I want to commend Ken White’s post at Popehat to your attention. In the post he provides a critique of what the president said about his use of executive authority in announcing new gun control regulations. Mr. White’s remarks aren’t a critique of the president’s rhetoric on gun violence or on the merit of the changes in regulations themselves. That’s been done by the Associated Press which found that they would have been largely irrelevant to the incidents the president drew attention to in his speech.
Here’s a snippet from the post:
Here the President is again invoking “rights are not absolute” with another example. And it’s a terrible example. The TSA offers security theater, not security. When we give up our right to privacy to be groped and scanned, we’re giving it up so that politicians can say they are doing something, not to make ourselves safer. It’s therefore a poor comparison to use to support a gun control program already being criticized as mere window-dressing.
The President also offers an appeal to the masses, citing the constitutional wisdom of a majority of gun owners. I should find a First Amendment example and add that to my trope list. Rights protect us from the majority; they aren’t curtailed by the views of the majority, thank God.
Fortunately, what the president is doing, both in his actions and his words, is what’s called “virtue-signalling”, indicating that he’s on the right side of an issue rather than actually doing something about the issue. That’s more than adequate for the audience that he’s addressing.
I don’t really care about the underlying policy issues, but cannot stand the incongruence of “I taught constitutional law,” and “we accept that you cannot yell ‘fire,’ in a theater.” Like White I hate this trope and my suspicion is that Obama didn’t write it, or decided to go with the popular understanding of some principle, not what would be taught in a Constitutional law class.
Conrad Black has written a thought-provoking piece in the National Review, eventually wrapping the Clintons, GWB, and Obama into one common package which he asserts has contributed to the genesis of many problems being debated today.
Consequently, Obama’s gun control policy, dovetails into Black’s critique of him, as exemplifying yet another diversionary move which avoids addressing pressing issues being voiced by the public at large. Climate change is another ill conceived priority of this tone deaf president. Also, his former job, not as a Constitutional professor, but as a community organizer/agitator, has been the crux of Obama’s expertise skillfully applied during these last long, confusing and ultra polarizing 7 years in office.
It’s not virtue-signaling, it’s leadership. He’s a man in a box doing what he can rather than pouting because he can’t have the whole cake. He is in fact doing exactly what say we wish our politicians did – trying his best to deal with a tough problem.
“rights are not absoluteâ€
Ok, someone should ask him if the right to abortion is absolute and see what he says (to give one example).
“Rights that I disagree with are not absolute.”
Rev. Warren asked Obama directly:”Now, let’s deal with abortion … [A]t what point does a baby get human rights, in your view?” To this, Obama replied:
“Well, you know, I think that whether you’re looking at it from a theological perspective or a scientific perspective, answering that question with specificity, you know, is above my pay grade.
“… I am pro-choice. I believe in Roe v. Wade, and I come to that conclusion not because I’m pro-abortion, but because, ultimately, I don’t think women make these decisions casually…. And so, for me, the goal right now should be — and this is where I think we can find common ground. And by the way, I’ve now inserted this into the Democratic party platform, is how do we reduce the number of abortions? The fact is that although we have had a president who is opposed to abortion over the last eight years, abortions have not gone down and that is something we have to address….
“I am in favor, for example, of limits on late-term abortions, if there is an exception for the mother’s health. From the perspective of those who are pro-life, I think they would consider that inadequate, and I respect their views….