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Wednesday, October 12, 2016 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
O
P
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N I
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Rachel
Marsden
American Voices
Letters to the Editor…
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ters to the Editor is an open forum for the community and contains unsolicited opinions not necessarily shared by the Editor.
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To the Editor:
The Second Amendment of the Constitution
states “the right of the people to keep and bear
arms, shall not be infringed.” So why is it that
Democrats continue to make every effort to
infringe on law-abiding citizens’ rights under
the Constitution?
I’m completely baffled why Democrats
think conservatives (deplorables) are violent
because we own guns. When was the last
time you saw a group of conservatives block
a freeway, turn over cop cars, riot, loot, throw
Molotov cocktails, and burn buildings?
So far this year in President Obama’s
hometown of Chicago there have been over
3,000 shooting victims. Guess how many
have been attributed to NRA members. So
what is the motive behind this insatiable drive
by Democrats to disarm law-abiding citizens?
We’ve witnessed firsthand (one of many
examples) corrupt power at the highest level
of our government and the justice system with
the dismissal of Hillary Clinton’s violation
of the law (18 U.S. Code & 793 subsection).
Any military person that compromised our
nation’s security even a fraction of what she
had would be prosecuted under the Espionage
Act of 1913. So, would Hillary as president
select Supreme Court Justices that further the
Democrats drive to disarm law-abiding citi-
zens; the precise thing the 2nd Amendment
was written to protect us from? Nah! After
40-plus years of scandal-free government
service, 100% honesty with voters, and a
See LETTERS on page 25
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PARIS — Why has real
democracy become so elu-
sive in developed nations?
Sure, you can still vote and
feel as if you have some
kind of say, but genuine
democracy is getting further
and further out of reach. The
current climate in Europe
should serve as a warning
to America about what lies
ahead if U.S. citizens don’t
reclaim power by choos-
ing the anti-establishment
candidate, Donald Trump,
in November’s presidential
election.
Hungary held a ref-
erendum last weekend
on whether to allow the
European Union to impose
migrant quotas on the coun-
try in an effort to resettle
millions of refugees from
the Middle East. According
to the Associated Press,
about 98 percent of vot-
ers rejected the imposition,
but because fewer than
half of Hungary’s voters
cast a ballot, the referen-
dum is considered invalid.
Even if the requisite 50
percent had shown up to
vote, a 1964 decision of the
European Court of Justice
set a precedent establish-
ing the supremacy of EU
law over the laws of mem-
ber nations. As a result,
any anti-democratic quotas
imposed on Hungary by
European governance can’t
even be canceled out by the
overwhelming popular vote
of Hungarians.
The only way for an EU
country such as Hungary
to maintain national sov-
ereignty is to officially
escape the European
straitjacket, just as Great
Britain did earlier this year
with the Brexit vote. But
elected representatives are
loath to give their people
that kind of democratic
freedom.
At least two of the
conservative candidates
in France’s presidential
primary, former French
President Nicolas Sarkozy
and former Prime Minister
Francois Fillon, are calling
for a referendum on merely
“reformatting” Europe. In
other words, the elites want
to set up a false dichotomy
under the pretext of demo-
cratic choice. Voters would
get to choose whether
they’re satisfied with
Europe in its current state,
or if they want the same
elites who made a mess
of things in the first place
to have another chance to
make a different mess.
If the issues of cultural
and societal preservation,
establishment cronyism and
the erosion of democracy
become more important
to French voters than the
choice between ideological
right and left, then French
voters are really left with
only one electoral choice:
Far-right National Front
leader Marine Le Pen is the
only serious candidate who
has promised a Brexit-style
referendum if she wins the
French presidency in May.
French elites are betting
that voters won’t dare to
vote for a far-right party in
order to escape the clutches
of the European Union. It’s
quite a gamble.
Is it any wonder that so
many millennials in Europe
and elsewhere are veering
to the far right?
When I was barely out of
school in the early 2000s,
trying to carve out a niche
as a conservative voice in
a North American media
landscape dominated by
the left, I felt that the leftist
buzzwords being bandied
about reflected social engi-
neering on a massive scale.
The counterculture genera-
tion had come to power and
were peddling the notion
that society needed fixing
because it was too sexist,
too intolerant, not diverse
enough and just simply too
unfair.
The establishment
foisted these views and this
way of thinking onto soci-
ety and made it an offense
to deviate from the left-
wing point of view. If you
didn’t conform, you were
marginalized.
Some of us checked out
of the system altogether to
forge an independent path
and have been waiting
decades for the pendulum
to swing back in our favor.
The cavalry has finally
arrived, and it’s made up of
our critics’ own children.
© 2016 Tribune Content
Agency
Opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and
are not necessarily shared by the Editor or The Nugget Newspaper.