More hysteria
Bruce notes some more gun hysteria:
The ban, however, will expire. Bush will get his endorsement. And people are going to die.
I guess on the 14th when there is no blood in the street and no increase in the murder rate, you’ll be having the crow with a nice Chianti? Or maybe feet?
September 9th, 2004 at 2:32 pm
a friend has theorized that the president could lose this election because of this issue (the AWB).
The left, can use very emotional arugments and blame bush for it not endorseing it.
just thought i would pass that along, i don’t see that happening espically with the emergance of new media soucres (blogs, fox), but you never know
September 9th, 2004 at 3:09 pm
That’s not how it works.
Politicians don’t lose a lot of voters because they oppose gun control. The soccer moms & such that want the AWB renewed were never in the Bush camp to begin with, & him playing ball with them on a gun contorl issue won’t be enough to sway them
The way gun control works in politics is it affects a replican’s base (to a lesser extent a democrat can feel the effects). If a repub votes for gun control, he alienates part of his base. Perhaps enough to alter his chances in an election. He doesn’t gain votes – he loses them. Even those that still vote for gun controlling repubs aren’t happy about it & consequently they don’t try to talk others into voting for them. It kills word of mouth at minimum. At maximum it makes people vote third party or stay at home.
Even dems feel this – look at the elections since 1992 – gun control had been a factor in many races where dems have lost to more pro gun repubs. Hell, a few weeks back a dem governor in a dem state lost his own freakin primary cause he supported what most consider to eb a gun control measure – or rather failed to support what most consider to be pro-gun.
When a repub opposes gun control it keeps his base on hsi side. & depenind ont he circumstances it can generate excitement about him which means more talk about why a person feels good about voting for him. After Craig’s behavior in the Senate last March (where he was rabidly pro-gun compared to the rest of the senate) I guaran-damn teeya that his base is talking of him like he’s a saint. They’ll vote for him & drag their buddies to the polls to vote for him. Contrast that with Warner who supported gun control. People may still vote for him (key word: may) ut it’ll be begrudgingly & they won’t be hyped to take their pals to the polls.
So it does not really hurt a repub to oppose gun control. Yes, the dems can run their mouths about it, but it won’t change any minds one way or the other.
Course the gun ontrol lobby hates it when this is brought up, as it takes away the illusion of power (via the soccer moms) that they want you to believe in.