Gun Control? We Need Domestic Disarmament (Huffington Post)

[DanTex]

99. A broad gun ban is roughly equivalent to single-payer in the healthcare debate.

In both cases, such policies have been effective in other nations, but I'm not sure it's the right thing for the US. Beyond that, neither single-payer nor a handgun ban are politically feasible in the US, at least not anytime soon. However, this article brings up a valid point in that by taking liberal positions off the table from the get-go, it moves the window of policies considered "acceptable" to the right.

The media, of course, has been complicit in this -- as much as right-wingers like to complain about an "anti-gun media", in order to even be allowed to speak about gun control in the MSM you have to start your sentence with "I'm a gun owner" or "I support gun rights".

However, progressives and Democrats must share some of the blame for this. And it's a repeating pattern. For example, with the stimulus, it was obvious from the start that what Obama was proposing was too small, and what ended up happening is the economy didn't recover quickly enough, giving the GOP the opportunity to argue that the stimulus was a failure and what we really need is austerity. Similarly, although Obama's proposed gun control measures are a step in the right direction, they probably aren't enough to achieve large reductions in gun violence, particularly after the GOP drills loopholes through them, which might open up the charge that gun control is ineffective.

One thing the GOP is very good at is getting right-wing policies into the national debate. They get their think-tanks to produce "studies" and get right-wing pundits to talk about things like flat tax or privatizing social security, and even though these are well to the right of what the American people want, they become part of the national dialogue. In contrast, the Dems often seem scared that if they discuss policies that are too liberal, they will be painted as socialists and rile up the right-wing base.