Pennsylvania – -(AmmoLand.com)- Many Second Amendment supporters feel they are in a jam. While it’s obvious Democrats are avowed enemies of our Second Amendment rights, sometimes Republicans are… disappointing to put it mildly. A third party vote can be very tempting in some cases. Well, take a look at the recently-decided Republican Pennsylvania Senate primary, because it provides a good reason to re-think that approach.
Dr. Oz won that election by under 2,000 votes, and those who flash back to 2020 would probable have had a hard time accepting a McCormick win. Still, this close primary will make it harder to beat likely John Fetterman, who will be little more than Schumer’s rubber stamp.
That being said, the reason for the close result is Kathy Barnette, who exploded in the last few weeks with a powerful story on a non-related issue. Depending on your perspective, the anti-Oz/anti-McCormick vote was divided, and thus, we have a close result in a bitterly-fought primary.
We’ve seen this happen before on other races. In 1998, John Ensign came within 400 votes of toppling Harry Reid. A Libertarian candidate drew over 8,000 votes – more than enough to give Reid another term, which was a boon to anti-Second Amendment extremists until Reid retired in 2016.
Or, look at 2020: Jo Jorgenson pulled in votes that were several times the margins in Wisconsin, Georgia, and Arizona. If Trump took those states, the tied electoral college vote would have put the vote to the House of Representatives. That would have made a lot of difference.
Given the situation in Pennsylvania, this Senate race will be crucial if we are to dethrone Chuck Schumer as Senate Majority Leader. Mitch McConnell has disappointed Second Amendment supporters at times, but when it comes to the United States Senate, the choice is between McConnell and Schumer to run that body.
With anti-Second Amendment extremists vowing to pack the court and nuke the filibuster, can Second Amendment supporters afford to gift them seats that will be close in the upcoming midterms? The answer to that question should be very obvious.
Sometimes, hard decisions are necessary to protect the Second Amendment. That being said, making those hard decisions make all the difference when it comes to defeating anti-Second Amendment extremists via the ballot box at the federal, state, and local level. In this election, the stakes are that high.
About Harold Hutchison
Writer Harold Hutchison has more than a dozen years of experience covering military affairs, international events, U.S. politics and Second Amendment issues. Harold was consulting senior editor at Soldier of Fortune magazine and is the author of the novel Strike Group Reagan. He has also written for the Daily Caller, National Review, Patriot Post, Strategypage.com, and other national websites.
It’s really important to draw a line between Big-L Libertarians and smal-l libertarians. To start off with, Big-L Libertarians tend to be washed up Republicans. Bill Weld would be one example. I’m sure you can come up with others. Like so called Conservatices, they still want way to much government control. They just have different priorities about which part of your life the government will not try to control. Small-l libertarians are hard to find. They’re identified by their hard core beliefs that most of what the government gets involved with is none of the government’s *&^% business. The only… Read more »
True. I’m in the Hans Herman Hoppe camp. There are relatively few of us.
Big L Libertarians are not true libertarians. They don’t really believe in property rights, and they sure don’t believe in national sovereignty, a form of property. Many are drug-addled fools like Gary Johnson.
Good point on washed up “Republicans”. The opposite is interesting too. Many RINOs are LoLibertarians who don’t like losing, who want to become incumbents. One of the leaders of that pack: Grover Norquist.
Then pick better candidates! Oz is nothing than a moderate Democrat pretending to be a Republican! The worst kind of carpet bagger RINO! Oz is neither pro gun or pro life, why should real conservatives vote for him? In a year when Republicans should clean up they put trash candidates on the ballot, it’s like they want to lose.
It’s amazing how one can spot a Harold article just by reading the headline or first few sentences. A quisling advocating for quislings.
And a vote for Turkish and New Jersey citizen OZ is a vote for the demonRats. No Difference!
The one good thing about the Libertarian Party picking Bill Weld for its VP candidate in 2016 was that it allowed me to vote for Trump with a clear conscience! One libertarian somewhat bright spot is the Free State movement in New Hampshire. AKA Porcupines. BTW, the NH Libertarian Delegation did NOT vote for Weld.
Kathy Barnette is a Republican, not a Libertarian. This divisive race was in your own R party.
And don’t try blaming Jorgenson for 2020, with all the obvious and blatant fraud that went on. The dems stole that election and your R RINOS in congress, the executive branch, and the judiciary stood by and let it happen.
That’s the standard play by both sides. When they lose just blame it on all of the independents, free thinkers, libertarians, etc who refused to support the terrible candidates Dems and Repubs continuously push to the podium. It’s hilarious how both Dems and Repubs can say we somehow caused their candidate to lose when they lose and win when they win. Amazing how my vote somehow counted three times!
That’s part of the problem, there are only two parties on the ballot, and each candidate knows well enough that as a third party candidate all they can do is muddy the waters; and never actually win an election. Ross Perot taught us as much. This forces a Libertarian to choose a party rather than run as a Libertarian. and depending on who the other candidates are, may choose to run as a Democrat or a Republican. All to often now, I’m not completely convinced that there aren’t Democrats masquerading as Republicans; caucusing with Republicans and voting with Democrats on… Read more »
I’m pretty sure that there are Democrats in West Virginia that are miffed by Joe Manchin, but honest and saavy Democrat politicians who happen to be running in a Red state, only get elected if they’ve proven to be fair and just; representing the interests of all their consituents equally. In Red states, a Democrat masquerading as a Republican ends up fooling the electorate and who will not represent his/her consituents honestly. These folks know, after the election, you can go pound rocks. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger are great examples. Party affiliation should not be your primary (pun intended)… Read more »
Self-fulfilling defeatism: Trash real Rs like Barnette, ensure the ‘choice’ is anti-gun Turk vs WEF hedge funder, now Groomer vs Commie, then lecture us on hard choices like we don’t know.
You ignore Reid v Angle 2010. Sharron Angle was true tea party R, so your GOP pals sabotaged her AFTER she won the primary. Your hero LaPierre campaigned for Reid. He won by a hair
You’re right that voting L is suicidal. L = Spoiler & worse: L immigration-invasion policy is de facto globalist-socialist. Ls can’t honestly take the pledge of allegiance let alone the Oath to the USA
TRUTH! The only decent “small-L” libertarian are “Ron Paul Republicans” – extremely pro-liberty, pro-tea-party, AnCaps too. Smart enough to know you never leave a modern nation’s borders wide open. What makes libertarian a bad fit is that the majority of them skew too far left on what really matters! But Ancaps and propertarians are OK; VERY very conservative!
You’ll be happy to know the Mises Caucus won the takeover of the LP in Reno this month. It’s now back to being the party of Ron Paul. The “left libertarians”, or Democrats pretending to be libertarians as I like to call them, are leaving in droves. The fact that they’re big mad about the woke language being removed from the Party platform and that the LP will once again be the Party that advocates for absolute liberty for all and not pander to identity politics just proves that they were never very libertarian to begin with. The days of… Read more »
Thanks for the update! This is indeed good news. I never liked Weld and Johnson was a bad joke. Jorgenson was more capable, but the election was rigged by the Commiecrats, so her run is moot. What I want to know more than anything is who’s up in ’24. Praying for good outcomes. And for our border to be sealed from invaders. That’s the one thing where I stand against the LP plank; We need liberty, not an open door to people who intend harm to us and our fellow citizens. I hope the LP realizes that as long as… Read more »
Never forget:
“I have an important announcement today. I’m endorsing Gary Johnson for US Senate. Gary Johnson is a true fiscal conservative…” (BARF)
-Rand Paul Aug 28, 2018
Everyone makes a mistake or two in their life. Rand did a few.
He made a much bigger “mistake” than that when he lobbied publicly for weeks against the Hawley-Cruz audit, to certify the coup d’etat. Some of the worst Orwellian bullshit I’ve seen.
Wow, OK. I wasn’t aware of that (thanks for sharing that). I don’t (apparently) get all the news that I thought I did.
P.S. Where did you hear that?
Read it on Breitbart. They interviewed him several times. I’ll try to find it.
Of course, I agree with him close to 100% of the time, but it’s hard to forgive him facilitating a coup d’etat.
Breitbart wiped the interviews, but you can see Rand’s Orwellian doubletalk elsewhere:
He opposed “overturning the election” & “reversing what the states decided”. Disingenuous:
States have no right to steal state elections let alone fed
No right to disenfranchise their voters let alone other states’
Congress-SCOTUS-Feds had a duty to step in under Art IV §4
Stopping coups is the reverse of reversing elections
The states didn’t decide: TX et al were dismissed on “standing” by a subversive SupCt (except Thomas & Alito)
twitter.com/RandPaul/status/1346936083351793665
Breitbart wiped every interview & article with Rand lobbying to certify The Big Steal e.g. 12-20-2020 @2:20 Marlow agrees: breitbart.com/videos/v/4nRrv8Su
Dead link but Archive.org shows
Rand Paul: Masks Are “All About Submission”“In an interview with Editor-in-Chief Marlow, Rand Paul weighed in on a mask mandate, claims of mass voter fraud“
web.archive.org/web/20201221091342/https://www.breitbart.com/videos/v/4nRrv8Su
6min video won’t play. Archive didn’t capture it.
BB now has an article with same name, different link, no video, just on masks, no election talk.
breitbart.com/clips/2020/12/20/exclusive-rand-paul-masks-are-all-about-submission
BB can’t be trusted
“BB can’t be trusted”
Breitbart was bought by lefties a few years ago and brought their ‘comrades’ onboard to kill BB’s reputation and reliability. Now Gateway Pundit holds the gold standard for truth and integrity!
Thanks for that link. Not surprised that Breitbart scrubbed the article. The higher-ups are not conservative in the least, just like at FOX (Faux) News. NOT TRUSTWORTHY. This is why I don’t waste time looking at their site.
I’m currently scanning TGP, or 100% Fed Up, and sometimes once in a long while, The Federalist Papers. This last one is not as bad as its’ parent company [Western Journal]. WJ is run by a bunch of RINOs masquerading as journalists (LOL).
For your enjoyment.
LOL GJ IS a clown!! And yes, leftists have infiltrated the LP and suborned it. This is why all leftists must drop (of the 1000000 reasons why they’re cancer to a free society).
Sounds promising, but until the L platform affirms the redistributive-socialist-globalist-destructive aspects of mass legal immigration & invasion, it’s still dangerous.
Ron Paul cannot be fully trusted on immigration. One of his last books implied that those for closing borders & limiting legal immigration are motivated by racism & “nativism”, as if America First “nativism” is a bad thing.
They need to start protecting the meaning & value of citizenship & sovereignty, and acknowledge that WE the natural born citizens OWN the USA.