National The NRA Might Be Weakened. Gun Rights Voters Are Not.

DB is Here · Aug 11, 2020

Opinion | The NRA Might Be Weakened. Gun Rights Voters Are Not.

And that presents a challenge for Democrats determined to press for gun control in a Biden administration.

www.politico.com

" Even if the NRA is gone or tied down by litigation, about 43 percent of Americans will still live in gun-owning households. A fervent gun rights culture of hunters, collectors, open carriers, militia members and self-defense enthusiasts would still persist."

bbbass · Aug 11, 2020

Politico:

Some on the left will argue that 2021 isn't 1993. Today's Republican Party is less reasonable, and tomorrow's Democratic Party majority need not constrain itself to whatever Pat Toomey thinks is reasonable. And unlike in 2013, Democrats could eliminate the filibuster, pass a bigger package in the Senate on a narrow party line vote, and get it rubber-stamped by a Democratic House.

Skeptics of compromise are correct that Manchin-Toomey proved that bipartisan support from a swing state Republican and a red state Democrat is not sufficient for gun violence prevention legislation to succeed. However, those remain necessary ingredients for any such legislation to overcome not just the NRA, but the cultural polarization that will fuel attacks on any compromise bill with or without the NRA. The best way to overcome that polarization is not through partisan procedural maneuvering, but with electoral success—flipping red states while explicitly running on gun control.

If the Democratic slate of Senate candidates isn't prepared to do that, then the burden falls on Joe Biden.

Of course, Biden may have good reason not to either. Gun control is hardly the only pressing issue the next administration is going to face. There's an economic crisis, and climate crisis. There is pent-up demand among immigrant advocates for creating a path to citizenship for the 11 million undocumented. There is renewed demand for police reform. There is persistent demand for expanding health insurance and lowering health care costs. All of these areas will require significant investments of political capital. Biden would be perfectly rational in concluding that running hard on gun control is not worth the risk.

Yet Biden is both a longtime gun control advocate and a consummate retail politician. If anyone can craft a set of compromise policies and related messages that can satisfy swing voters, contain gun rights opposition and prove red states can be flipped while actively supporting specific gun safety measures—be it universal background checks or bans on certain weapons—it's Joe Biden.

They're kidding, right? The man can't string two coherent sentences together and tie his own shoes much less craft policies. He has a habit of appropriating others ideas... Bernie and AOC, so it will be staff that is really running the show. (BTW If he wins, it will be more because of hatred for Trump similar to what made Hillary lose, Democrat manipulation of the economy, civil unrest, and mail-in cheating.)

Gun culture. They really see gun owners as some kind of throwbacks to Neanderthal man. And that the only way forward to Progressive Utopia is to destroy all previous traditions. Bastids!!!