By Calvin Hill
One of the many ironies that emanated from Thursday’s GOP debate wherein the candidates were eager to kiss the ring of Wayne LaPierre, head of the NRA, came from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. On the issue of President Obama’s Executive Action on guns, Christie labeled the President “a petulant child.” But when the Mayor of Fort Lee, New Jersey refused to endorse Christie for reelection, it was the Christie administration that saw fit to close several lanes to the George Washington Bridge for several days causing massive delays and endangering the lives of New Jersey citizens. After her city was devastated by Superstorm Sandy, the Mayor of Hoboken publicly claimed that Christie’s administration threatened to deny her city federal relief funds if she refused approval of a project run by Christie allies and favored by the ill-tempered, childish Governor. Clearly, no such demands were made on Christie when Obama came to the aid of Sandy stricken New Jersey on the eve of the 2012 presidential election as evidenced by Christie’s verbal assaults on Obama in his desperate quest for the GOP nomination.
During the debate, as the candidates pontificated on how weak this president is on national security and the international stage, one of the biggest drama queens boasting of yet to be seen strength credentials was Marco Rubio. The Florida Senator, who bravely pointed out Ted Cruz’s wishy-washy positions on practically everything, showed no such bravery on his own bi-partisan sponsored Immigration Reform Bill. Instead of defending his position on his bill, at the first sign of opposition from his own Republican colleagues, Rubio whined, took his football and went home. Hardly a show of strength, at home or abroad, from a man who continues to express a fear of an octogenarian Cuban dictator whose biggest threat to the United States was extinguished over 50 years ago when President Kennedy faced down Nikita Khrushchev during the Cuban missile crisis.
As the candidates praised police and policing, on the weekend that the US celebrates Martin Luther King Jr., the plight of Americans, viewed on camera, being victimized by rogue law enforcement received no discernible attention. The question of substandard education, lack of job opportunities and unblind justice for non-white Americans, or King’s overall crusade against poverty could not garner the attention of immigration, religion, or the Second Amendment.
The absurd mania over the reaction of the Obama Executive Action on sensible gun ownership requires a constitutional reality check in the wake of the NRA, and the candidate’s, claim that the President is out to take your guns. First, there must be legislation introduced to repeal the Second Amendment. Then two-thirds of the US House of Representatives and two-thirds of the US Senate must vote in favor of repeal. At that point 38 of the 50 state legislatures must vote to approve the repeal of the Second Amendment. So when the NRA or any other loud, obnoxious voice cries that background checks are a slippery slope to take away your guns, don’t believe the hype. The process necessary to take away your guns would be more akin to a Category Five hurricane, followed by an earthquake, followed by a tsunami, followed by 40 days and 40 nights of rain sleet and hail – hardly a slippery slope. Surely if it was Obama’s plan to take away your guns, the threats to kill federal agents by Cliven and Ammon Bundy and their followers would have put such a repeal in motion. It has not.
Of the many contentious exchanges between the candidates during the debate was a softly rendered attack by Texas Senator Ted Cruz accusing Donald Trump as having “New York values.” Apparently Cruz is unaware that the values of New York led people all over the country, his Texas constituents included, to donate their hard earned money to aid the families who suffered the loss of loved ones after Sept. 11th. The generosity that New York values have extended to their fellow Americans in time of need was valuably returned to them after that devastating terrorist attack. And it was Cruz’s Texans and Cruz’s Canadians among the hundreds who migrated to New York to help with the cleanup and recovery. And Cruz himself has migrated to New York to raise money for his varied political campaigns. Fortunately, most Americans appreciate New York values and New Yorkers even if the Canadian American immigrant from Texas does not.
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