HOW TO WIN ELECTIONS - FOR OUR CIVIL RIGHTS - IN 2012!! (Part One)

[oaklander]

That's not why they lost EVERY race in both houses. Certainly some in some swing States, but there's a reason Boxer and Feinstein are still on board the coocoo train, just as the Senators from a red State know they can oppose it unilaterally.

Correct, I am talking about trends. We have all seen them and noticed them. It is not just the polls, it is everything, from the number of new shops, to the polls, to the sales figures, to the slowing-down of anti-gun laws, to the comments I see on Facebook.

It is the totality of everything that makes me say these things. Nothing is all true, or all false, and what I am saying here is that we have hit the tipping point.

I realized this when my alma mater law school asked me to speak on the topic of gun rights as civil rights. This NEVER would have happened, even three years ago. We are winning because we are optimistic.

The optimism itself is the energy that allows us to continue this win. And people who do not have this optimism are losers.

[zhyla]

Normally, I don't argue numbers with people

It's your lack of numbers that generally makes me either ignore your posts or call B.S. Like I said, I appreciate your devotion, I'm glad you're pushing for our rights, but I don't believe a lot of your claims.

Anyways, those polls are all nationwide. My assertion is that CA is different. There's a very tiny gun culture here and that's why it's been relatively easy to enact gun regulations and relatively difficult to remove them.

WHY would you come in and spread FUD?

That's not my intention at all. I just see you making wild claims that make no logical sense to me.

I am one of the people who does the work, and I am TELLING you that you are wrong. How COULD you know more than me???

It is not possible.

Now you've convinced me. Hey! Do you run timecube.com? I'm a big fan of yours.

Again, how can you know more than me? It just is not possible. But I don't know, since you are anonymous. You could be a Brady troll, for all we know.

Last time I got into it with you over one of these types of posts you accused me of being a lawyer. Why does it even matter who I am? I'm just some guy, like I said last time.

Look man, if you can't stand some hard questions and disagreement maybe you should make smaller claims. You're clearly irritated with my participation in this thread. I've looked back at my prior posts and I don't see anything that could be construed as inflammatory. I'm just some pro-gun, California-born, nuts-and-bolts Christian with an analytical eye. You'd be better off answering my criticism with numbers and explanations than attacking me and calling me stupid. Or at least call me stupid in a P.M., this just makes you look silly.

[oaklander]

I am supposed to be nice to people now.

ETA: you are right, and sometimes I just say happy things to say happy things. But I don't know how to say this without being a douche, but I hang out with mayors these days. And other people who set policy. I do not know about SoCal, but I am just not hearing ANY anti-gun stuff in most parts of the East Bay.

And this is where the whole modern anti-gun thing started. I don't know how to be more clear here. I am certain you can find a blog article, or something that refutes me, and a lot just comes down to what sort of data you like. I tend to be intuitive, and I tend to like anecdotal data. Over time, I have found that on this issue, it is generally correct, especially when you match it to the polling data, and trends in press reporting.

I COULD be wrong. So, we will have to see.

Our faith was spread by a single man with a vision. It was Paul. I am not a religious figure, I am just a fat old guy who lives in East Oakland, but I have been blessed to be a part of this thing, for the last six years, and everything I have seen points in a good direction.

ALSO, the future is what we make it.

I will give you an example:

Over the spring/summer of 2011, our coalition stopped anti-gun laws in both Pleasant Hill AND Sunnyvale. We did this by having the faith that we COULD. Faith does move mountains, and I am certain the you will agree that faith is important. When faith is backed up with solid polling data, press trends, and political trends, well - that spells win.

[oaklander]

Zhyla,

Sorry I have been rude. It is possible that you and I just have different perspectives. The sum of one's world view is the sum of what they experience, learn, see, hear, etc.

It is possible that you just have not seen enough good things yet. If you ever get out this way, I can introduce you to the people who can explain things better than I can. Seriously, I just throw the parties - but there is a peaceful army of people who do things for you, for free.

I am also interested to talk about our faith. As I learn more about how Paul spread the word, back in the day, the more I realize THAT is what is starting to happen here. In essence, law abiding men and women around the country have started to rediscover our true and basic PRIMARY civil right.

They are spreading the word!

As a fellow Christian, you must also hold the basic belief that each of our lives are sacred, and are worth defending?

Since you will not divulge your bona fides, I would be interested to at least learn how you view things.

There are two basic issues that define our civil-rights movement. The first is a kind of communistic thinking that the needs of society outweigh the rights of people.

The other COMPETING issue is that we are AMERICA, and our primary goal is to create a country with the most freedom of any country, ever.

These issues, or beliefs, or policy choices - well - the one that is starting to win these days is the FREEDOM ONE. The American one, and not the communistic one. We are becoming more free, in many ways. This is a major power shift, and is entirely due to how social media allows like minded people (i.e., normal and reasonable people) to come together. No movement filled with irrational or mean people wins, these days, due to something that would he hard to explain to you in a short email. But my friends, who have advanced degrees, can explain it.

Freedom is coming back, and like it or not, even OWS showed folks that it is simply not business as usual again.

And, quite frankly, I do not think you like that. Please tell me that I am wrong.

I could be silly, but you just seem like someone who does not like to see us win.


Sent from my brain, to yours. . .

[oaklander]

Right. We woudln't have any OLL's and doubtful we'd have many daring rebuild kits. There'd be a bunch more counties like LA on LTC though not a huge proportion more of California's citizens who are mostly in the Bay area and LA by the numbers.

Yes, the LTC thing is getting fixed. Too much momentum for it not to, and that is why you are starting to see attempts to politically derail it. All such attempts will fail.

I do not think I have met more than just a few people who do not want carry rights. And I live in the Bay Area, and just by operation of odds, most of my friends are liberal. Oddly enough, our political opposition on LTC stuff is from conservative sheriffs.

The AW thing will get fixed within 18 months. That is the word I have heard.

We just need to keep supporting the litigation, stick together, and not be stupid.

I am going to just kind of stay off CGN for a while. The reason is that our team also has work to do on Oakland, and strangely enough, most of what we are doing here is old school civil rights stuff. The gun issue will fix itself, again, just by operation of litigation, combined with public opinion, and plain old grassroots stuff.

This is the other thing that Zyla, or whatever his or her name is - misses:

Various members of our coalition are now branching out into straight-up activism. But with a libertarian bent. Like I keep telling people, if you get enough good people together, and they share a vision, good things happen, and that is EXACTLY what is happening here.


Sent from my brain, to yours. . .

[zhyla]

Sorry I have been rude.

I won't hold it against you, no harm done .

Feel free to P.M. me if you like. The last thing I'm going to say in this thread is that you shouldn't equate disagreement or "citation needed" with opposition. We all want the same things here.

[oaklander]

I won't hold it against you, no harm done .

Feel free to P.M. me if you like. The last thing I'm going to say in this thread is that you shouldn't equate disagreement or "citation needed" with opposition. We all want the same things here.

Cool, I actually kind of felt like a richard. I just get kind of carried away, and I think a lot of it is the Oakland stuff I am doing. I am now actually involved in politics here, and it is fun to do good things, but also a lot of work (with no pay).

I forgot what we were arguing about anyways.

One thing I have recently seen in action (not regarding me, thank goodness) is the concept that if you work out of hate, you will eventually fail. I personally always need to remind myself that I do things because I love rights, and I love good people.

I have run into people who do things for bad reasons, and they are very unpleasant people.

Again, my sincere apologies. I guess I need to remember that I am somewhat in a leadership position on certain things related to grassroots, and I need to act more like a grownup, and less like a little brat.


Sent from my brain, to yours. . .