"What do Abraham Lincoln, John. F. Kennedy, and Barack Obama have in common?"
"Nothing. Yet."
- Joke told by NRA member that journalist Alexander Zaitchik overheard on way to organization's 2012 annual convention
It's long past time to ask one simple question: How can any member of the Democratic Party take money from the National Rifle Association (NRA) or accept their endorsement in good conscience? It's bad enough that the NRA has been completely in bed with the Republican Party for decades (the NRA leadership is an unholy alliance of movement conservative political operatives like Grover Norquist, David Keene and Joe Allbaugh and insurrectionist folk heroes like Ted Nugent and Chuck Norris). They might endorse a few Democrats from time to time, but an overwhelming percentage of their campaign contributions go to the GOP (a whopping 89% in the current election cycle). What should be even more revolting to Democrats is that Ted Nugent is now leveraging his position as an NRA board member/spokesperson to incite violence against them and their president.
Saturday, April 14, 2012 wasn't the first time that Nugent had threatened the use of political violence against the Obama administration and Democrats. But when Nugent conducted a live interview with NRANews host Cam Edwards at the National Rifle Association's annual meeting, he made national headlines by declaring, "If Barack Obama becomes the president in November again, I will either be dead or in jail by this time next year."
That wasn't all he said, of course. In a long, rambling diatribe conducted right in front of NRA members milling about the convention center, Nugent remarked:
If you don't know that our government is wiping its ass with the Constitution, you're living under a rock someplace ... We got four Supreme Court Justices who don't believe in the Constitution ... Our president and attorney general, our vice president, Hillary Clinton, they're criminals. They're criminals ... Remember we're Americans because we defied the king, we didn't negotiate and compromise with the king, we defied the emperors. We are patriots. We are Braveheart. We need to ride into that battlefield and chop [Democrats'] heads off in November. Any questions?
In the wake of Nugent's comments, the Secret Service investigated him and the military canceled his upcoming performance at Fort Knox. It didn't faze Nugent. Just three days later, he went on a similar tear in an interview with conservative radio host Dana Loesch. "The Nazis and the Klan hate me," he told Loesch. "There are some power-abusing, corrupt monsters in our federal government that despise me because I have the audacity to speak the truth, to identify the violations of our government ... And I spoke at the NRA and I will stand by my speech." He also referred to Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz as "a brain-dead, soulless, heartless idiot" and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as "a sub-human scoundrel." "They're monsters, said Nugent. "They hate America."
And it wasn't like Nugent was the only speaker at the NRA Convention engaging in such scathing attacks against Democrats. Every single one of the 13 featured speakers at the NRA's "Celebration of American Values Leadership Forum" was a male Republican, and they all lit into the president and his party. Smelling blood in the water, movement conservatives then giddily joined in the attack. Ann Coulter even told Bill O'Riley that "negroes" need more guns in order to arm themselves against the "Democratic KKK."
But a funny thing happened. Just two days after the NRA convention concluded, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) announced that the organization was disbanding its Public Safety and Elections task force. This task force, which had been co-chaired for years by the NRA, was responsible for adopting the NRA's "Stand Your Ground "legislation as a model law for the states. It did the same thing with another NRA bill that would force colleges and universities to allow the carrying of loaded guns into dormitories and classrooms.
These pro-gun policies have became so politically toxic -- particularly after the killing of Trayvon Martin by concealed handgun permit holder George Zimmerman in Sanford, Florida -- that 12 corporations have resigned from ALEC in the past few months. As the New York Times put it, "Many [corporations] joined [ALEC] for narrower reasons, like fighting taxes on soda or snacks, and clearly have little interested in voter ID requirements or the NRA's vision of a society where anyone can fire a concealed weapon at the slightest hint of a threat ... Big business is beginning to realize that Stand Your Ground laws are indefensible."
While ALEC was divorcing the NRA via press release, Republican Governor Jan Brewer was vetoing an NRA bill that would have allowed Arizona residents to carry loaded guns into libraries, city halls and other public buildings in the state (Brewer doesn't care too much for the NRA effort to push guns onto college campuses, either).
Too radical for ALEC and Jan Brewer?! Someone please tell me why a single Democrat would want to take the blood money the NRA has to offer?
In the post-Citizens United world, it's not even like NRA money is particularly important. And this mythological notion that if you're on the "wrong" side of the gun issue you will suddenly cease to exist as a viable political candidate? It's wrong. Studies have actually examined the data on these claims and found that Republican and Democratic incumbents get no help from an NRA endorsement, and Republican challengers receive only a modest boost. Paul Waldman's detailed analysis of the last four federal elections concluded that, "The NRA has virtually no impact on congressional elections." As Waldman notes, "Every election follows a pattern ... If Republicans win, as they did in 1994 and 2000, the [NRA] says: See, we told you everything depends on us and our issue. If Democrats win, as they did in 2008 and 2006, the NRA is quiet."
And Steve Kornacki of Salon was exactly right when he noted in a recent column, "He could get reelected and sit on his hands [on the gun issue] for four more years and Obama will still be a gun confiscator to the 2nd Amendment crowd ... If the NRA is going to pretend that you're aggressively pursuing gun control anyway, then why not actually do it? ... For all their efforts, [Democrats have] failed to win over gun owners for the last decade, and there's no reason to think they're about to. If Obama and the national party were to embrace gun control anew, would it really affect pro-gun Democrats like [Montana Senator John] Tester? They'd be swimming against the same tide they're already swimming against."
Last year, Democratic Congresswoman Gabby Giffords narrowly survived an assassination attempt by a severely mentally ill young man that bought wholly into far-right-wing rhetoric ("You don't have to accept the federalist laws"). How many exceptionally well-armed and mentally unbalanced individuals do you think heard Nugent's rant?
So let me ask this question of Congressmen like Michigan's John Dingell, California's Joe Baca, Texas' Henry Cuellar, Pennsylvania's Jason Altmire and Mark Critz, New York's Kathleen Hochul and Bill Owens, and all the other federal and state legislators taking NRA cash...
How do you sleep at night knowing you're doing business with a money-making hate machine targeting your own?
Follow Josh Horwitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CSGV
http://daysofourtrailers.blogspot.com/2012/04/csgv-defends-spousal-abuse.html
This is the mentality of this organization.
I'm willing to bet they sleep well knowing that those of us who are pro-2A have their backs.
http://www.usnews.com/debate-club/should-people-be-allowed-to-carry-guns-openly
He's getting lots of support from the majority of citizens who support them.
Democrats accept endorsements from the NRA because it's basically accepting votes, depriving the Republican party of a key platform, and shifting the tide of millions of member votes the NRA has influence over. I know it's tough from the perspective of chicken little to understand how a Democrat could support gun rights, but not everyone is as completely and entirely irrational as the CSGV.
Public Policy Polling's April 15-17 robo poll of Florida voters found 42 percent support the controversial "stand your ground law" in the spotlight since the shooting of Trayvon Martin and 32 percent oppose it. "
http://www.tampabay.com/blogs/the-buzz-florida-politics/content/poll-more-floridians-suppport-stand-your-ground-law-19-root-rays-15-marlins
And the brain surgeon that endlessly posts 'The NRA is responsible for 30,000 deaths a year' gets my award for most intellectual poster on the subject.
:-)
The First step is to take advantage of high profile incidents.
The Second step is to marginalize legal gun use and historic precedent.
The Third step is to make some guns seem more dangerous than others, even if they are not.
The Fourth step is to register every sale.
The Fifth step is a robust “Shall Issue” permitting process.
The Final step is to encourage and incentivize the forfeiture of arms.
The NRA has ALWAYS supported politicians that support our Constitutional right to keep and bear arms. The National Democratic Committee has vehemently supported citizen disarmament which is the reason for the NRA’s skewed support for Republicans in the past. This is now changing. A Gallup Poll of October 26, 2011 found that 60% of those surveyed supported enforcing current gun laws more strictly and NOT pass any new laws while only 35% responded to enforce current gun laws more strictly and pass new gun control laws.
A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed found that 68 percent, or two out of three respondents, had a favorable opinion of the NRA.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/13/us-usa-guns-poll-idUSBRE83C0G420120413
Democrats understand this, and an increasing number of them are supporting firearms owners’ rights.
and why would the SS talk to Ted Nuggent and not talk to Eminim about what he said about President Bush.i wonder if there is a double standard here
The NRA does not have the following it claims. The NRA does not have the support it claims. The NRA does not have the membership it claims. The NRA is an embarrassment to most Americans, including especially gun owners.
The NRA does not have the political clout it claims. The NRA campaigned against two nominations for the Supreme Court: Sotomayor and Kagan. Justices Sotomayor and Kagan won in Congress.
The NRA lost soundly, profoundly.
Ted Nugent is on the NRA board of directors. The NRA doesn't like Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, but is keen on Nugent. The NRA is an embarrassment to Americans, especially gun owners.
More politicians will get it.
Hopefully it will be better than your 'evidence' of your claim that the NRA bought off the FBI to skew crime numbers.
Any day.
Spot on.
Any other American gun owners fell the same?
So what you are saying is that poverty is good, or that the poor are the only non-corrupt people out there? Well that will certainly help our deficit since it would be wrong of the government to be "corrupting the poor" by giving money to support the poor.
This is a trap being set to justify the NRA's ability to launder money and write laws.
Democrats should send the checks back, and ask the DNC to match the funds returned.