Here’s reason to actually fear this stuff:
https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/26/politics/democrats-gun-control-bill-party-policy/index.html
The convergence of Democrats around the universal background check bill partly derives from the overwhelming public backing for the measure, which usually exceeds 80% support in polls. (The bill would close what’s called “the gun show loophole” by including such venues, which are now exempt, in the requirement for background checks on all guns sold through licensed dealers.) But the Democratic consensus also reflects a larger shift in the party whose implications extend far beyond issues relating to guns.
Compared with the 1990s or even the early 2000s, House Democrats today are far less dependent on districts with large numbers of culturally conservative blue-collar and rural voters. Instead, the party’s new majority is centered on urban and suburban districts that are either racially diverse, well educated, or both.
The willingness, even eagerness, of most House Democrats to embrace new gun control measures highlights how the party’s evolution into a metropolitan-based coalition is shifting its incentives – and reconfiguring its central fault line. For years, social and cultural issues – ranging from abortion, gay rights and guns to questions of racial equity and immigration – created the most difficult divisions for a Democratic House caucus trying to protect a large number of rural and Southern seats.
But those social issues are likely to prove much less divisive for today’s metro-centered party.
Over time, the evidence grew more irrefutable that by abandoning gun control, Democrats were trying to placate voters they had already lost, while slighting the voters they were attracting. In the latest polling from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center, for instance, two-thirds of nonwhite adults, nearly two-thirds of college-educated white women and a majority of college-educated white men all said it was more important to control gun ownership than to protect gun rights…
And in 2018, dozens of Democratic challengers in House races touted their support for additional gun control measures, particularly the universal background checks. On Election Day, 40 Democratic challengers beat Republican incumbents with strong records of supporting the NRA, according to Giffords’ calculations.
“Forty Democrats were elected to replace Republicans and almost every one of them made gun safety an issue in their campaign,” said Deutch.
The key to the shifting politics of guns is that Democrats from such suburban seats in all parts of the country – even the South – are generally supporting tougher restrictions.
…more Republicans will cross over to support the background check bill than Democrats will defect to oppose it.
My take: Woe to gun owners if we lose the Senate and the presidency next time.
Any gun control measure the House approves, of course, still faces very long odds in the Senate, which is controlled by a Republican majority rooted in rural states, where gun ownership is more prevalent and the NRA is strong. But even so, a strong House vote to approve universal background checks on Wednesday would mark a milestone in the Democrats’ reconfiguration into a party advancing the cultural priorities of metropolitan America.
…President Trump on Monday already warned that he will veto the bill if it clears both chambers…
My take: Don’t just take comfort in this last part and think all is well. There is a cultural shift in this country with younger people supporting more gun controls and the Democrat party finally realizing how to exploit it. WAKE UP!
