Gun sales soar post-election. But why?

 

Two weeks ago, I went to the Lehigh County Courthouse to apply for my concealed weapon permit. Yep, it's come to that. Apparently, I'm not the only one who feels threatened. The clerk at the Sheriff's office told me that the day following the November 6th elections, a record for conceal and carry permits set an all time Lehigh County record. Then on Thursday, the record was broken again. On Friday, Thursday's record was broken. I asked the clerk why she thought that was? She said since the explosion of requests directly followed the election - there may be a correlation. But being a government employee, didn't want to elaborate or offer personal opinions. Uh huh.

Two months earlier I bought a new 9mm semi-automatic pistol. I noticed that the gun sales at Cabella's that day appeared to be quite brisk. When I brought that to the gun dealer's attention, he peered over his reading glasses and said; "Yes.Yes, it has". Then added that the majority of the sales were to new gun owners - people who say they have never owned a gun before nor thought they ever would. Sturm-Ruger Firearms, the company that made my 9mm, saw their stock soar. Orders became so fierce that the company announced it will halt taking orders until they catch up on production. And Sturm-Ruger is not alone. Somethings obviously going on here. But what? I've I have owned numerous handguns since 1982. Everything from 22's to a 357 magnum. I enjoyed shooting them and I used them as home protection but sold all of them by the mid-nineties.  But about a year ago, I began seeing things I didn't like. And I bought my first handgun since 1992.

I see the tumult in places like Greece and elsewhere, where a government on the brink of bankruptcy sends people out in the streets. I see a $1 trillion annual deficit here in the United States, up from $480 billion just 4 short years ago. I see an America which refuses to take this economic ticking time bomb seriously. Witness the 2012 Presidential election where a candidate with a horrible economy gets re-elected anyway, by promising even more social spending and wealth redistribution - all paid for with money we don't have. I see violent crime up. And much of that crime by people with no apparent fear or care to their victims. It is quite possible I believe, that we as a nation and then the World, may experience a global financial meltdown. Should that happen, the have-nots will not be content to continue to do without. And they will come looking for those who have. And when they do, they may not ask politely. A family member of mine had an attempted break-in at their home. The attempt came while they were asleep in their beds. Only a late night bathroom visit interrupted the potential intruder. And they don't live in an inner city environment but rather an upscale rural development. My neighbor's home just two doors away had an attempted break-in last year. And this is before any financial crisis. My home is alarmed and now it's armed. The recent power-outages saw people do without the basics for weeks in some cases. Hurricane Sandy victims are still without power and basic services. If the government can't deal with the events of a natural disaster, what will they be able to provide in the event of a much larger catastrophe? I also recently bought an AM-FM-SW radio that operates on solar and crank power in the event of another natural or not so natural disaster. Am I overreacting? Perhaps. But I was a Boy Scout once and I do believe in being prepared. But if I'm overreacting then so are millions of other people.

In the event of a disaster, you need to be able to rely upon yourself. Calling 911 may do you no good. And what seems improbable now may become reality tomorrow. On September 10, 2001, no one imagined that commercial aircraft would be used as missiles. What else may be improbable? And when the improbable happens - will you be able to provide your own security and safety? I'd rather not have to answer that question after an event. And neither should you.

Who is the Latino voter? And what does he want?

In the post-election scramble to find out why a sitting President with Barack Obama's dismal record can re-elected, many are pointing fingers at the emerging latino voter. To be sure, latinos are increasing in numbers and therefore, impact upon local and national elections. But who exactly are these latino voters? First of all, "latino" can mean people with ancestry from countries as far and diverse as Mexico, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and Honduras. Certainly, they can't all have the same agenda. And what is the makeup of the latino vote? In the United States it's mostly Mexican at 65%. Puerto Ricans are 2nd at 10%. The remainder follow in single digits. Most of the Mexican voters are congregated in the Southwest United States. There weren't enough Mexican-American voters in the states Romney lost that could have turned the election.Yesterday, someone suggested to me that Mitt Romney would have won the election had he chosen American born latino Florida Senator, Marco Rubio as his running mate. On the surface, that sounds plausible. But the reality tells a different story.

First, few elections are turned on the Vice-Presidential pick. This one would have be no different. I mean, honestly if that were the case, who would elect anybody with Joe "gaffe-a-minute" Biden on the ticket? Yet, America did. Twice. Secondly, Marco Rubio is of Cuban decent. That doesn't translate well to American-Mexican voters, even though most whites think any Latino in a storm will do. He probably would have secured Florida but that wasn't nearly enough to change the election results.

Many think immigration reform or lack of, is what dooms Republicans. Wrong again. Remember, Barack Obama's crackdown on illegals had sent more illegal aliens back home than Bush ever did. But that didn't seem to hurt him. Besides, Obama promised immigration reform since before he was elected in 2008 and produced nothing. No reforms at all. In fact, after the election it wasn't even on the administration's radar. Clearly, the latino voters weren't upset enough about that.

Regardless of what Republicans do, they seem to lose the latino vote. In 2004, the GOP garnered 44% of the latino vote. In 2004, it dropped to 31%. This year, it fell to 27%. Do they hold the GOP responsible for Obama returning their brethren back home in Border Patrol vans? Perhaps. But granting some sort of amnesty to the illegals doesn't seem to serve the GOP either. In 1986, then President Ronald Reagan essentially granted amnesty to 2 million illegals. Did that action make latinos friendly to the GOP? Nope. The percentage of latinos voting Republican has dropped every year since then. So how does an immigration reform program that asserts any form of amnesty help the GOP? Answer: "It doesn't". But the bigger question remains - what do most latinos want and is the Republican/Conservative ideology the place they can get it?

I hate to lump so many diverse people into any category. Its not fair. However, I believe that latinos are the "new blacks" of the Democratic party - voting almost exclusively Democratic. The numbers show I'm right - though I wish I weren't. Generally speaking, latinos like a significant portion of blacks, are currently on the low end of the spectrum when it comes to earning power. And like a lot of people who have limited income - they tend to vote where they're going to get the most financial assistance. The Democratic party has done quite well in creating and enrolling this segment of the population, then seeing to it that they become dependent registered voters. This isn't racist. These are the numbers. Blacks vote overwhelmingly Democratic. About 95% nationally. In Philadelphia, Obama got 99%. In 59 of Philadelphia's precincts, Romney got 0%. That's almost statistically impossible. Yet it happened.

I hear a lot about the GOP having to "reach out" to latino voters, though I have no idea what that means. If that means that Republicans have to offer more social programs in order to get their vote, then why have a GOP at all? Either the party stands for something or it doesn't. We can't and shouldn't try to out-Democrat the Democrats. They're the pros at the give away system anyway. Latinos have to see the GOP as a party that offers a way to individual excellence and advancement. Again, I'm not lumping all latinos together anymore than I'm lumping all black voters. But the numbers are the numbers. And until we find a way to get the generic latino voter to see that his future is best served by a Republican agenda - we'll continue to see the percentages drop even more. And lose national elections.

Election 2012. How Obama won. And what it means.

                                                                         
The 2012 Presidential election is in the books. Although many of my conservative friend's emotions are running from disbelief to anger. I'll try to make sense of what occurred on November 6th.

First of all,  we can now conclude that a President's on the job record means virtually nothing.  There is no other conclusion to be drawn. Record deficits, mounting debt, 25 million unemployed, 47 million on food stamps, have become acceptable to the majority of Americans. Could you have imagined a President of either party ever getting re-elected with a record of failure like this? Yet he did. Even a still unexplained non-responsive to an embassy attack is fine. Such is the world for the Obamabots. But it goes much deeper than just the idolization of a political figure.

Barack Obama and the Democrats successfully navigated the rocky waters around our economic woes, by changing the terms and subject of the election. Instead of focusing on a failing economy, unkept promises and crushing debt - the story line was changed to bogus arguments concerning class warfare and a brilliantly fabricated 'war on women'. If they could divert enough voters attention away from the obvious concerns of the day, they might win. Sadly, most voters are not that sophisticated and therefore easy to manipulate with 30 second sound bites and a media acting as cheerleaders for the President.  So what's in story for us now?

The makeup of the American electorate is changing. The percentage of married, middle class white voters are being reduced. That drop is being filled with mostly, the emerging Latino population - much of which is being courted by the Democratic Party which promises yet more and more entitlement programs paid with borrowed money. But that only explains part of the problem.
Regardless of race and ethnicity, far too many people are looking to government to solve their problems. Simply put, people like 'stuff '. And they don't seem to care where the money comes from to pay for it, as long as it comes from somebody else higher up in the food chain. That explained why the class warfare tactic worked so well. Forget the fact that returning tax rates back to pre-Bush era for those making over $200,000 will only yield an additional $80 billion a year, when our annual deficit is now $1.1 trillion.

Social Security will go broke by 2032. Medicare's life span is much shorter - 8 - 12 years. No one seems to care. Apparently, rationed government health care is better than paying for it. ObamaCare is now unstoppable. It cannot be dismantled. The next 4 years will see it implemented.  The CBO estimates it will add $1 trillion to the national debt in the next decade. I'm betting that number (as with most government estimates) is off by double that amount. Romney offered solutions. Obama offered fear. Fear won.
With America's changing demographics and dependency attitude, we may never see another Republican President. The electoral map is too difficult to navigate. While Republicans can still hold and grow in congressional and state offices, the Presidency will elude them. Leadership is everything and the agenda will be set by liberal Democrats. America's path is now set. By the end of Obama's 2nd term, the national debt will be at or near $20 trillion. More Americans will be willing to bow at the alter of the federal government for nearly everything. Taxes will be raised on everyone - killing job growth. Annual budget deficits of a trillion dollars will be the new norm. To this scenario on November 6th, a majority of Americans said - "Ok" whether they understood it or not.

This election was the deathblow I fear America cannot recover from. We're blindly headed towards a Western European Socialist-style state. As with most dire changes, it happens slowly, almost undetectable at first. Then before people notice, it becomes entrenched. We are now on our way to Greece, Italy and Spain. Sadly, it didn't have to be this way. But truth became too bitter a pill to swallow for most. Better to enjoy candy on the way to the gallows, I suppose. When the wheels do start coming off just remember, those evil conservatives tried to warn you. But you were sucked in by promises of  everything paid for by the top 1%. But hey, no matter how bad things may get - at least you got your free birth control.