It's been shown that many people would side with democrats on the majority of social issues and vote for them if not for their stance on firearms. If the democrats lost their ability to use that as part of their culture war platform they'd likely gain a ton of people who don't vote or vote R simply to retain their rights.
You can't reduce the culture war to gun ownership. The Dems are doing just about everything they can to alienate traditionalists in the U.S., including gun owners. It's not even the most important wedge issue anymore. Rather, gun owners are concerned about defending themselves in a country organized by Democratic party policy. They'll need the guns when the police are defunded, or when the social workers come for their children.
Yes. Child Protective Services are used as a weapon against non-traditional families here. I grew up in a house with 9 younger siblings, it was crazy, messy, and there were sheep grazing in the front yard. No abuse or drug use, my parents barely drink, and generally a very happy family.
CPS was called on us, and we all gathered outside, I believe I was 16 at the time. The nice social worker lady started asking us some questions about if we were treated well, et cetera, and I ended up getting pretty angry, and explaining to her that I really needed to get back to the college class she had pulled me out of, and then had to take my car—which I'd bought doing some software development work on the side—to the shop, and if asking she could please leave so I could go back to being a productive person.
Thankfully, I was ahead of my age, and able to beat her over the head with it, but she was looking for literally any reason to make me a ward of the state. This is more than a real fear, this is a huge problem.
I don't know about fear, though it's certainly a concern. I have had police and social workers come to my home, and to my child's school, because I let her walk to the park alone. The park was less than 100 meters from my home.
In my own childhood--an objectively more dangerous time--I explored an area of over 100 square kilometers, unsupervised and with no means of phoning home, yet suffered no problems more serious than a skinned knee.
Well, I can't say they will actually take up arms against social workers but it is a fear. Many parents fear the current trends from parental authority over children to state authority over children. If you don't see that trend, you're not paying attention. There are many parents who feel they have reason to fear home-schooling will be outlawed. There are parents who fear that children are being given instruction or choices at school that parents are not privy to and that would traditionally have required parental consent and might be considered brainwashing by some parents. Some parents fear that the this is the tip of the spear and believe they would do anything to protect their children from being harmed as they conceive of harm.
“ There are parents who fear that children are being given instruction or choices at school that parents are not privy to and that would traditionally have required parental consent”
Real enough that Utah passed a law to deal with it (i.e. "no, the state is not going to be used to abduct your children while they're walking home from the park, no matter how many times Karen calls us about uNsUpErViSeD cHiLdReN").
Is it that far-fetched to be wary of concern trolls given that the state allows itself to be used as their weapon?
I'm not surprised by that but that's just private exploitation. I mean the industries that have grown like a cancer on state and federal government. They have found it is very profitable to medicalize, sexualize, indoctrinate, and otherwise commercialize children. The only thing standing in the way are those pesky parents who want to protect them. The obvious strategy is to use their power to promote laws that give the state more authority over children or to give impressionable children more autonomy from their parents. The state acting in loco parentis implements the marketplace these industries profit within.
To get back to your example, there is a disturbing overrepresentation if pedophiles aiding and abetting this process. I guess they are opportunistic and see only benefits for themselves.
This is silly, because Gun laws are a central part of the platform and can't be abandoned.
This is like saying if Republicans just dropped anti-immigration from their platform they'd gain a ton of people who don't vote for them because they're Mexican.
Any move like this fundamentally alienates the base.
What keeps a party's platform from changing? Would former republicans vote democrat if the republican party dropped its anti-immigration stance? Surely not, as there is still abortion, taxes, guns, etc.
