progressive dog: We won no battles today. The NRA proved that no matter how looney tunes their demands are, 90% of the Republicans in the Senate will meet those demands and asked if there's anything else they'd like.
Toss in a handful of redstate dems, most of the time; the repulsive thing is that the manchin/toomey background check bill failed, and our redstate dems explain they voted against it to preserve their chances next election, when likely 80 - 90% of their voters supported that bill, so doesnt' it stand to reason they should have voted FOR it to preserve their chances with voters?
'Oh, I must defend my 10% voting bloc which opposes bg checks' - huh??????
The clear explanation is our redstate dems didn't want to anger the utterly sickminded nra & gun lobby, for fear of losing their financial support or get on their blacklist, so afraid their nra grade might slip from A to A minus.
Well, even had all 5 redstate dems who voted 'nay' come about to our side, it'd still have 'failed' 59 - 41.
The NRA proved that it does not matter what the voters want, they own the Republican votes.
Mild correction PD - Reproved it, or proved it again.
The NRA is continuing their domination of gun issues.
Rightwing cretinism can be a dangerous force, and this is what the nra exploits. And rightwing cretinism is exploited as well by republican congress people. Combine them together, a powerful & dangerous force.
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I wouldn't be so sure about nra demise, graham, since they got 57 senate votes for their national reciprocity crap, they actually 'won' as being way ahead, just as we actually 'won' with 54 votes for the manchin/toomey bg check bill.
The nra bill & bg check bill only lost because of the vagaries of the filibuster, and we can't simultaneously argue to reform filibuster rules which would've allowed both these to pass with solid support.
Right now it's ridiculous, minority senatorial rule, american democracy in action.
I wonder if it's possible for obama to enact the manchin/toomey bill somehow by executive orders or what he did a few months ago, since it has widespread support & 'passed' the senate 54 - 46, solid support. Of course public opinion would drop from 90% support of the bill itself, down a lot to supporting obama's action of bypassing congress, even tho the same thing would've transpired - the bg check bill itself.
Another aspect, had the nra national reciprocity bill passed, I suspect (& hope) obama would've vetoed it (out of anger?) if possible. Had he not (in my hypothetical), the entire 2013 guncontrol saga would've been counterproductive.
That was a sore point when obama could've vetoed concealed carry in national parks a while back, but didn't, I generally won't go to a national park anymore (ah, seen my share by now anyway).
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