Letter To My Conservative Friend Elaine, A South Texas Newspaper Publisher

Dear Elaine,

I don't expect you to believe the first part of my argument. 

It is true... but I don't expect you to believe it.

I am eager however to hear your comment on my view concerning Mexican immigration as it relates to the spread of crime in the United States.

To begin...

You oppose gun regulation because Chicago, despite stiff gun laws, has a high murder rate. 

Just last weekend, an unusual amount of blood was shed in The Windy City. 

An inconvenient truth...

Chicago's murder rate has soared since the 2010 Supreme Court ruling that seriously eroded Chicago gun control. https://www.npr.org/2017/10/05/555580598/fact-check-is-chicago-proof-that-gun-laws-don-t-work

Independent of that court ruling, it is also true that a hugely disproportionate number of guns enter Chicago from contiguous Gary, Indiana -- 45 minutes from downtown Chicago -- where gun regulation is lax. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/glanton/ct-met-gun-control-chicago-dahleen-glanton-20171003-story.html

Please correct me if I am wrong but I think you will disagree with my two-part argument above.

I would not be surprised if you find my argument laughable.

He who laughs last...

According to "the received wisdom," gun regulations "just don't work." 

And so it is a priori foolishness to argue on behalf of gun regulations which have worked - and worked well - in Australia and elsewhere.

"Gun Cartoons and Gun Violence Bibliography"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/gun-cartoons-and-gun-violence.html

What Second Amendment Evangelists Fail To Understand About Their Opposition

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/10/what-second-amendment-evangelists-dont.html

"The Only Thing That Stops A Bad Guy With A Gun Is A Good Guy With A Gun"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/11/the-only-thing-that-stops-bad-guy-with.html

Australian Gun Control After Port Arthur Massacre Left 35 Dead

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/12/australian-gun-control-after-port.html

Australian Comedian Nails 2nd Amendment Evangelists

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/03/australian-comedian-nails-2nd-amendment.html

The Number Of People Who Use Guns In Self-Defense Is Negligible

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/10/the-number-of-people-who-use-gun-in.html

Handguns At Home And The Scourge Of Suicide Among Young People

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2015/01/handguns-at-home-and-scourge-of-suicide.html

Mom Killed By 2 Year Old Child Described As "Responsible." NOT!

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/12/mom-killed-by-2-year-old-child.html

One Heartbroken Mother's Plea To Other Parents: Ask If There's A Gun In The House

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/06/one-heartbroken-mothers-plea-to-other.html

80% Of All Firearm Deaths In 23 Industrialized Countries Occurred In The U.S.

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/07/80percent-of-all-firearms-deaths-in-23.html

“Toy Guns Outlawed At Republican Presidential Convention. Real Guns Allowed”

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2012/08/toy-guns-outlawed-at-republican.html

Favorite George Carlin Shtick

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/03/my-favorite-george-carlin-shticks.html

The plot thickens.

Donald Trump frightens American citizens (some might say he terrorizes them) with assertions that criminal gangs like MS-13 (a gang founded in the United States) present dire, immediate danger to America because gang members are "flooding across our southern border."

A little background...

Spanish is my second language and, because I enjoy the company of latinos, I spend more time with Spanish speakers than English speakers. 

But neither I, nor anyone I know - including my many latino friends - has had any contact with MS-13 -- which, like gangs everywhere, is hermetically sealed in its neighborhood ghetto. 

Furthemore, neither I -- nor any of my friends -- knows a single person who has been harmed (or even menaced) by a gang member. 

I would bet long odds that neither you -- nor anyone you know -- has been menaced or harmed by MS-13. And it is overwhelmingly likely that neither you (nor anyone you know) has had personal interaction with a gang member.

So, what do you think?

Is there "no problem" with guns "pouring across the border" from Gary, Indiana ... but we should all be terrified of The Yuuuuge Problem of MS-13 gang members pouring across the U.S.-Mexico border.

Short of "deep denial," "frank falsehood" or "intellectual contortionism," you cannot have it both ways.

Or, as patriot Tom Paine put it:

Here are two more interesting data.

The murder rate in Gary, Indiana is more than twice the murder rate in Chicago.

And of the 30 most murderous cities in America, 22 are located in states that voted for Trump. (That's 73.3%.)

American Murder Rates, By City

https://madison.com/news/national/the-cities-with-the-highest-murder-rates-in-the-us/collection_33b57fa7-d832-502d-ad55-aa29609b9a57.html#anchor_item_1

"Red State Moocher Links"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2013/07/red-state-moocher-links.html

"The Hard, Central Truth Of Contemporary Conservatism"

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2014/04/obamacare-and-hard-central-truth-of.html

A right-wing conservative Catholic correspondent who blogs as The Thinking Housewife -- when presented with trustworthy data concerning today's abortion rate being lower than it was before Rowe v. Wade -- dismissed the datum, saying "I don't believe that."

If we don't believe in facts that fall under the umbrella of "best knowledge," the nation will not only collapse under the dead weight of its refusal to engage Reality, it is likely we will slide toward another Dark Age in which superstition prevails and scientific truth cannot even be conceived. 

Trump (and Trumpistas) establish their view of Reality on the hyper-simplication of passionately held beliefs, starting with "Birtherism," a bogus allegation (which Trump himself finally declared false), and now Trumpistas are beginning to "mainstream" QAnon, the most outlandishly bizarre set of conspiracy theories yet.

Frog Hospital's Fred Owens Prompts Comment On QAnon, The Quintessential Trumpista Conspiracy

http://paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com/2018/08/frog-hospitals-fred-owens-prompts-my.html

American conservatives have made a choice between Truth and Power-at-any-cost, and they have done so by trashing factual Truth, the only meaningful touchstone we have, and the only "place" where common ground can be established if we are to conduct the kind of debate that must take place in every viable democracy, where -- "people being people" -- about "half the us" consider "the other half" outrageously wrong.

Here's how psycho-social-political dynamic operates...

"Where love rules, there is no will to power, 

and where power predominates, love is lacking. 

The one is the shadow of the other." 

Carl Jung

This Jung quotation is companion piece to Pat Buchanan's observation below:

Republican presidential candidate, Pat Buchanan, the living American who has served longest as a White House senior staff adviser, observed: “The Republican philosophy might be summarized thus: To hell with principle; what matters is power, and that we have it, and that they do not.” 
“Where the Right Went Wrong" 

http://www.amazon.com/Where-Right-Went-Wrong-Neoconservatives/dp/0312341156/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1381295072&sr=8-1&keywords=where+the+right+went+wrong 

"To hell with principle; what matters is power, and that we have it, and that they do not."

These interlocking observations are not the lunatic ravings of a wild-eyed leftist.

Rather, they comprise the summary assessment of a devout, traditional Catholic who lives in the heart of American conservatism.

I will close with two hard truths.

 

Is it proper to dismiss all this by saying "I don't believe it?"

Is faith-based dismissal healthy?

Is it even politically survivable?