Lists are just an excuse for tyrants. They know they don't have the power to nail the people they suspect legitimately, and, having utter disrespect for human rights, this frustrates them. So they put their undesirables on a list, and find them guilty. Of being on the list.
They only get away with it if the populace lets them, but somehow they so often do. Because it always starts with the least popular or represented groups. And always ends up devouring the whole nation.
I do not think the Democrats (the only elected officials promoting this, by the way) are in a position to get very far pushing this watchlist issue. At this time. There is still a large (and for now, growing) contingent of America that still values individual liberties above their own fears and hatreds. But that may not always be the case. In fact, I would argue it will soon not be the case. So what is important is to observe, learn, and prepare for that time, if you happen to value your individual liberties.
And most importantly, to remember. To remember that time the Democrats (or anti-gunners in general, whatever party they shack up with in the future) proudly rolled out the fuse that would destroy this country. It is not yet lit, since they lack the power to implement their desired confiscation by fiat, but it can be, and at any time they posses the needed political power. To anyone concerned about this issue, this is a declaration of a political arms race: the next time the Democrats secure a sufficient majority, they will enact mass-confiscation under the authority of the president. This is a fact, they just laid it out for all to see, with pride and exuberance, from the highest leadership on down, and from the very figurehead of the party, herself.
And from now on, whether they admit to it or not, it will be a core part of who they are, waiting for an opportunity to be given life, and rend the nation. We saw this kind of patient, calculating opportunism recently in the manner by which Obamacare was passed. We all learned in school about the kind of zealous, reckless pursuit of a moral ideal with willful blindness to consequences, in the run up to the Civil War. States fiercely sorting themselves into factions in order to secure the strongest voting bloc against ardent opposition, the carefully-erected system of checks & balances and electoral representation being weaponized by way of gerrymandering and vote-packing, and most crucially, the clear existential nature of the issue at hand being fully known to all involved, and this importance used not to justify careful and respectful collaboration, but as a rallying cry to herald the long-held desire of the aggressors to destroy & subjugate their rivals. All it took was the eventual tipping of the political scales towards a president & congress that would set the long-promised plan into motion...and the match was lit, and conflict inevitable. Not that it ever was not inevitable once the political debate ceased operating in good faith by one or both players; the North and South jockeyed for congressional control for a solid three decades before Lincoln settled the equation extra-judicially.
We can never afford to forget at this point, nor especially to forgive. They do want our guns, now and forever. They will take them by force if given the authority. They do not care what we think about it. They will not be giving us a choice in the matter when the time comes. We can never forgive this party or the supporters, foundations, and institutions that underpin it until the political careers & dynasties of any significance that once called for gun control have burned or decayed into irrelevance*. Until that time, the impulse to forcibly disarm us under threat of death for daring to disagree with them will remain very much alive beneath whatever image they choose to make themselves presentable. Nothing but complete repudiation of this gun control ideology is acceptable.**
And yet I still don't want them put on secret lists or debarred any of their civil rights; that is what separates us from animals (sometimes)
TCB
*Despite my bluster, I truly think it won't be long at all, now; few of the gun control leadership are younger than 60, and it's about to go down once more as a titanic loser of a political issue for the next generation
**See: Temperance. I want gun control even deader than that, certainly at the national level; completely off the table, for good. End our 100 year detour from the Second Amendment.
