Robert Francis O’Rourke isn’t having a very good week. The culturally appropriating former Congressman from west Texas took a gamble and adopted the Swalwell Strategy, holing to resuscitate his flagging presidential campaign by advocating radical new limits on Americans’ gun rights.
But Beto apparently didn’t take into account the fact that the Swalwell Strategy didn’t really work out so well for Swalwell. And, just as his former colleague from California demonstrated, running a national campaign based on confiscating Americans’ guns isn’t really a winning electoral strategy, no matter how much positive ink it may generate from the sympathetic media.
New WSJ-NBC poll of Democratic primary voters: Biden 31 Warren 25 Sanders 14 Buttigieg 7 Harris 5 Yang 4 Klobuchar 2 Booker 2: pic.twitter.com/uOaDXr7BLS
— Byron York (@ByronYork) September 17, 2019
Go figure. It seems that — despite what the cable news talking heads and Silicon Valley CEOs may preach — Americans have no real interest in turning in millions of their firearms to anyone from the .gov.
But that hasn’t stopped Beto, bless his heart. This morning, he exchanged tweets with the Tweeter in Chief, still claiming that he’s going to grab those scary rifles no matter what it takes.
In a trolling tweet, President Trump fired a shot at O’Rourke, pointed out what many in Beto’s own party have been telling any member of the media who will listen…that all this talk of confiscating civilians’ firearms really isn’t helping them ram through negotiate the current crop of incrementalist bills that would only restrict Americans’ gun rights a little bit. For now.
You know, bills like universal background checks and red flag laws.
But the intrepid white Hispanic Irishman let it be known that, despite the lack of any apparent measurable support from the electorate, he’s pressing on anyway.
To be clear: We will buy back every single assault weapon.
We‘ll also license every gun & do a background check on every buyer. That’s what the American people want—and deserve.
The only thing stopping us from ending this epidemic is you & your cowardice. Do the right thing. https://t.co/lPqAv1r9ij
— Beto O’Rourke (@BetoORourke) September 18, 2019
Besides the fact that he’s currently about a 50:1 shot to become the Democrat nominee, there’s also the little matter of passing the laws he’s advocating.
While no sentient carbon-based life form is still operating under the illusion that Democrats don’t want to take anyone’s guns, actually voting for a “mandatory buyback,” AKA minimally compensated confiscation, is another matter entirely. Especially in an election year.
Then there’s the fact that 18 U.S. Code § 926 is still the law of the land. That’s the law that, since 1986, has explicitly prohibited the creation of a gun registry in this country. A law that will make it difficult to “license every gun,” let alone make sure that Beto and his buddies “buy back every single assault weapon.”
But don’t interrupt him with any of those details. He’s on a roll. Besides, as even some of Beto’s biggest fans are pointing out, the more he keeps talking, the better it is for those of us on the other side of the argument.