Campaign Action
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell knows the news cycle around mass shootings and is willing to take a few hits in the traditional media in the short term. Because he knows that by biding his time, outrage will blow over until the next one when we do this all over again. By refusing to act, he got what he wanted—what the NRA wanted—this time around. Again.
Trump has backed down from his earlier vague calls for stronger background checks to just making noises about mental health. His preferred plan has echoes to a fascist past—remove the mentally ill people from society along with the other undesirables. But it means that McConnell has an excuse now to do nothing; Trump says it's unnecessary, he won't sign anything, so why bother to act.
His team is dutifully falling in line. Senate Homeland Security Chairman Ron Johnson says, in essence, "why bother." Any legislation that might come up, he says, won't pass. "I really don't see the dynamic having really changed" on a new background checks effort, and "I don't anticipate we’re going to pass a federal red flag law." What a difference two massacres in less than a day makes to Republicans. As in none.
Never mind that 77% of Republicans and almost 90% of all voters want strengthened background checks. The rabid base and the NRA don't. It doesn't matter how many people die violently on a daily basis. It doesn't matter if they're six- and seven-year-old children. It doesn't matter if they're mown down in a place of worship. It doesn't matter if they're mown down at concerts, or nightclubs, or bars, or anywhere. Life's cheap, if you're Mitch McConnell. Nothing matters beyond his making his gruesome stamp on history.
This has to end. Please give $1 to our nominee fund to help Democrats end McConnell's career as majority leader.
