Uppity Liberals

[passiveporcupine]

99. Well then a B rating?

Why does he deserve a lowly D- rating?

Sorry MADem, but some of the points brought up here are pretty flimsy. For instance. On the issue of voting to carry legal guns in "baggage compartment" on Amtrak...why the hell not? You can carry them on Airplanes as long as it's not carry on and is unloaded, so why not the same for Amtrak? I agree with Bernie on that.

And the issue of voting against forcing churches to marry gay people? I agree with Bernie on that too. I believe that if a church does not believe in gay marriage, they have the right not to marry a gay person. If they are Catholic and don't want to marry a presbyterian, they have that right as well. Those are religious ceremonies, so if a gay couple wants a religious ceremony to join them together in marriage, they need to find a church that accepts and supports them. There are churches who do accept gays and will marry them. It's the church's right to perform religious ceremonies (or not) that follow their beliefs. I think it would be a true "attack" on religion to force that on them. I think they are wrong to exclude gays, but it's their religion, not mine. There are actually a lot of reasons why a church may refuse to marry you. Now city clerks who won't issue licenses...that's a whole different ball of wax, or civil officers who refuse to marry them...Government officials and employees cannot discriminate.

Personally, I see Bernie as pretty open (and evolving) to making changes that will help keep guns out of the wrong hands. There is one thing I'd disagree with him on. Gun sellers should be held accountable for selling automatic or semiautomatic weapons that are designed specifically to kill men, and look like war guns or assault weapons. If they are rifles or shotguns designed just for hunting that's different. It isn't often you see a mass killer using a hunting weapon like a deer rifle. Making guns that look like war weapons should not be legal (you certainly don't need that to go hunting). Making guns semiautomatic is not necessary for hunting. We've gone way over the line on advancing gun technology for public use, and encouraging violence in this country with our games, our movies and our guns. I would like us to go back to only allowing real hunting weapons that you have to know how to shoot right because if you miss the first time, you don't get another chance. And long guns are a hell of a lot harder to sneak into public places than a smaller gun is. So I don't agree with Bernie in full on his gun stance, but I do hope he will evolve over time.