I'm a pretty conservative guy, but that doesn't mean I want support for the Second Amendment to be found only on the right side of the aisle. I'd love it if both major parties truly supported the right to keep and bear arms, but poll after poll has consistently shown that only about a quarter of self-identified Democrats (at best) reject demands for new gun control laws and embrace the Second Amendment.
As recently as 2010 it wasn't that difficult to find Democrats in Congress who were rated "A" by the National Rifle Association, but those days are long gone. The gun control lobby has a tight grip on the Democrat Party apparatus, which means the only Democrat candidates who are willing to vocally talk about owning guns are those who use it as a pivot to talking about "commonsense" restrictions on lawful gun owners... and utterly unhinged candidates like the Jaime West, an Indiana woman running for a seat on her local county council.
West’s segment got off to peculiar start when she was asked to read her opening statement. She said she didn’t write one, so she was just going to speak from the heart, before mentioning she ran a small cleaning business and was the mother of three grown children — all of whom were “pretty successful,” she added.
Things got really interesting a few minutes later when Graham-McCarty asked her about a potentially “unpopular” move she would make that she believed would be in the best interest of Fayette County.
West seemed a bit thrown off by it. She groaned loudly and asked to hear the question again, before revealing her big solution.
“Firing all Republicans,” West said. “I mean, I don’t even talk to them. I don’t like them.”
I won't speculate about what was going on inside West's head or her bloodstream, but after watching the video of her appearance I have oh so many questions.
After boasting about firing every Republican from their county job, claiming a sheriff's deputy had threatened to blow her "head off", and complaining about ICE taking away jobs, West was asked if she had any final words for the voters of Fayette County.
"We have guns too," she declared, while looking directly into the camera (and my soul).
You can check out the entire exchange here, starting at 32:45.
I don't know if West was having an off night or an awesome night when she sat for the interview, but she certainly made an impression.
Now, I suppose I should be happy to hear a Democrat proudly proclaim that she and her fellow party members are exercising their Second Amendment rights. It's just that I'd prefer to hear it in the context of defending those rights, not as the ominous closing line of a campaign interview that already included a promise to fire everyone in county government who belongs to the opposing political party.
Maybe West really is a staunch Second Amendment supporter. Maybe she opposes a ban on commonly owned semi-automatic firearms, supports Indiana's constitutional carry law, and stands up for the rights of gun owners regardless of their political affiliation. I'd genuinely welcome that. I just don't believe that's the case.
There's a difference between believing in the right to keep and bear arms and reminding your political opponents that you've got guns, too. The former is a constitutional principle. The latter sounds like something Yosemite Sam would say after losing an election for sheriff.
I don't know whether West will win a seat on the Fayette County Council this November, but if she does, I bet her watch party will be one for the ages. I also hope she'll remember that Republicans have rights, too. Including the right to keep their county jobs without having to pass a political loyalty test.
And if she loses? Well, I suppose she already has a memorable campaign slogan for her next run.
Jaime West: We Have Guns Too!
It's not quite "A Chicken in Every Pot," or "In Your Heart You Know He's Right", but it's certainly a conversation starter... just like her campaign appearance.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their extreme gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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