Campaign Action
The amazing teens of Parkland, Florida have finally broken through the NRA's smokescreen of FREEDOM. Corporate America is responding, as sure a sign that this time could be different because corporate America is listening to their customers. So will Congress listen to their constituents? A handful of Democratic senators are working with public advocacy groups to try to figure out how to make that happen.
A group of Democratic lawmakers huddled Tuesday with representatives from several national gun-control organizations — a first-of-its-kind meeting aimed at finding ways to politicize the issue of gun-related violence ahead of congressional elections this fall.
Note, this is not "politicizing" the issue. The issue is political in and of itself because it is 1) life and death, and 2) within the realm of things our government can do something about. Democrats aren't making it politicized. It just is. That said, most congressional Republicans would just as soon do nothing and most Democrats want action. So some of them are trying to figure out how to make it happen. In that meeting were Sens. Kamala D. Harris (D-CA), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), plus Reps. Katherine M. Clark (D-MA), Elizabeth Esty (D-CT), Ted Deutch (D-FL), Robin L. Kelly (D-IL) and Mike Thompson (D-CA)
"A lot of us have a feeling that 2018 is going to be the first year in which this issue is a true liability to Republicans who refuse to break from the NRA at all," said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who organized the meeting. "We also want to make sure that all of these new entrants into the issue stick with us into the elections. I've never had a meeting like this before with that many members of Congress and every anti-gun-violence group." […]
"Not every Democrat will run on banning assault weapons, but every Democrat should be running on background checks," Murphy said. "Background checks is popular in every state and every congressional district. It's a loser for Republicans everywhere. This is a universal political issue for Democrats—background checks is. I understand that when you go further down the list, you're not going to have every Democrat running on the same issues that I'm running on."
Coming out of the meeting, Blumenthal gave credited the "energy and passion that has been unleashed across the country, particularly among young people," saying "Never before has there been this kind of conversation so soon after a mass shooting—in a sense, it marks the emerging power of these grass-roots groups." What these groups have done particularly effective is putting the onus directly on the NRA, and the NRA helped them by putting the venomous Dana Loesch front and center in the debate. To say she's an unsympathetic personality is a vast understatement.
That is giving both Democrats and Republicans who are called "moderate"—those representing the less red and purple are an avenue for response. They can safely distance themselves from the NRA, and it seems to be happening: "A host of House Republicans and a handful of the party's governors are beginning to distance themselves from their party's gun-rights orthodoxy, signaling an openness to restrictions that reflects the rising anger among suburban voters."
This time feels different. This time could be different.