How to win friends and influence people by telling true lies.

[rrneck]

A few days ago someone took exception to my "DU handle". It stands for "renaissance redneck". That's because I started out life a tractor jockey on the family farm and wound up an artist. There isn't a sociocultural alley or backstreet I haven't ventured into at one time or another. It also means I wasn't born into my liberalism but rather had to work for it out of choice.

I still find myself interacting with everyone from working stiffs to millionaires, liberals and conservatives and everybody in between. I hear what they have to say about their lives and how they feel about various ideologies expressed by those on both the political right and left. The vast majority of them hover somewhere between liberal lefties and conservative righties. Not a few actually have a hard time deciding between the two for some reason. They are the political center, and without them elections cannot be won.

The best lies begin with a grain of truth. The best spin is a caricature of an opinion expressed in good faith. What follows is an example of how Republicans might easily get to the labels they have used so well against Democrats and convince people to vote "against their own economic interest".

#1.
What some anti RKBA say: "People who commit crimes with guns are law abiding citizens until they're not."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. You are just a potential criminal as far as I am concerned. You are unstable and your instability is exacerbated because of that gun. You are untrustworthy even though I have never met you and will never know you personally. I am afraid of you.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist wimpy oblivious liberals.

#2.
What some anti RKBA say: "I'm not afraid of my neighbors, why are you?"

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I live in an upscale urban neighborhood with a low crime rate and high property values. Everyone around me is just like me and I like it that way.

Republican spin opportunity: Arrogant rich elitist closeted liberals.

#3.
What some anti RKBA say: "Just move."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I'm perfectly happy to abandon your ass and move to some comfortable gated suburb the minute the neighborhood starts to go downhill. What's your problem you can't afford to simply change the circumstances of your life whenever you feel like it?

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist rich oblivious callous judgmental liberals.

#4.
What some anti RKBA say: "Wearing a gun in public is tacky."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. My need to be surrounded by people like me is much more important than your personal safety.

Republican spin opportunity: Bigoted vain oblivious callous liberals.

#5.
What some anti RKBA say: "I shouldn't have to look at guns in public."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. My perception of the world around me is more important than your personal safety.

Republican spin opportunity: Vain oblivious callous liberals.

#6.
What some anti RKBA say: "You shouldn't be allowed to have a gun in your car if it is parked in your employers parking lot."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I own stock in the corporation you work for and I don't want anybody threatening my unearned income because the workers might get "uppity". My first concern is for management and I don't care what kind of neighborhood you have to drive through to work third shift in the wrong part of town. I never go there anyway.

Republican spin opportunity: Rich elitist bourgeoisie liberals.

#7.
What some anti RKBA say: "Simply call the police, it's their job to protect you."

What most people hear: I don't care about you, that's the cops job. I live in a part of town with low police response time and private security for good measure. I trust the cops and the other powers that be more than I trust you.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist egghead authoritarian oblivious rich liberals.

#8.
What some anti RKBA say: "You are deluded by the NRA."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. You are stupid enough to believe what some lobbyist group tells you without giving it any consideration at all.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist egghead arrogant academic liberals.

#9.
What some anti RKBA say : "If you think you could stop a mass shooting you are deluding yourself."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I have no idea why you actually might consider carrying a gun because I have never so much as held a firearm much less done any real research into what they are for or how they are used. I prefer to simply believe what some talking head who is getting rich telling me what I want to hear tells me.

Republican spin opportunity: Hollywood elitist liberals.

#10.
What some anti RKBA say: "Guns are only for killing people."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I never see anybody that might threaten me because I'm rich and well protected by my property values. The only people I ever meet are just like me and I like it that way.

Republican spin opportunity: Bigoted elitist liberals.

#11.
What some anti RKBA say: "Stop making guns and ammunition and they will become scarce."

What most people hear: Gun ban.

Republican spin opportunity: Gun ban.

#12.
What some anti RKBA say: "Democrats don't own guns."

What most people hear: I don't care about you or your vote. Our big tent isn't big enough for you.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist hypocritical liberals.

#13.
What some anti RKBA say: "People who want to carry guns should have a psychiatric evaluation."

What most people hear: I don't care about you or due process. I am afraid of you for no reason other than because you may not think like me and I'm willing to use the power of the state to feel safer regardless of some silly notion about probable cause.

Republican spin opportunity: Big government elitist wimpy liberals.

#14.:
What some anti RKBA say: "You will never defeat the United States military in an insurrection."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I like things just the way they are and I don't think they will ever change. If push comes to shove I will fall in line with the rest of the authoritarians to save my skin and throw you under the bus.

Republican spin opportunity: Cowardly big government elitist authoritarian liberals bent on forcing us all into socialism.

#15.
What some anti RKBA say: "You probably won't ever be assaulted anyway."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. You are just collateral damage in the implementation of my blinkered ideology.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist arrogant big government ideologue liberals.

#16.
What some anti RKBA say: "Who really needs extended capacity magazines/ black rifles/ personal carry."

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I know more about what you need than you do even though I have no idea who you are or the circumstances of your life, and I certainly have no knowledge about firearms beyond what some talking head told me. My ideology is more important than you.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist arrogant academic egghead ignorant liberals.

#17.
What some anti RKBA say: "Why do you need a gun to go to Starbucks?"

What most people hear: I don't care about you. I never leave the upscale part of town and spend most of my time drinking overpriced coffee.

Republican spin opportunity: Elitist latte sipping liberals.

People aren't stupid. Assuming they are because you view them through the bottom of your ideological beer mug is a big mistake. They can tell when you care more about your ideology than you do about them. We naturally expect the rich to be dismissive toward others because with wealth comes a sense of entitlement that most people simply don't have. Liberals are supposed to go to bat for the little guy, not lecture him from on high about his shortcomings.

I believe we can use government to make people's lives better. In fact, that's the only way we can do it. But we have to convince them it is possible first. After the last thirty years most people don't believe that government can be responsive to their best interests and behaving like a bunch of arrogant, dismissive, proto-authoritarian ideologues whose agenda is more important to them than the people they are supposed to care about doesn't help.

Our only saving grace is that we are honest about our arrogance. Republicans win elections in no small part because they lie about their concerns for the lives of real people. They know how to wrap their mercenary ideology in the flag and convince people that they care. I believe those lies are beginning to approach a critical mass that will be difficult to reverse without serious social upheaval. The GOP appears to be losing control of it's base to the peril of us all.

The seeming dismissive attitude of the far left for the lives of real people has cost us elections and will continue to do so. Guns are a wedge issue that clearly reveal it. If you want to know why people vote for Republicans you may only have to look as far as a mirror. By all means keep handing elections to those fascists in the Republican party. Sooner or later you may wish you had a gun whether you care to admit it or not.

The first rule of politics is to find a group of people who are headed somewhere and get out in front of them. Oblivious, arrogant, dismissive, ideologically rigid voters elect oblivious, arrogant, dismissive, ideologically rigid politicians. I think the left is on the wrong side of this issue and judging by the rate of gun ownership and trends in gun laws most of the country agrees with me. It would well behoove liberals to figure out the best way to make gun ownership work in this country instead of treating gun owners like pariahs since there appear to be about eighty million of them and their numbers are growing.