President Barack Obama held a news conference last month regarding the Newtown, Conn. shootings. His response included a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity clips. The people of Newtown aren’t taking his lead. The Newtown school board just approved armed guards in its schools, as the National Rifle Association proposed. Sadly, our president is a politician first, and a protector of lives second. Recent events and his policies prove this.
Last Sept. 11, U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed in a terrorist attack in Libya, along with three other Americans. Stevens is only the sixth U.S. ambassador to ever be killed, and the first since the Carter administration.
The administration’s first response was to blame a film that insulted the Prophet Muhammad for the Libya attack on this infamous date, but the Department of State claimed it never believed the video was the cause.
Unlike the Osama bin Laden takedown, we still don’t know where the president was during this five-hour attack. And we have not yet been able to interview the survivors. Why the video excuse and why no urgency in learning what happened? Doing so would make the president look bad. So politics here trumps an ambassador’s life.
Amazingly, this administration is responsible for allowing about 2,000 guns to be sold and moved to drug cartel operatives in Mexico. The guns have been connected to the murders of about 300 Mexicans, and also the killing of American Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Many Americans, including the Terry family, are still trying to learn why this operation, known as “Fast and Furious,” was conducted. The president and attorney general don’t want to uncover all of its details. Doing so would tarnish the administration. Politics here trumps a border agent’s life.
The war in Afghanistan is deadly, but in one American city alone, killing is far more common. In the last decade, Chicago has had more than twice the number of murders than the war zone in Afghanistan. Chicago has a Newtown every few weeks.
But we have yet to see a news conference by the president announcing his plans to address this problem. Why? Because Obama’s political allies run Chicago and most other major cities where murders are rampant. His proposal to ban assault rifles would have little effect in Chicago where they are used in less than one percent of the murders. So politics here trumps working toward a serious solution.
While an Illinois state senator, Obama voted four times against legislation that would save a baby from a failed abortion. As president, his administration issued a mandate forcing even religious institutions to violate their core principles. The abortion issue is connected with the previous one: If a father, complicit with the mother, is capable of killing his own child, what reservations does he have killing someone else? The president’s allies and donors favor abortion, so once again, politics trumps lives.
To review: An ambassador killed—ho-hum; a border agent killed—nothing to see here; inner-city youths killing each other—no big deal; corrosive effect of abortion —yawn; Newtown murders —press conference and executive action. There is unnecessary death in each of these cases, but in only one has the president moved to act.
Is it simply that Newtown offers him an opportunity to push gun control which his political opponents dislike?
