[HarrySchell]

DG45, I agree with your analysis and where the "slippery slope" will take us if we are not vocal and effective in that endeavor.

The Tea Party trend has brought a lot of people into action who otherwise have not done a lot. They finally see what is happening and are appalled.

I agree that there are "enemies of the people". Junior's economic policies are disastrous for all but a few. In that regard, those who enacted them, broadly, are "enemies of the people". However, that concept and how we explain/express it cannot borrow from the Soviets. People react and don't listen, so you have to find a way to explain it without getting a reaction that shuts down someone's ears.

My soapbox routine, for example, about the 2nd Amendment does not address "guns". Or the "right to have a gun", etc. I reach back into its genesis, before firearms were in wide use, when personal security was an issue, and "arms", kept and borne, were the solution. And that your heartbeat is something of great consequence, not to be surrendered on a whim. These facts of life have not changed, if the technology has. And when firearms are passe (Robert Heinlein wrote a book about this, where his main character resurrected the 1911 in preference to the "phasers" in common use) the basic human nature issues of evil people preying on those weaker than they, will be the same.

I cringe when people talk about "gun rights". It isn't that to me, but my right to self-defense AND an effective means to exercise that right. I am in good shape for my vintage, but I can't hope to take on four young men in a head-bashing contest and win, without my 1911 or its equivalent. Violence is abhorrent, maybe once or twice I have really wanted to make war instead of love.

My point is that it appears a "self-defense" theme beats the tar out of "I gotta right to have guns". The difference between the themes is one says why I value firearms, the other says "I got my rights", leaving the question of what you will do with your guns open to misinterpretation.

I was married for 29 years and when she left I still didn't understand what was going on in her head. I am not a Mensa, but... So, getting people to understand you in a lot less time with likely a lot less intimacy...methinks this is a challenge.

Wrapping this up, we agree about speaking up. Just think carefully about your words. The communist agit-prop units used certain words, "value-laden terms", to sell their views (still do). In the Vietnam era, it was pretty easy to see where someone was coming from because they had such faith in their coda, it inevitably appeared. Those with empty arguements have little to fall back on, and their approved rhetorical flourishes have to be used.

Sorry if I have been a bore.