By Amfivena
A ‘Dead Horse’ is nautical slang for debt that followed a sailor when he signed on as a crew-member of a ship. Maritime labor recruiters, called crimps, would deliver seamen to ships. Any debts owed would be paid to the crimp by the ship prior to sailing. This debt could include services bought on usurious credit terms from a boarding house, criminal penalties or even bogus ‘fees’ assessed by the crimps for their services.
The new crew-member’s wages would be used to pay off this debt in the ship’s ledger. The crew-member would only receive pay after his debt was paid in full. Thus sailors often found themselves working for weeks, or months, without pay – carrying a dead horse until their balance sheet was even. Incidentally, this practice didn’t end in the United States until the passage of the Seaman’s Act of 1915 (championed by Senator Robert La Follette, a Republican).
For the purposes of this essay, the Left is broadly defined here as the Democratic Party, the majority of main-stream media and virtually all of the Hollywood entertainment machine. Much like an indebted seaman signing on-board a ship, the current Left labors under the weight of a dead horse. In this case, the dead horse is the Democratic ‘old guard’, consisting of politicians like Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi and Charles Schumer.
The 2016 election was supposed to have been a coronation exercise for Clinton and her vast entourage. Who is, to paraphrase Barack Obama, the most qualified candidate ever. Like nearly all leftists, the old guard sees themselves as inherently superior. They are better educated, wealthier, smarter and more successful than other Americans. They, in their own minds, are uniquely qualified to chart a course for the nation.
They cannot concede the possibility of ever being wrong. If you disagree with them, it can only be due to your failings and limitations – never theirs. Think about the contempt and arrogance behind statements suggesting Trump voters are too stupid to recognize they voted against their own interests.
The 2016 electoral loss was a shock. Not only did they lose, but they lost to a man who they see as inferior. The leftist old guard are incapable of accepting any blame for this loss. The problem wasn’t an entrenched Democratic leadership out-of-touch with the American people. The problem was Donald Trump stole the election.
Even then, they can’t bring themselves to give Trump full credit for stealing the election. He only did it with the help of the Russians. More significantly for this coming November, they are intent on regaining personal control of the government. They want to collect what they see as their just reward. They are wholly unwilling to step aside and let a new generation take over. So the next generation labors, not for the future but, to pay the debts of the past. Normally in American political history, younger politicians would redefine the party by crafting a centrist and moderate message (much like Bill Clinton in the 1990’s).
But in 2018 America, that is not possible, because the Democrats are further handicapped by identity politics. Two key features of 21st Century identity politics are fanatical political correctness and the weaponization of moral equivalency. Combined, these effectively stifle free speech. Any deviation from the leftist narrative is immediately and viciously attacked.
Evidence of this can be seen in the reaction to Trevor Noah’s joke about indigenous Australian women – five years after the fact. Or, the suggestion that there is no material difference between ICE and the Gestapo. This outrage theater is a lethal threat to livelihoods. Budding politicians are safer erring to the left than risk running afoul of group-think.
So what does this have to do with guns? Because the old guard won’t step aside, younger Democrats who might opportunistically reject rabid anti-Trumpism, are left with few options. They can’t move to the center without being branded a racist, Trump supporter, or some other leftist code word for ‘not one of us’. If they toe the party line, they can’t hope for anything more than crumbs from the selfish party leaders.
The only way they can advance their personal cause is to out-flank party leadership by moving to the left. The old guard, in turn, can’t fight back, lest they fall victim to the outrage machine. All they can do is agree – and get pulled further away from the election-winning middle ground. Thus, the frenzy to enact gun control doesn’t appear to be dying down like it normally would in the run-up to an important election.
Gun control is a losing position to take in a national election. Gun control is popular in the Left’s urban core. Outside that core, not so much, despite all the (highly questionable) surveys that say otherwise. Smart Democrats know this. As evidenced by the recording of New York Congressional Democratic candidate Tedra Cobb urging teen supporters to keep quiet about gun control, while also assuring them she would change her views if elected.
The teen activism that emerged from the Parkland shooting seems to have a resiliency not found in the aftermath of other similar horrible events. The left made great use of the tragedy to cause real short-term damage to the Republican party. This movement was threatening enough that Republicans rushed legislative responses in otherwise highly unlikely states.
For now, the further erosion of the individual right to keep and bear arms seems certain. Indeed, national concealed carry reciprocity and deregulation of silencers are both dead for now. This despite the fact that H.R. 38: Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act passed in the House and was publicly supported by Trump just days before the Parkland Shooting.
After the shooting, establishment Republicans quickly shifted away from scaling back infringements on 2nd Amendment protected rights. Instead, they hopped onto the anti-gun bandwagon by supporting measures such as Red-Flag laws that allow confiscation of guns with minimal due process.
But friends, fear not! The good news for our gun rights is that the Democratic Party and their supporters in mainstream media are still carrying their dead horse of a selfish old guard. This debt will not be paid prior to the elections in November. Frankly, if I was a Democrat, I would be pessimistic about the party’s ability to get rid of their dead horse before the 2020 elections.
Each new David Hogg or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez looking to make a name for themselves has only one way to go – even further to the left, and thus further from electability in toss-up districts. In the mean-time thank your higher power of choice that the Democratic old-guard is busy eating their own young, instead of picking federal judges.
Personally I do not like Trump. In fact, as a man of principle, I abhor him. Yet, every day I thank my Christian god that he is our president. Trump is the president we needed, not the president we wanted. Tough medicine for a nasty disease. As for Hillary in 2020….please run. To quote John Oliver, “I will write you a check…do it”.
That John Oliver quote…absolutely priceless. Victory still tastes sweet.
https://m.9gag.com/gag/aeMGRyO
The reference
Ha! I had never seen that before. Great video. Talk about your mouth writing checks your ass can’t cash… Man, John Oliver is one smarmy little twit.
wow that was fucking EPIC
That quote is exactly why I would never encourage the Beast to run again. That’s one crow I definitely don’t want to eat.
Well said. Agree with everything you said. I don’t like Trump either, but if the alternative was Hillary there was no choice. Got to admit though, he’s pulled off a couple of things that left me astounded.
I hope Hillary doesn’t run again because we will get Trump again. We shouldn’t have Trump for a second term if we can have better. Regardless of what people like Alex Jones says, America will be worse off with another four years of Trump. And no more Jared Kushner.
The reasons not to have Trump for another four more years is obvious. If people have to explain to you why, the U.S. won’t be getting much better, rather it will be a slow crash. Trump should remain a transitional president…
Sadly, insurgent candidacies to replace sitting presidents tend to either fail, or result in the party’s failure (See LBJ and Herbert Humphry, and Reagan and Ford, though Ford still lost to Carter). I suspect it’ll end up being either Trump or some ghastly choice like Kamela Harris, Bernie Sanders, or Elizabeth Warren. Unless Trump has a snowball’s chance in my state (California, so unlikely) I’ll probably end up voting Coolidge like I did last election.
Coolidge is a decent choice, but consider a Goldwater/Kirkpatrick ticket. Now that would be amazing…
I just like the grumpy retro nature of it. No one alive today voted for him, so it warms the cockles of my heart. Plus his presidency would be doubly quiet, something I think would make the world a better place. Goldwater would work, as would Lincoln or Washington. But with Coolidge I figure I’m likely the only one, making the bureaucrats keep track of the single, stupid vote….
If neither of the established party candidates is tolerable, why not at least vote Libertarian (even if they nominate someone as uninspiring as Gov. Johnson)?
Johnson and his running mate were staunch gun control advocates, which should be impossible in a libertarian. Meanwhile, all this nasty mouth after a spectacular 18 months leads me to think another 2 years of such success will just cause MORE stupidity, so I advise you begin saving up to go to Clinton’s coronation in Jan ’21.
And please, if reasons to elect Hillary instead of Trump for another 4 years are so “obvious”, how about explaining a couple? “Obviously” generally means “there are none, so I’ll claim you’re stupid if you don’t see them, and hope you *are* stupid enough to not notice that.”
Because I found Johnson to be a disgraceful stoner of a candidate, and didn’t trust Bill Weld on guns or much else. And as I said, I’d probably hold my nose and vote for Trump if it had a snowball’s chance of doing anything, but I could Chicago vote (early and often) and still have no possible chance of changing California’s deep-blue color. If that changes, I’ll stop voting protest candidates, but since I can’t impact anything, I can at least register my displeasure.
Gary Johnson and William Weld are living proof the Libertarians care only about getting intoxicated on any and all legalized drugs. That is really how they define the words “Liberty” and “freedom”.
From the days of Andre Maru and Nancy Lord in the early 1990s campaign. The libertarian party always seems to have problems with their own candidates. I liked what Monroe and Lord had to say on many subjects I thought they had the right platform. Unfortunately Maru had some sexual morality issues that they Libertarians were late and discovering.
If Libertarians would just take some personal responsibility for drug use, the accidents it causes, family breakdown and paying for it out of their own pocket instead of using government money to get high “for free” they might be more successful.
I’ll take one of Washington (1st term), Jefferson, Tyler, Cleveland, or Coolidge please
So wise one, whom would you chose? Seems these never Trumpers would let Perfect lose instead of good enough win. Thank whatever gods you pray to that Mcstain, Jeb! et al. did not win( MAYBE Cruze my first pick) NoKo would still be tossing missiles our ships would still be buzzed ISIS would still own the caliphate, etc. So, whom.
daveinwyo……. Who else would have the money to finance their own election so they would not have to sell out before they were even elected.
If Trump is in a full 8 years and can manage a GOP majority for most of it, America will honest to God be Great again. I’d be willing to put money on it.
CrazyJay: you really are the stupidity gift that keeps on giving. Your continual flogging of that deceased equine NEVERTRUMPANZEE nonsense is getting older than your brain farted self.
Just admit your a socialist trollbot with an IQ of less than your shoe size.
That’s the problem. There isn’t really anyone to choose from. What we need is a return to the days of the citizen statesman. You go to Washington D.C. for a term, or two, on your own dime then go home to your business, farm etc. What we need are Jeffersonians.
Like THAT is going to happen. Get real and grow up.
Oh! And after leaving office it is to be a criminal offense to serve in ANY capacity as a lobbyist.
One interesting aspect not covered: The DNC has serious debt while the RNC is debt free with cash on hand. The debt isn’t TOO outrageous for a national organization that deals with millions of dollars (though it’s worth over 15 house seats of funding) and the usual suspects of Democrat donating billionaires could wipe it out with relative ease, but this would exchange monetary debt with political debt to someone who wants an even further push left.
“crafting a centrist and moderate message (much like Bill Clinton in the 1990’s).”
I’d ask if pro-gun people were really dumb enough to fall for that twice in less than 30 years (actually less given all the lower level Democrats who ran on a pro-gun message then bailed), but most still give money to the NRA after they’ve (at least) twice admitted they outright lied to their membership to pass gun control the leadership supported so…
And the MDA spokesman is heard from again.
MDA wishes it was as bad for gun rights as the NRA. They wish they were responsible for a ban on a quarter of the population buying firearms and total ban on the most common firearms in the world.
Yes, yes, Shannon. Gave up the cysco kid front and now you’re nanashi.
I’m not so sure the younger generation of Demoncrats are moving to the left out of strategic interests. In fact I’m pretty sure they’re mostly full blown brain dead socialists. Either way though, the GOP will easily hold on to the House and gain several seats in the Senate. And once again we’ll be able to enjoy the liberal tears on the election night news.
Either way, result.
I really hope you’re right. But I fear the last election and the loss of people who remember things like The Great Leap Forward, Great Purge, Cultural Revolution, etc moved the Overton Window. I suspect the electorate will mostly like the idea of Free!* stuff, and do the typical knee-jerk vote against the incumbent and his party. Hopefully the left will not take the senate, and be just intolerable enough things turn around in 2020.
*Free indicates that your taxes will rise, services and the quality thereof fall, and everything the government touches starts to look like the movie “Brazil” more each day.
On the House side, I just don’t see ‘Impeach Trump’ and ‘Abolish ICE’ as winning slogans. On the Senate side, the Dems are defending 24 of the 33 seats up for election including Montana, North Dakota, Missouri, Wisconsin, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Florida – all states that Thedonald took in 2016. The only seat that could conceivably flip from Republican to Demoncrat is Nevada. Anyone who actually thought the Dems could take the Senate was probably high on jenkem.
I agree the Senate is unlikely. The house..I dunno, I don’t think most people care as much about some of this as we do. I do think the ICE and Impeach nonsense is mainly to rile up the base, then the candidates will mostly talk a nice game and claim someone need to keep Crazy Trump in check. I hope it fails (heck, one of the few votes of mine that matters will be an attempt to keep my house seat from flipping), but time will tell. Sooner or later, time will tell.
Of cour se, ‘Abolish ICE’ and ‘Impeach Trump’ make much better slogans than ‘Fuck the booming economy, put us back in pow er anyway!’
Ahem. https://babylonbee.com/news/dems-socialism-is-the-only-way-to-end-this-nightmare-of-prosperity/
Tennessee May flip to Dems despite my vote to the contrary.
People like old crooked Phil.
And they seem to like lieing Karl Deanofnothing for Gov.
We hate to lose a Senate seat. The Gov slot as well.
Too many damn Carpetbaggers as our good neighbor Georgia.
Never thought I’d see our Country so divided! And it ain’t trump (well, entirely)
Your definition of free stuff left out one component; the promised free stuff never materializes.
Loose just the right number of seats in the House, but not enough to flip, and the Freedom Caucus becomes king-maker.
I find a surprising (to me) amount of young people, millennial generation and more so post, are much more freedom minded than I would have thought. They have grown up with unfettered access to any information and the more liberal (in the classical sense) attitudes to sex and drug use and see parallels between the futility of trying to control the flow of free information on the internet and other things like sex, drugs, and increasingly speech and firearms as they grow older and more aware.
It ain’t everybody, but all is not lost either.
If the Republican party was smart (they’re not), they would hammer the democRAT party with the accusation that white heterosexual males are not welcome in the democRAT party, the democRAT party welcoming certain minorities, LGBTQP (yes, that includes pedophiles and every other form of perversion) and run with it.
Declare the the Republican party welcomes ALL. regardless of race, creed color, religion or any other practice.
Yeah, because hetero pedophiles are such a rarity….
Serpent. anarchyst is the dude that claims the holocaust did not happen and that hitler will be vindicated by historians.
His opinions are worthless.
I’d vindicate him. As in, if they ever find his corpse, run it over with a Vindicator tank a few times, then maybe nuke it for good measure. Can’t be too careful. Those neo-nazi idiots would try to use his grave site for pilgrimage if they could, so best make it one that will give them a lethal dose of radiation if they try.
Ive supported Trump from the beginning and will do so for the foreseeable future. One reason. Look at what he’s done to the left and the media. Think about how it was before he came along. That’s why.
Indeed, Trump and his people started punching back, something republicans didn’t seem to know how to do before. One the curtain was drawn back the really crazy stuff just below the thinnest veneer of sanity and civility started to leak out of the left. Now it’s like the lizard people have been unmasked…everyone on the left seems to either be trying to out crazy those around them or else earnestly insisting that they too are completely out of touch and utterly insane.
It hasn’t taken Trump long to strip away the pretense and offer the left up for what they are and what they are doing; they are lunatics, and destroying American institutions and traditions is what they are about. Let them run that at the national level and see how far it takes them.
In return, we no longer have to pretend like the left are basically good, sane, patriotic people with a different opinion…we are free to address them as they actually are, rather than what they have pretended to be. It might destroy the republic, but that was going to be lost anyway if nothing changed.
Someone said Trump might not be the president we wanted, but he was the one we needed. That might be the truest thing to come out of this…it was about time someone started being honest with and about the left and their intentions. What’s shocking is that the more they are exposed as hateful, crazy people, the faster they hurry to be the craziest and most hateful people they can be.
A prediction: Trump resistance is largely a media construct with very little substance, and as such the midterms will see Republicans hold both the Senate and the house. If I’m wrong I’ll own it, but I think most of the voters in most of the places are looking at the dems as if they’ve stripped naked at the dinner table and defecated on their plate. Too shocking too look away, to crazy to tolerate. No one is going to invite them back to the table now, even if no one will quite yet call the authorities to drag them away.
If the Republicans lose the house Trump will share some of the blame. He should have veto’d the last disaster of a spending bill and not played so nice with the swampy Republicans, but instead drug them kicking and screaming to do the right thing. He needs to shut down the gov’t before Nov. and get the funding for the wall and the other changes to the immigration system he campaigned on. If that happens the Republicans will be golden.
The dems have yet to realize that the majority of Americans don’t want to be scrounging around for toilet paper and something to eat like their darling Venezuela.
By most standards I am smarter (academically anyway), wealthier, and better educated than most. Once I became a gun owner during the Obama years, just as the post Newtown shortage began, I lost all interest in the D party or being an independent. Until and unless the D’s drop both their old guard and the Socialist crap, they will not get my vote. Period. I realize the D will or change. And I am OK with that.
Crimpin’ ain’t easy…
Gotta keep your crimp hand strong.
“Dumbass f**king white people marking up the internet with their opinions like dogs pissing on fire hydrants.”
“oh man it’s kind of sick how much joy I get from being cruel to old white men.”
Two 2014 tweets from The New York Times’ newest editorial hire, Sarah Jeong.
This is what we have to deal with when it comes to the Commie media.
Trump was ndver my first choice, and he still says some things that I wish he wouldn’t, but his picks for the openings on the federal bench have been great!
Really, this is true of both sides.
All the strife we’re experiencing is largely in part due to rigid rich old people that all think they’re better than us. Most people I know and get along with absolutely straddle both sides of these philosophies. I play FPS games with guys all in their 20’s and 30’s, LGBT city dwellers and redneck farmers alike, but we all universally agree that shooting stuff and owning guns is fun.
Old people are the problem.
Owning guns and shooting stuff in a VIDEO GAME? Is that what you think we’re doing here?
The problem as I see it and I could be wrong is we are now giving the reigns of the nation over to the kids that choose the easy path (socialism or communism) over the hard and work intensive path of freedom. Really look at what this freedom requires and look at what socialism requires of the average citizen. These little assholes are going to choose the one that requires the least thought and the least work on their part. They view the socialist ideal of equality as we’ll all be billionaires living in mansions; they don’t, and they refuse, to believe that socialist equality means we are all equally poor and living in slums while starving to death slowly. Unless we can find a way to dispell that view without going socialist and seeing it first hand the dems will continue to go socialist in search of an undefeatable voting bloc.
Kids I hear from seem to see the current system as one in which they do everything they’re supposed to, graduate, get a job, and work until they can hopefully save enough to move out of their parents’ house and, if they’re really successful, they might achieve the dream of buying a decent vehicle, having health care insurance, and perhaps even being able to marry and have their own children. Wages have remained stagnant for decades while productivity has increased dramatically, so it’s pretty clear that the current system is not working primarily for the benefit of the average American.
You can hang all that on the current legal and illegal immigration system. Trump needs to hammer it home and get the wall and discard the Visa lottery system.
If your only tool is a wall, every problem looks like immigrants.
Then don’t let the screen door hit the young folks in their collective azzes on the way out of the USA. Buh-bye!
The evil POS (D) was broke before Hillocrap ran. She was damn near funding the whole party’s ops from ill-gotten gains to her foundation, selling 20% of the U.S.’s Uranium, giving away two islands in the Bering Strait to Russia, absorbing kick-backs from terrorist nations like Iran, etc., etc., etc.
They’ve had massive influxes of cash, but are still on the backside of the curve when it comes to campaign funding, and they haven’t been in a position to sell or give away anything [no carbon-chits? no global-warming kickbacks? you stupid motherfuckers].
Let’s hope this campaign is very expensive for them, and that it causes violent and fatal in-fighting.
Either way, I’m pressing for no peace, no quarter for the evil POS communist (D). F em all.
To the commentators above who suggested maybe the younger generation really believes in socialism:
They have no clue what socialism is or isn’t. Nor do they care. It is all herd thinking and virtue signaling. To wit, three articles from today’s news showing a complete lack of any standards or moral compass from the left.
Exhibit A: She believes in whatever gets her the most attention.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the socialist congressional candidate from New York who touts honesty and authenticity as her greatest strengths, used to describe herself as a follower of Adam Smith, the so-called father of capitalism — and said that terms like “feminism” and “empowerment” were “relics from the past.”
From: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/08/03/socialist-candidate-ocasio-cortez-once-saw-herself-as-smithian-capitalist-viewed-feminism-as-relic.html
Exhibit B: No guns, unless they are important to the team.
A week after one of his players was found with a loaded AR-15 in his car, first-year Florida coach Dan Mullen said he has a no-weapons policy that nonetheless does allow players to own guns.
From: https://www.ajc.com/sports/florida-coach-dan-mullen-explains-team-gun-policy/P5WbI1eV7pn9hPkpL5RAVO/?icmp=np_inform_variation-control
Exhibit C (hat tip Ralph): If you want to write offensive tweets, make sure to read the latest memo on what groups are ok to target.
The New York Times has defended a new member of its editorial board who wrote inflammatory tweets about white people.
The Times this year fired a new writer after old tweets that caused offense emerged. Quinn Norton was let go only hours after the newspaper announced her hire in February.
From: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-45052534
Oh, and this is not exclusive to the left. Who here thinks Donald Trump cares one way or the other about factory workers in Ohio or who crosses the border?
I do. That is why I proudly voted for him. Get new tinfoil for your hat.
I never would have considered Trump if Governor Palin had not ANNOINTED him. Biblical reference purely intentional. In the next debate I noticed that Trump was the only Man With a Plan to cope with the National Debt by growing the economy.
Trump is the first POTUS to understand that the Cold War ended in 1989 and Russia is not the USSR.
Trump also understands that the network of entangling alliances that the US established to wage the Cold War is no longer needed.
Trump’s understanding of the importance of energy Independence and the stupidity of Cold War era trade policy is delivering economic growth.
Trump is even succeeding in constraining China’s economy which might ensure that the US will remain economically and militarily preeminent in the future.
How is this plan of Trump’s tackle the debt if we are heading towards a trillion dollar deficit?
As far as gun rights go, the author is beating a dead horse. When Mr. Kavanaugh is placed on the highest court in the land, which is a matter of when, not if. The Heller decsion will be safe for the rest of most peoples lives that are reading this comment. Along with that it is a matter of time before the right to protect ones self outside the home will be a national law. Then it matters not what state laws are made as they will be struck down. There is no reason to be get the pitchforks and light the fires unless 2a is not the real concentration of this piece.
Don’t fall into the same trap Eisenhower did when he thought he knew how Earl Warren would vote as a Supreme Court justice. Fact is, you can’t. Stick to predicting lottery numbers; you will have better luck.
“Personally I do not like Trump. In fact, as a man of principle, I abhor him. Yet, every day I thank my Christian god that he is our president.”
Amfivena
Two years later it might just be time to climb off your horse.
this is nitpicking but “Fighting Bob” La Follette was a progressive, not sure it helps to score political brownie points by saying “Lookie here, this guy was a republican!”
good article
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