Choosing Stallone for NEA should Alienate Trump-Supporting Gun Owners

by David Codrea
Oathkeepers.org

Appointing gun-grabber advocate and hypocrite Stallone to anything will be a slap in the face of every gun owner who voted for Trump.

“Donald Trump has drawn ‘first blood’ in the search for his incoming administration’s senior arts role – by tapping up Rambo legend Sylvester Stallone,” Daily Mail is reporting. “The likely position would be Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency that doles out funds to aspiring artists and creative projects.”

The first reaction might be “Who gives a…?”

A more thoughtful question would be “Where is there constitutional authority to even have such a federal entity in the first place, and why shouldn’t we expect a Republican-dominated executive and legislature to abolish it?”

After all, the power delegated to Congress in Article. 1. Section. 8. “To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts” specifies it does so “by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries…” It doesn’t authorize taking wealth from its earners and redistributing it.

We might also ask “What is Trump, who owes much of his victory to gun owners, doing offering an avowed gun-grabber any position in his administration?”

As I wrote for GUNS & Ammo Magazine several years ago (so the archived link may load slowly):

“Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you’re gonna have.” –Sylvester Stallone

That the star of “Rambo,” who made his fortune exploiting armed violence, should call on government raids to disarm millions of real veterans and the rest of his countrymen goes beyond hypocritical. It is contemptible.

You can read more detailed sourced quotes here, and even see Stallone pumping his fist at a Brady Center fundraiser here. Not that any of that stopped him from applying for his own concealed carry permit (practically impossible for an “ordinary” citizen to get in “may issue L.A.).

As he goes about making his selections for appointments — some actually Constitutional  — the people who voted for Donald Trump need to remind him why staying on a true course is important. That’s something Oath Keepers weighed in on when names like David Petraeus were being floated for Secretary of State.  And while it’s true that a seat on the NEA ought to have little practical impact on the lives of most Americans (and assuming no one in government will have the guts to just shutter the agency), Trump needs to be made to realize that – his personal relationship with Stallone notwithstanding – appointing him to anything will be a slap in the face of every gun owner who voted for him.

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http://www.oathkeepers.org/choosing-stallone-nea-alienate-trump-supporting-gun-owners/