Why can't these Democrats and Republicans just come together and find common ground? Why can't they all just get along? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    So why can't we all just get along? Let's come together and find some common ground. We're hearing a lot about such things these days. But the funny thing to some of us is that when the Democrats have enough votes they have traditionally gone ahead and done what they wanted to do. But when Republicans get enough votes that they can block what the Democrats want to do, that is when we hear calls for "everybody to just work together..."

    So just how does this "common ground" work? If that intrigues you then you might be interested in an article by Niels Lesniewski, writing in the respected capitol hill publication Roll Call. He shines some light on how Harry Reid and the Democrats who want to repeal the Second Amendment rights of Americans might have gotten enough Republicans, including North Carolina's own Sen. Richard Burr, to vote to bring Obama's Gun Control bill to the Senate floor for consideration.

    Now in fairness to these Republicans who voted with the Democrats, we should say that some of them, including Burr's office staff, argue that the vote was simply a means of getting the issue on the floor for debate and that the important votes will come later, when amendments are offered and of course in the final vote.

    On the other side of that argument we hear strong Second Amendment advocates say that we don't need any more gun laws--that they will not reduce gun violence--and the entire bill should be stuffed in the trash can. And indeed the Republicans had enough votes to do just that, if all of the Republicans had stuck together. But such was not to be.

    So Lesniewski postulates a theory. The theory is that booze and boats breed bipartisanship. The boat is named the Black Tie.

    Click here to read about it.

    Commentary

    We don't buy the idea that "we all ought to come together and compromise..." on our inalienable rights as Americans. We think most Americans know what is going to come from all this. These "compromises" will chip away at our right to keep and bear arms. It may be gun show background checks and some other pieces of the original bill that end up being accepted in these "compromises" but the point we want to make to Sen. Burr and his colleagues on the Republican side who caved today on this is that this is not what American want or need.

    Now we can understand where compromise may sometimes work to be in the better interest of Americans. If one side wants to spend two billion dollars for a new aircraft carrier and the other side wants to spend only one billion then maybe they can and should meet somewhere in between.

    But not on our inalienable rights. Republicans caved and compromised on making abortion illegal. They agreed to allow Democrats to vote for abortions under certain conditions. So what happened? Within ten years 50 million babies had been killed. So is a compromise good when it results in "only" 50 million babies dying rather than 60 million?

    Republicans, since 2010 have caved on cutting Federal spending and they have given our children and grandchildren an intolerable future--all in the name of "compromise."

    This "compromise" business of chipping away at our Second Amendment rights is pure BS.

    We don't know if Sen. Burr has spent any time on the Black Tie docketed down at the National Harbor or not. But we have to assume he has some reason to bargain our inalienable rights away or else he would have voted to kill the bill before the bargaining even got started.

    We think that his shameful display of lack of commitment to protecting our inalienable rights is precisely why we need a constitutional convention to amend the Second Amendment to make it perfectly clear that the rights our Founding Fathers recognized are not like poker chips on a table in a yacht in the National Harbor. And we don't care how many cocktails it takes to get Kay Hagan to compromise on how many rounds a magazine can hold. That is not something the Constitution gives her, or any of the rest of them, the power to negotiate.

    The point here is that the Obama Gun Control bill is nothing in the word but an attempt to chip away our rights. And that is not something either of our Senators should be allowing to happen.

    Compromise is fine on some things. But we expect our elected officials to honor, preserve and defend the Constitution and that means you can't bargain away an inalienable right. They put their hand on a Bible and swore to do just that--defend the Constitution--and that is just what they should have done today. Shame of them for not doing so.

    Now, to every one of our legislators we ask: So what are you going to do about this intolerable act? Bill Cook, Mike Speciale and every other Republican should, Monday night, introduce a bill that resolves that the General Assembly will nuffify any bill that comes out of this "coming together" as it would impact North Carolina.

    The time has come--actually long passed--for the Republicans in this state to stand up for what they say they beleive in. What is it about "...shall not be infringed..." they don't understand? The Federal government is totally out of control--constiutional control. And it is up to the State of North Carolina to step forward and assert a simple fact: The Second Amendment guarantees our right to keep and bear arms and that right shall not be infringed. Not infringed a great deal, but not even for a little bit. The people have elected enough Republicans to get the job done. To hell with compromise. Get the job done or or stop saying all this junk about supporting constitutional government.

    And Republicans, particularly right here in Beaufort County, should replace any Republican who will not stand up for the Second Amendment. And in this instance, "stand up" means pushing through a bill to serve notice that we will not allow the Federal government to abolish the Second Amendment, even if it is done one chip at the time. Our County Commission has done its job. It is now up to Bill Cook and Mike Speciale to do their's.

    Now, please read this.
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