Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWhy Hillary Clinton Can’t Win by Going After the NRA
Rekindling the culture war with the gun lobby is a losing proposition. Heres what can be done to curb violence.Paul Barrett
Bloomberg Businessweek
For the first time in 16 years, guns will play a prominent role in the presidential election. In 2000 energized gun-rights activists helped cost Al Gore his home state of Tennessee and Bill Clintons home state of Arkansas. As much as Floridas hanging chads and Ralph Naders third-party self-indulgence, pro-gun agitation put George W. Bush in a position to enjoy the Supreme Courts delivery of the White House in Bush v. Gore.
After the Oct. 1 killings at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., a visibly angry but oddly passive Barack Obama pointed out that the U.S. experiences a mass shooting every couple of months and if you think this is a problem, then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views. In her response to the massacre, Hillary Clinton detailed how, if elected president in November 2016, shed pursue a more aggressive gun-control agenda than Obama. Its time the entire country stood up against the NRA, she said during the Democratic debate on Oct. 13.
Clinton sees the gun issue as a way to motivate her progressive base while simultaneously outflanking her main primary challenger, Senator Bernie Sanders of rural firearm-friendly Vermont. Asked during the debate whether Sanders is tough enough on guns, Clinton answered, No, not at all, noting hed voted repeatedly in the early 1990s against the criminal-background-check law. The liberal wing of the Democratic Party likes what its hearing from Clinton. For a major presidential candidate to break the logjam in the way shes doing is a momentous shift, says Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).
But Clinton may be making a mistake framing her argument in culture-war termsas a battle against the National Rifle Association, which is a conspiracy-minded extremist group that thrives when under attack. Moreover, while some of her ideas make sense, others, including her emphasis on assault weapons, come straight from a tired, ineffective gun-control playbook.
Whats needed is a sorting out: fact from myth, reason from rhetoric. We also need to analyze rigorously the separate challenges posed by sensational mass shootings and ordinary violent crime.
more...
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-10-15/why-hillary-clinton-can-t-win-by-going-after-the-nra
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 531 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (0)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Why Hillary Clinton Can’t Win by Going After the NRA (Original Post)
Purveyor
Oct 2015
OP
Fearless
(18,421 posts)1. Well Hillary can't win so that's really a moot point isn't it.
upaloopa
(11,417 posts)2. The gun lobby is weakened with each shooting
Last edited Thu Oct 15, 2015, 02:24 PM - Edit history (1)
The gun lobby is it's own worst enemy. It will continue to repeat it's old tired arguments while kids in school and adults in movies and malls get murdured by a good guy with a gun who went bad because no one knew they were unstable
randys1
(16,286 posts)3. The future is of course one with little or no guns, duh, but will we live
long enough to see the maturing of America?
Turbineguy
(37,385 posts)4. One of my NRA-member colleagues
was very proud that a million fellow idiot members fucked up the country by defeating Gore.
I suggested every one of them cough up $5,000,000 to help defray the costs. This was early on in the Bush Administration so the full damage had not been established yet. They will not be satisfied unless they lay waste to everything. This will not take as long as the Roman Empire did.