The Knox Report
From the Firearms Coalition
You Must Vote!
By Jeff Knox
(September 16, 2008) Your vote absolutely matters and if you fail to vote, your rights and liberties could be in greater jeopardy. Not voting is a vote for your least favored candidate, as is voting for someone who can not possibly win. The time to send a message was during the primaries when there was still a chance of getting a solid, pro-gun candidate at the top of the ticket or of at least moving the eventual winner toward a more favorable pro-gun position. In the general election for President, unless the two major party candidates are both simply abhorrent, it is best to cast your vote for the candidate who will best work with the congressional candidates you support. This also raises the question of voting for congressional and state candidates. Voters who choose to stay home or go hunting on Election Day because they don’t like Obama or McCain, are throwing away their votes for lower-ticket candidates as well. Since lower-ticket candidates have smaller voting districts and fewer eligible voters, the lower on the ticket a candidate is, the greater impact your individual vote has on their race. There are currently slim pro-gun majorities in both houses of congress, but that could easily change in the coming election if GunVoters don’t bother showing up or don’t take the time to do a little research before heading out to the polls.
When it comes to the president, the “lesser of two evils” is not always the less dangerous threat and, while voting for the “lesser of two evils” simply because he is “less evil” would be
wrong, presidential candidates should never be looked at in isolation. The relationships between the President, Congress, and the Judiciary must be considered. Positives and negatives of each candidate’s potential impact in the long run must also be considered. The next President will select at least two and possibly three new Supreme Court Justices and literally hundreds of Federal Court Judges. Since the Justices most likely to retire are all extreme, anti-gun liberals, it’s unlikely that the balance of power on the Supreme Court would be shifted much by a President Obama. On the other hand the addition of just one “moderately conservative” Justice by a President McCain would dramatically shift the position of the court.
The president’s influence on congress and the impact of a strong, pro-gun legislature on the president must be considered as well. A pro-gun congress can keep an anti-gun president in check just as a pro-gun president can mitigate damage from an anti-gun congress. The thought of an anti-gun president backed by an anti-gun congress (and an anti-gun judiciary) should be of great concern to all gunowners and lovers of liberty. Consider the fact that the Brady Law and the “Assault Weapons” ban were both enacted by congresses that were considered to have “pro-gun” majorities. Imagine what we will see from an unapologetic, anti-gun congress supported by an anti-rights president.
The 2008 election is coming down to the wire. The differences between the presidential candidates are glaring. John McCain has a solid pro-gun voting record though his “pragmatism” on the gun show issue and his clear lack of understanding as to the true nature of the Constitution and its protections and limitations, as demonstrated in his gun show and campaign finance reform efforts, raise serious concerns. Still, he has pledged to appoint judges and justices in the mold of Alito and Roberts who will interpret laws and the Constitution as written rather than as they would like them to have been written.
Barack Obama on the other hand is a left-wing extremist who claims to support the Second Amendment and individual gun rights, but who has a pristine anti-gun voting record and has expressed an inclination to ban the production and sale of “assault weapons” and handguns altogether. Obama has also pledged to appoint judges and justices in the mold of Bryer and Stevens, the two justices who wrote dissenting opinions in the Heller case
The differences between the candidates for vice-president are even more dramatic; Joe Biden has spent a lifetime in the U.S. Senate supporting gun control schemes and sticking his foot in his mouth. Sarah Palin is a lifelong hunter and shooter who has correctly noted that gun control is as great a threat to individual security as gangs and illegal drugs. Biden represents the “old guard,” mainline Democrat party while Palin represents the promise of a renewed and re-founded Republican party.
Regardless of how you feel about the choices at the top of the ticket, do not abdicate your right to vote this year. Voters who absolutely can’t bring themselves to cast a vote for either of the main presidential contenders need to show up and cast votes for Senators, Representatives, Governors, State Legislators, and local officials. Every race is important and every vote matters.
Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes is hereby granted provided this credit is included. Text is available at www.FirearmsCoalition.org. To receive The Firearms Coalition’s bi-monthly newsletter, The Hard Corps Report, write to PO Box 3313, Manassas, VA 20108.
©Copyright 2008 Neal Knox Associates