OP-ED

by Michael Gale

Senator Kaine is on the wrong side of morality and history. During the last week of June, he released two press releases. When the Supreme Court ruled that the plain language of the Second Amendment meant what it says, he had this to say.

“I’m frustrated that the Supreme Court has limited states’ rights to enact gun safety measures in the wake of mass shooting after mass shooting. This decision takes away safeguards when we should be working to enact them, and I worry that this ruling will likely compound the damage that the lack of federal action has done. We didn’t do anything at the federal level after Sandy Hook, and we didn’t do anything after Pulse, and we didn’t do anything after Las Vegas. We can’t bring any of those lives back, but we can and must demonstrate -by more than just words – that we are touched by these tragedies. We must not be indifferent. This ruling from the Court, just weeks after the latest horrific mass shootings in Buffalo and Uvalde, shows that it is up to the Senate to finally act to decrease the chance that these tragedies could ever happen again. I hope that we can pass the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act to take a step in that direction.”

As if we did not have decades of failed gun control policies yielding ever-increasing violence as well documented history. We also have the clear words of the writers and signers of the Bill of Rights to know exactly how they felt about government constraining good citizens from bearing their own arms as the citizens decided was fit for themselves. As if our exercise of rights should be constrained by the actions of the criminally minded.

When the Supreme Court released the Dobbs decision finding no right to an abortion, Kaine released this statement:

“I am deeply disturbed that the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, upsetting decades of precedent protecting the right of women to make fundamental personal decisions about contraception and abortion without unnecessary government interference. That’s why I’ve been engaged in efforts in the Senate to codify the basic framework of Roe v. Wade and related cases into federal law. We’re not going to give up on the fight to protect the right to choose.”

Never mind that the Justices documented fifty-one separate historic examples of laws prohibiting abortions going back to 1825. The textual precedent for our right to keep and bear arms goes back to the founding of our Constitutional Republic. Yet Kaine has voted for every chance he has had to infringe on our rights for self-defense. Meanwhile, he also takes every step possible to enable the immoral and unnecessary murder of the unborn whenever and wherever he can.

Anyone who votes or donates to Senator Kaine’s reelection cannot honestly claim to support minority or individual rights at the same time. He will not defend the life of the unborn, and he would deny your right to defend yourself. It is time and past time for Kaine to lose his seat as our Senator.