Editorials Dems Priority List Includes Attacks On Free Speech And Gun Rights 11/12/2018 Election 2018: Democrats took control of the House by talking endlessly about health care. But it turns out their actual priorities are things that they didn't talk about much on the campaign trail. Now we know why. After having safely won the House majority, Democrats revealed their two top legislative priorities for next year: Limits on free speech and gun control. In other words, assaults on rights protected by the First Amendment and Second Amendment. The Democratic leader in the House, Nancy Pelosi, promises that the first bill voted on by the new Congress will focus on campaign finance and ethics reforms. Rewriting The First Amendment According to news accounts, H.R. 1 would, among other things, establish automatic voter registration and "reinvigorate" the Voting Rights Act. In other words, make it harder to root out voter fraud. It will also push public financing of congressional campaigns, with a 6-to-1 government match on small dollar donations. How many voters knew that's what Democrats had planned? Those are bad enough. But the plan would also call for amending the Constitution to restrict free speech rights under the guise of campaign finance reform. This is in reaction to the Supreme Court's 2009 Citizen United decision, in which the court ruled that the First Amendment protects political speech, allowing corporations to spend money on political advocacy. The court ruled that "The government may not suppress political speech on the basis of the speaker's corporate identity." Democrats have attacked the ruling ever since. And they want a constitutional amendment that would overturn the ruling "and other related rulings." That's so Congress can, in their words, "regulate the raising and spending of political money." Sen. Ted Cruz had it right when he called this idea an assault on free speech. He said "it gives Congress power to regulate — and ban — speech by everybody." Gun Control Push When not calling on limits to First Amendment rights, Democrats also plan to aggressively push new gun control laws that would restrict the public's Second Amendment rights. Gun control was not a big issue in the midterm campaign, despite promises by gun control advocates to make it a centerpiece of the elections in the wake of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting. The issue "evaporated during the final weeks of the election in all but very safe liberal districts," noted Paul Bedard of the Washington Examiner. "But now that the Democrats have won the House," Bedard notes, "leaders feel emboldened to raise calls for expanded background checks and an assault weapon ban." Mixed Election Results Gun control advocates tout the fact that 15 House Republicans with "A" ratings from the NRA lost their elections. But gun control advocates lost seats in the Senate. That includes Joseph Donnelly, who lost his bid in Indiana. Pro-gun rights Josh Hawley unseated Claire McCaskill in Missouri. According to the NRA, candidates backed by gun rights group won 106 races, and lost 33 — despite being outspent by gun control supporters. This was not the groundswell of support for gun control laws that advocates promised. Nevertheless, Democrats plan to pursue the most aggressive gun control laws "in decades," according to one news report. Pelosi told CNN's Chris Cuomo that passing gun control laws would be "priority" once the new Congress convenes in January. Symbolic Efforts To be clear, the chances that these efforts will become law are slim to none. For one thing, the Democrats will have a narrow majority in the House. Many of the newly elected representatives are moderates who might be reluctant to betray their voters on day one. What's more, the Senate remains in Republican hands — with the possibility that the GOP will have gained three seats in the end. Highly partisan legislation won't have a chance there. Even if Democrats did manage to get leftist campaign finance and gun control laws through Congress, they'd still face a Trump veto. So, these efforts will be little more than symbolic gestures. It shows how far the Democratic Party has drifted to the left that attacks on the First Amendment and Second Amendment will be the party's priority right out of the gate. https://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/democrats-house-first-amendment-second-amendment/
They will use the threat of a government shutdown, which from experience they know will cause an immediate republican surrender on any issue, no matter how crucial to the base. This illustrates why Trump was so foolish not to push for the wall on day one. Now he will be playing defense. The dems are not the least bit afraid of a government shutdown. Actually they relish it, because they are confident their weaponized mainstream media subsidiary will blame the republicans and cast them as the enemy of the people.