Cooke: Spanberger is Coming for Your Freedoms

If you live in Virginia, you know there’s an election coming up in a matter of days now. You know the two candidates, to say the least, and I suspect most of you already know who you’re voting for.

However, it’s important for people to know just what’s at stake here, just in case they think Spanberger isn’t a serious threat and some of her other ideas sound nice.

That’s not how it works, as Charles C.W. Cooke points out over at America’s 1st Freedom.

If endorsements are anything to judge by, every gun-control group hopes Abigail Spanberger (D) will be the next governor of Virginia. But Spanberger doesn’t want this to be what voters in Virginia are talking about. She has instead been working to convince people she is a moderate on the question of the right to keep and bear arms.

On the stump, Spanberger offers up all the usual euphemisms, deflections and clichés. When pushed to characterize her views, she explains that she’s not in favor of gun control, but of “common-sense proposals.” When accused of being too radical on the Second Amendment, she reports that she “grew up in a family where responsible gun ownership was the norm.” When challenged on her plan to micromanage how you may defend yourself and your family, she recalls that, during her time working at the U.S. Postal Service, she “carried a firearm every single day.” Pick a bromide, banality or buzzword, and you can be sure that Spanberger has uttered it.

In other words, she’s the politician equivalent of “I’m a gun owner but…” crowd. 

At every point, she tries to deflect by pretending she’s on our side. She spins things to make it seem as if she’s one of us and all she wants is the bare minimum, just enough to keep everyone safe and sound while not interfering with our gun rights, which is nonsense on the face of it.

However, there’s more than one reason to disbelieve the picture she’s trying to paint.

Her platform is a different matter. Like many of the other pretend-centrists on the Left, Spanberger supports the typical laundry list of unconstitutional gun-control policies, and she advances the typical set of thoughtless arguments in their favor. She wants to make it illegal for law-abiding citizens to purchase, sell or transfer the most-popular rifles in America. She wants to outlaw magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds.

Which, let’s be clear here, is everything anti-gunners are asking for in literally every state where they haven’t gotten such laws already passed.

And in those states, they don’t just celebrate the win and close up shop. They immediately start moving on to other anti-gun policies.

However, as Cooke points out, there’s no reason for anyone to be shocked by this.

Her record shows her to be a Northeastern-style progressive who wants a long list of restrictions to be enacted in the state. In 2018, at an event sponsored by the gun-control group Everytown for Gun Safety, she argued that law-abiding Virginians are to blame for the actions of criminals by repeating talking points from anti-gun organizations that we need yet more onerous regulations on those who already obey the law. She does not argue that we need to catch and prosecute criminals. She argues that American freedom is the cause of crime. Indeed, Spanberger served as a volunteer for the gun-control group Moms Demand Action in Virginia’s Henrico County.

I’m sorry, but when you volunteer for gun control groups and take part in anti-gun events, especially arguing as Spanberger did, you don’t get to pretend you’re really pretty good on gun rights. You just don’t get to do that and get away with it.

Spanberger is, like so many other politicians, well aware that her positions aren’t as popular as she might like them to be, so she tries to frame them as just little baby steps. They’re nothing to worry about, she says, because just “common-sense proposals” that have no basis in reality, but she won’t tell you that part.

And also understand that if someone will take away one of your rights, then there’s no reason to believe any other rights are off the table. Barack Obama tried so hard to get gun control. Now he wants to step all over the First Amendment. That’s just one example.

I see nothing in Spanberger that would suggest she’s any different. 

Editor’s Note: The Schumer Shutdown is here. Rather than put the American people first, Chuck Schumer and the radical Democrats forced a government shutdown for healthcare for illegals. They own this.

Help us continue to report the truth about the Schumer Shutdown. Use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your VIP membership.