear up and get ready to fight, because they're dog-whistling the troops, particularly on the topics of climate change and gun control, just like they did in 2009 with health care reform.

In 2009, we were caught unawares. That can't happen this time, at least not if we hold any hope of getting things done this time around. Conservatives are already launching the time-honored strategies of lies, inflammatory speech, and exaggeration to push back on any effort whatsoever to make progress on climate change and gun control.

Fox News led the parade Tuesday morning with the theme that climate change isn't real, beginning with Fox and Friends Tuesday morning, and continuing on with Rush Limbaugh pompously pronouncing it a "hoax."

Meanwhile, there's a rising anti-chorus over mild gun control measures which are long overdue, in which the same overarching themes employed in 2009 over health care reform are beginning to emerge. Some examples:

•In Ohio, state school board president Debe Terhar is defending her decision to share a Facebook photo of Hitler along with a message criticizing Obama's gun control proposals.
•NRA President Wayne LaPierre gave a fiery speech on Monday night (video above), where he claimed the only reason to maintain a national registry of gun owners is to "tax them or take them," and further claiming that the REAL motive was to leave guns in the hands of the wealthy and criminals.
•Anonymous has gotten in on the debate, using the Obama to Hitler comparison as well.
•Juan Williams, writing for Fox News, claims that gun control is now "central to Obama's legacy." That's a clear-cut call for conservatives to mobilize.
•Sheriffs in right-wing states are vowing to resist any efforts to implement gun control measures passed by Congress or tightened enforcement required by executive order.
•Now the far right wingers have declared 2/23/2013 a "Day of Resistance" over the proposed gun measures. Anyone remember the call for the "tea party" which supposedly arose from the grassroots? Yeah.

These should raise the hackles on everyone's neck as we're thrust back into the days of death panels and socialism, resplendent with Obama as Hitler images, cries of armed resistance, and more. Indeed, some conservatives have figured out a way to resurrect death panels in the context of gun control, by inventing the myth that Obamacare will require doctors to inquire about guns in the home.

There will be protests at town halls, there will be more astroturf organizations with names like Americans for Constitutional Solutions and the like, and there will be a steady drumbeat on the part of the right wing to systematically tear apart every effort to actually move America toward some semblance of civilization.

[eridani]

1. We really can't afford to have RWNJs dominate the public discourse as in 2010 n/t

[AverageJoe90]

2. I have to agree.

We're in serious trouble if they win again in 2014......