It’s something, which is better than nothing, and nothing is what the Republicans would have us have. So, at least it’s spitting in Congress’s eye, it’s taking a stand.
At first read, though, it doesn’t seem to be much. The 23 actions mostly deal with background checks and I’m sort of confused as to why 23 actions are necessary when it should be 1, i.e. check everybody’s background when they want to buy a gun.
Credit where it’s due, though, one of them is something I hadn’t even thought of, which is background checks on the guys who own gun stores.
Some of them are pie in the sky, like the one about ‘more research into how to manufacture safer guns,’ and that seems to be one of the more expensive ones, too, but research is good.
One thing gives me hope, and that is that we’ve sort of been here before; with Obamacare. Of course, he had to get that through congress, so it’s a bit different, but I remember complaining at the time how watered down it was and how it couldn’t possibly do much good, and why oh why did he back away from single payer.
Obamacare, for all its limitations, has been a huge success.
One of the reasons for that is while people like me are thinking in sweeping generalities, and have little patience for details, Barack Hussein Obama is digging in and doing the work. He didn’t just come up with these today, before the press conference.
One of the reasons Obamacare has been such an amazing success is that it has withstood all court challenges. It was a damned well crafted law.
I think we’ll see the same with these 23 executive actions. They will withstand court challenges (which are inevitable, the Republican party is like that guy on your block who is constantly suing everybody for whatever their dogs or their kids did, no matter how petty, just because he’s a dick) and they will do a little bit of good.
Like Obamacare, they are not enough (we really need to ban assault weapons), but they will accomplish some good. Today was a good day in the fight for sanity.
www.gurukalehuru.com 