From: clc5q@hemlock.cs.Virginia.EDU (Clark L. Coleman)
Subject: Re: No Difference Between the Parties?
Organization: University of Virginia Computer Science Department
Distribution: usa
Date: Wed, 2 Sep 1992 19:26:20 GMT

In article <PA142548.267.715443113@utkvm1.utk.edu> PA142548@utkvm1.utk.edu (T. Archer) writes:
>In article <1992Sep1.212054.15455@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> clc5q@uvacs.cs.Virginia.EDU (Clark L. Coleman) writes:
>>
>>So, 55% of the Democrats go one way, and 88% of the Republicans go the other
>>way. Yep, there's no difference between the two parties, is there?
>>
>>Does anyone have a recent counterexample of a bill in either House that:
>>
>>1) Was not bundled with 50 unrelated items,
>>2) Was a clear showdown on a gun or hunting issue, and
>>3) Showed no real difference in the party voting patterns?
>>
>
>In 1988 George Bush said: "No new gun laws."
>
>Over the next four years he:
>
>Supported a ban on "assault weapons."
>
>Banned an number of "assault weapons" by executive fiat.
>
>Agreed to sign the Brady Bill if he could get our other civil liberties 
>reduced as well.
>
>This is not a supporter of my civil liberties as protected under the Second 
>Amendment.  There is no difference between the Spendycrats and the 
>Damnpublicans anymore.
>
>Vote libertarian.

In summary, I asked for a certain kind of example, and you failed to produce
one.

The big crime bill to which you object had numerous provisions in it, and Bush
wanted many of them (as did many Republican representatives.) He reached for
a compromise that most of us disapprove of.

My solution is to throw out so many Democratic Senators and Representatives
that we would have Republican control of both Houses of Congress. I contend
that there would no longer be any significant pressure to compromise, and that
we would not get gun control riders on other bills from such a Congress. I
asked for an example with the conditions I stated above for a very good reason:
I wanted to see if there were good reasons to think that a Republican Congress
would have no significant difference on gun control from a Democratic Congress.
Bush's weaknesses are a separate issue; as an individual, he is not as
representative of his party as a much larger sample would be (like a few
hundred Republican Congressmen.)

It is certainly a problem if we have a system that allows too much power via
executive orders that don't have to go through Congress. That systemic problem
is independent of political parties.

I was challenging those RKBA advocates who sit at home and don't vote on
election day because "there is no difference between the parties" to justify
their position with respect to one institution, and one institution only:
the Congress. You have failed to justify that position with respect to
Congress, although your criticism of Bush is shared by myself and others.

I look forward to a substantive answer to my original question. I would be
surprised if such a recorded vote can be found in the last 20 years on
gun control (showing no difference between the two major parties.)

-- 
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"It is seldom that any liberty is lost all at once." David Hume
|||  clc5q@virginia.edu (Clark L. Coleman)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns