I think the events of this week should put an end to this line of argument, which claims that protecting gun rights will have a positive halo effect on all other human rights.
Why are we assuming this wouldn't have happened either way? It seems to me that the repeal of Roe v. Wade is the only precedent necessary. Given that abortion is illegal in Arkansas, the tracking of women seeking abortions is far less legally grey than the tracking of gun owners.
The premise of lawfare is that you enact laws and legal precedents primarily with intent of undermining your opponent, rather than to benefit anyone in particular. The American right just realized that they can do this too.
Please elaborate. From what I've seen, the right has done this a long time, be it dumbing down education, defunding social services, advocating for war to benefit their lobbyist friends, or restricting access to nature's bounty.
Punishment is in the eye of the beholder: the left and right don't care about the same issues, and that's the principle that makes it possible to hurt your opponent through lawfare without hurting yourself. Eliminating federal protections for abortions annoys the left without hurting the right. Conversely, banning religious services during covid while promoting protest gatherings bothered the right, but not the left. You wouldn't be able to list the lawfare issues that bothered the right, because that's the point. Lawfare is only lawfare to your opponent, not to yourself.
If you choose to ignore the example I just gave, that's on you, but luckily I can provide additional examples from the last few years:
- bans on legal ownership of certain types of firearms while simultaneously weakening firearms penalties for the primary types of gun violence: gang and drug crimes
- using lawsuits and legal harassment to shut down right leaning personalities, businesses, and institutions
- selective prosecution by activist DAs, depending on political alignment
Shall I list more? And, again, these are supposed to be things that you feel are justified, but the right does not, because that's the purpose of lawfare.
> Eliminating federal protections for abortions annoys the left without hurting the right
I have to assume you mean emotionally, not physically. Conservatives have women in their lives who will suffer and die from legal interference in the process of pregnancy and childbirth also.
Oh no! Now that the right has "just realized this", they might try to overturn the American Care Act primarily with intent of undermining their opponent, rather than to benefit anyone in particular.
